RECENTLY, together with my colleagues from the Chinese Consulate General in Kota Kinabalu, I visited the Petagas War Memorial and the Cho Huan Lai Memorial, also known as the Keningau War Memorial.
We laid wreaths and observed a moment of silence in honour of the heroes who sacrificed their lives in the fight against Japanese aggression during the Second World War, paying our profound respects and expressing our deepest remembrance.
Standing before the monuments, reading the inscriptions bearing the names of these fallen heroes, and reflecting on those war-torn years, I felt deeply that history has never truly faded into the distance.
Those who gave their lives for national dignity, the freedom of the people, and world peace deserve to be remembered and honoured forever.
The Petagas War Memorial lies quietly at the foot of Mount Kinabalu. It is the final resting place of heroes who sacrificed their lives in resistance to Japanese fascist aggression, and a place where the shared memory of the people of Sabah’s struggle against the war of aggression is preserved.
In 1942, following Japan’s invasion of North Borneo, the occupying forces imposed brutal colonial rule on the local population, carrying out mass killings of civilians, plundering resources, and forcibly conscripting labourers. These atrocities sparked resistance among people from different ethnic communities.
In 1943, under the leadership of Kuok Aik Nam and others, the Kinabalu Guerrilla was formed through the united efforts of overseas Chinese, who formed its main force, together with the Kadazan-Dusun, Murut and other local communities.
They waged fierce battles against the well-equipped Japanese forces in the rugged mountains and dense forests.
Faced with repeated and ruthless Japanese “mopping-up” campaigns, many guerrilla fighters and local civilians who supported the resistance made the ultimate sacrifice.
Numerous villages were brutally destroyed, and many of those who gave their lives for the cause remain nameless.
They defended national dignity with their lives and, with their blood, forged an enduring monument to the people of Sabah’s resistance against fascist aggression.
The Cho Huan Lai Memorial likewise bears a profound and precious historical memory. Martyr Cho Huan Lai devoted himself wholeheartedly to the struggle against Japanese fascist aggression and sacrificed his precious life for the cause of national freedom.
Together with countless other heroes of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, he stepped forward at a critical moment of national peril, demonstrating through his unwavering conviction and heroic sacrifice the indomitable national spirit of the Chinese people in the face of violence and aggression.
Today, as we remember and honour the Kinabalu Guerrillas, Martyr Cho Huan Lai and all those who gave their lives for victory in the World Anti-Fascist War, we do so not only to commemorate the tremendous sacrifices they made in the struggle for freedom of the people of Sabah, but also to remember the important role they played, alongside the Chinese people, in the common struggle of the peoples of Asia against Japanese militarist aggression.
This shared history of fighting side by side and supporting one another serves as an important spiritual bond connecting the Chinese and Malaysian peoples across generations and sustaining our enduring friendship.
History does not fade with the passage of time, nor can the truth be rewritten by the years.
More than 80 years ago, Japanese militarism launched a war of aggression, spreading the flames of war across vast areas of Asia and inflicting profound suffering and devastation on the peoples of China, Malaysia and many other Asian countries.
In China, the Japanese invaders perpetrated a series of appalling atrocities, including the Nanjing Massacre, resulting in more than 35 million military and civilian casualties.
In Sabah, the Japanese invaders likewise committed countless atrocities, massacring civilians, plundering resources and forcibly conscripting labourers, leaving deep and lasting wounds on the local population.
In 1945, Japanese forces forced thousands of Allied prisoners of war and local labourers to march on foot from Sandakan to Ranau. Along the hundreds of kilometres of tropical jungle, they were subjected to inhuman abuse, starvation and killing.
In the end, only six prisoners of war survived. Historical tragedies such as the Sandakan Death Marches stand as irrefutable evidence of the crimes committed by Japanese militarism.
History has repeatedly demonstrated that militarism and expansion through aggression can bring nothing but catastrophe, while peaceful development is the right path for humanity to pursue together.
A correct understanding of and approach to history is an important prerequisite for Japan’s return to the international community after the Second World War.
Yet regrettably, more than 80 years later, certain forces within Japan have still not genuinely and soberly reflected on their country’s history of aggression, nor have they earnestly drawn lessons from it. On the contrary, they continue to move in a direction that runs counter to the lessons of history.
Some seek to downplay or even whitewash the history of aggression and distort historical facts. Some politicians repeatedly pay homage to the Yasukuni Shrine, where Class-A war criminals of the Second World War are honoured, hurting the feelings of the peoples of Asian countries that suffered from Japanese aggression.
Some, under the pretext of so-called security threats, have sharply increased defence spending, moved beyond the constraints of “exclusive defence”, pushed for revisions to Japan’s Peace Constitution, relaxed restrictions on arms exports, and continually sought to expand Japan’s military and security capabilities, raising international concerns about the country’s future trajectory.
At the same time, Japan has aligned itself with certain countries to fuel bloc confrontation, heighten regional tensions and promote a so-called new version of the “Indo-Pacific strategy”.
All these developments indicate that the dangerous tendencies of “neo-militarism” are once again emerging in Japan. The international community must remain highly vigilant and resolutely oppose any attempt to revive militarism and confrontation.
War is a mirror that makes humanity all the more aware of the preciousness of peace.
The international order established after the end of the Second World War is an important achievement won at great cost by the peoples of all countries, and an essential safeguard for international peace and stability.
At a time of accelerated global transformation and changes unseen in a century, the international community needs, more than ever, to firmly uphold the fruits of victory in the Second World War and the post-war international order, practise true multilateralism, uphold the international system with the United Nations at its core, uphold the international order based on international law, and uphold the basic norms governing international relations underpinned by the purposes and principles of the UN Charter.
China has always been a builder of world peace, a contributor to global development and a defender of the international order. China has put forward the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, the Global Civilization Initiative and the Global Governance Initiative, and is working to build a more just and equitable global governance system.
In doing so, China is contributing Chinese wisdom, solutions and strength to safeguarding world peace and stability and promoting common development.
China stands ready to work with Malaysia and all other countries to uphold peaceful coexistence, open cooperation and mutual learning among civilizations, jointly uphold international fairness and justice, promote regional prosperity and stability, and advance the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.
China and Malaysia are both important witnesses to the Asian theatre of the Second World War and staunch advocates of peaceful development. The peoples of our two countries once fought side by side against a common enemy and supported one another amid the flames of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.
Today, in the new era, we are working hand in hand to build a high-level strategic China-Malaysia community with a shared future, and have achieved fruitful outcomes in areas including Belt and Road cooperation, economic and trade partnerships, and people-to-people exchanges, injecting sustained positive energy into regional peace, stability and development.
Today, September 3, marks the 81st anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the 81st anniversary of the victory of the World Anti-Fascist War. Eighty-one years ago, justice prevailed over evil, light over darkness, and progress over reaction.
Humanity made immense sacrifices to secure the great victory of the World Anti-Fascist War, opening a new chapter of peaceful development.
Standing before the Monument to the Kinabalu Guerrillas, I feel more deeply than ever that although the smoke of war has long since cleared, historical memory will never fade. Remembering history is not about perpetuating hatred, but about cherishing peace.
Honouring the fallen heroes is not about dwelling on the past, but about opening the way to the future.
Let us jointly keep those war-torn years firmly in our memory, unswervingly uphold the outcomes of the victory of the Second World War and the post-war international order, draw wisdom from history and look to the future, and work hand in hand to build a world of lasting peace, universal security, common prosperity, openness and inclusiveness, and a clean and beautiful world, so that the light of peace may forever illuminate humanity’s path forward.
