Don't deny history, professor says

People should be aware of denying history for political purposes, said Ljubodrag Dimic, professor at the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts.

It was at an international conference, "Lessons and Inspirations: World War I and World War II in Retrospect", that he uttered the words. The conference, co-sponsored by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Academy of Military Sciences of Chinese People's Liberation Army in Beijing on Saturday, aimed to comparatively study the two world wars and learn lessons so they won't be repeated.

China, which participated in WWI and was a major victim and victor of WWII, is the focus of the conference, with special attention paid to Japan's invasion.

Today especially, as Japan still denies its past invasion, is there a danger of it starting another war? Professor Kurosawa Fumitaka from Tokyo Woman's Christian University, compared today's Japan with that between the two wars, as both lack a coordinated view about what the social order should be like. Jiang Lifeng, a researcher from CASS, said that by viewing war criminals as "heroes", Japan has not yet given up the sense of ethnical priority that led it to WWII.

On the contrary, China is making contributions to world peace with diplomacy and other efforts. Nakayama Toshio from the Clausewitz Society of Japan said that it is impossible for a China that follows peaceful principles to launch wars, while Gao Hong, a researcher from CASS, said that by defending history China is defending peace.