Editing Second Sino-Japanese War (section)

==Legacy==

===China-Japan relations===
Today, the war is a major point of contention and resentment between China and Japan. The war remains a major roadblock for [[Sino-Japanese relations]]. Issues regarding the current historical outlook on the war exist. For example, the Japanese government has been accused of [[historical revisionism]] by allowing the approval of a few [[Japanese textbook controversy|school textbooks]] omitting or glossing over Japan's militant past, although the most recent controversial book, the ''New History Textbook'' was used by only 0.039% of junior high schools in Japan<ref>Sven Saaler: Politics, Memory and Public Opinion: The History Textbook Controversy and Japanese Society. Munich: 2005</ref> and despite the efforts of the Japanese nationalist textbook reformers, by the late 1990s the most common Japanese schoolbooks contained references to, for instance, the Nanjing Massacre, [[Unit 731]], and the [[comfort women]] of World War II, all historical issues which have faced challenges from ultranationalists in the past.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.abc.net.au/foreign/stories/s841387.htm|title=Foreign Correspondent – 22/04/2003: Japan – Unit 731|publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation|access-date=13 August 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160803172812/http://www.abc.net.au/foreign/stories/s841387.htm|archive-date=3 August 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 2005, a history textbook prepared by the Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform which had been approved by the government in 2001, sparked huge outcry and protests in China and Korea. It referred to the Nanjing Massacre and other atrocities such as the [[Manila massacre]] as an "incident", glossed over the issue of comfort women, and made only brief references to the death of Chinese soldiers and civilians in Nanjing.<ref>{{cite web |last=Oi |first=Mariko |date=14 March 2013 |title=What Japanese history lessons leave out |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-21226068 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180616083041/https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-21226068 |archive-date=16 June 2018 |access-date=21 June 2018 |publisher=BBC}}</ref> A copy of the 2005 version of a junior high school textbook titled ''New History Textbook'' found that there is no mention of the "Nanjing Massacre" or the "Nanjing Incident". Indeed, the only one sentence that referred to this event was: "they [the Japanese troops] occupied that city in December".<ref>{{cite web |last=Wang |first=Zheng |date=23 April 2014 |title=History Education: The Source of Conflict Between China and Japan |url=https://thediplomat.com/2014/04/history-education-the-source-of-conflict-between-china-and-japan/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171111205550/https://thediplomat.com/2014/04/history-education-the-source-of-conflict-between-china-and-japan/ |archive-date=11 November 2017 |access-date=11 November 2017 |website=The Diplomat}}</ref>

===Taiwan===
{{Main|Political status of Taiwan}}
[[File:Taiwan Strait.png|thumb|upright|The [[Taiwan Strait]] and the island of [[Taiwan]]]]

Taiwan and the [[Penghu]] islands were put under the administrative control of the Republic of China (ROC) government in 1945 by the [[United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration]].<ref name="unhcr.org">[http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/country,,,,TWN,,4954ce6323,0.html World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples&nbsp;– Taiwan : Overview] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110728144641/http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/country%2C%2C%2C%2CTWN%2C%2C4954ce6323%2C0.html|date=28 July 2011}} United Nations High Commission for Refugees</ref> The ROC proclaimed Taiwan [[Retrocession Day]] on 25 October 1945. However, due to the unresolved Chinese Civil War, neither the newly established People's Republic of China in mainland China nor the Nationalist ROC that retreated to Taiwan was invited to sign the [[Treaty of San Francisco]], as neither had shown full and complete legal capacity to enter into an international legally binding agreement.<ref name="aao.sinica.edu.tw">{{cite web |url=http://aao.sinica.edu.tw/download/publication_e/Year2007/human12.pdf |title=Disputes over Taiwan Sovereignty and the Sino-Japanese Peace Treaty Since World War II |access-date=2009-08-25 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090326201339/http://aao.sinica.edu.tw/download/publication_e/Year2007/human12.pdf |archive-date=26 March 2009 |df=mdy-all }}</ref> Since China was not present, the Japanese only formally renounced the territorial sovereignty of Taiwan and Penghu islands without specifying to which country Japan relinquished the sovereignty, and the treaty was signed in 1951 and came into force in 1952.

