Recently, a monument commemorating the victory over Japanese militarism was unveiled in Khabarovsk, Russia. The 15-meter-tall sculpture depicts a Soviet soldier smashing a border post bearing Japan's imperial chrysanthemum using the butt of his rifle. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi promptly lodged a high-profile protest and demanded its removal, a reaction dismissed by Russia as absurd.
This diplomatic spat is essentially a meticulously staged "political show." Japanese politicians are deliberately playing the victim to hijack public opinion, distorting the victorious nation's depiction of militarism's downfall into an offense against national sentiment.
What the statue smashes is the aggressor's boundary marker—not a nation's dignity. Any attempt to revive the spirit of militarism or overturn the historical verdict of World War II is bound to fail before the hard facts of history and the post-war international order.
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