In 1952, the [[Treaty of Taipei]] was signed separately between the ROC and Japan that basically followed the same guideline of the Treaty of San Francisco, not specifying which country has sovereignty over Taiwan. However, Article 10 of the treaty states that the [[Taiwanese people]] and the juridical person should be the people and the juridical person of the ROC.<ref name="unhcr.org"/> Both the PRC and ROC governments base their claims to Taiwan on the [[Japanese Instrument of Surrender]] which specifically accepted the [[Potsdam Declaration]] which refers to the [[1943 Cairo Declaration|Cairo Declaration]]. Disputes over the precise de jure sovereign of Taiwan persist to the present. On a de facto basis, sovereignty over Taiwan has been and continues to be exercised by the ROC. Japan's position has been to avoid commenting on Taiwan's status, maintaining that Japan renounced all claims to sovereignty over its former colonial possessions after World War II, including Taiwan.<ref>[http://home.kyodo.co.jp/modules/fstStory/index.php?storyid=453676]{{Dead link|date=August 2018|bot=InternetArchiveBot|fix-attempted=yes}} FOCUS: Taiwan–Japan ties back on shaky ground as Taipei snubs Tokyo envoy</ref>

Traditionally, the [[Republic of China]] government has held celebrations marking the [[Victory Day]] on 9 September (now known as [[Armed Forces Day]]) and Taiwan's Retrocession Day on 25 October. However, after the [[Democratic Progressive Party]] (DPP) won the [[2000 Republic of China presidential election|presidential election]] in 2000, these national holidays commemorating the war have been cancelled as the [[Taiwan Independence|pro-independent]] DPP does not see the relevancy of celebrating events that happened in mainland China.

Meanwhile, many KMT supporters, particularly veterans who retreated with the government in 1949, still have an emotional interest in the war. For example, in celebrating the 60th anniversary of the end of war in 2005, the cultural bureau of KMT stronghold [[Taipei]] held a series of talks in the [[Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall]] regarding the war and post-war developments, while the KMT held its own exhibit in the KMT headquarters. Whereas the KMT won the [[2008 Republic of China presidential election|presidential election]] in 2008, the ROC government resumed commemorating the war.

===Japanese women left in China===
{{Main|Japanese people in China}}

Several thousand Japanese who were sent as colonizers to Manchukuo and Inner Mongolia were left behind in China. The majority of these were women, and they married mostly Chinese men and became known as "stranded war wives" (zanryu fujin).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://japanfocus.org/-Rowena-Ward/2374/article.html|title=Left Behind: Japan's Wartime Defeat and the Stranded Women of Manchukuo|work=The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus|date=March 2007 |access-date=13 August 2016|archive-date=12 January 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160112110754/http://japanfocus.org/-Rowena-Ward/2374/article.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=fDCsD-1zitUC&pg=PA59 Mackerras 2003] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221012014429/https://books.google.com/books?id=fDCsD-1zitUC&pg=PA59 |date=12 October 2022 }}, p. 59.</ref>

===Korean women left in China===
{{Main|Koreans in China}}

In China some Korean comfort women stayed behind instead of going back to their native land.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=auqCyUi5Dq0C&pg=PA59 Tanaka 2002] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221012014429/https://books.google.com/books?id=auqCyUi5Dq0C&pg=PA59 |date=12 October 2022 }}, p. 59.</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=mV5dymPXNBgC&pg=PA59 Tanaka 2003] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221012014429/https://books.google.com/books?id=mV5dymPXNBgC&pg=PA59 |date=12 October 2022 }}, p. 59.</ref> Most Korean comfort women who were left behind in China married Chinese men.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=To5OA8ZOEdYC&pg=PA90 Teunis 2007] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221012014429/https://books.google.com/books?id=To5OA8ZOEdYC&pg=PA90 |date=12 October 2022 }}, p. 90.</ref>

===Commemorations===
Three major museums in China commemorate China's War of Resistance, including the [[Museum of the War of Chinese People's Resistance Against Japanese Aggression]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mitter |first=Rana |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1141442704 |title=China's good war : how World War II is shaping a new nationalism |date=2020 |publisher=The Belknap Press of [[Harvard University Press]] |isbn=978-0-674-98426-4 |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |pages=111 |oclc=1141442704}}</ref>