With the approach the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, it has become increasingly visible how China and Russia’s vital roles in defeating fascism are downgraded and distorted in the Western narrative.
The West’s selective memory misleads public perception of the past and confuses global politics of today. Four persistent WWII myths continue to shape modern geopolitics.
Myth One. The Six-Year Fallacy
One of the most enduring historical misconceptions is the six-year period of World War II, which limits its beginning to Germany’s invasion of Poland in 1939. This view ignores Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia in 1935, the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), and Japan’s full-scale aggression in Asia that began in 1931 with the invasion of Manchuria—nearly a decade before the war in Europe began.
Freethinking Western historians A.J.P. Taylor and John Toland acknowledged that Japan’s brutal actions in China had been a critical precursor to the Pacific War. Japan’s aggression challenged the post-World War I international order and emboldened fascist regimes, including the Nazis in Germany. Japan’s mass killings and systemic atrocities, such as the Nanjing Massacre, were chilling parallels to Nazi crimes against the Jews. Cities like Nanjing were subjected to destruction and their people to mass executions and rape. These facts are deeply ingrained in Chinese collective memory.
From the Chinese perspective, this long and brutal struggle, known in China as the War of Resistance Against Japan and spanning from 1931 until Japan’s surrender in 1945, laid the foundation for the Allied victory. Yet this view is largely ignored by the West.
Myth Two. The West’s Central Role
The view that WWII’s central events unfolded in Europe further distorts historical truth. The U.S. and Britan have long highlighted the significance of the Normandy landings as a pivotal turning point. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union’s role in the defeat of Nazi Germany—sacrificing millions of lives—has been downgraded or overlooked in the West, especially in the context of the Cold War.
The Soviet Union’s role in the defeat of the Nazi forces on the Eastern Front cannot be understated. Before the Western Front was opened in 1944, the Soviet Union had already inflicted major defeats on Germany, at immense cost. With 27 million casualties, the Soviet Union’s contribution was critical for the ultimate Allied victory.
Myth Three. China’s Long-Term Resistance
China’s role in WWII is often neglected or diminished in Western narratives.
Its casualties during the ten years of the War of Resistance Against Japan amounted to over 35 million, but despite the immense cost, China is framed in the Western perspective as a passive victim or indirect participant. Meanwhile, Chinese forces collaborated with the Allied powers in Southeast Asia. Working alongside the U.S. in the Burma Road campaign, China helped supply the larger Allied war effort and weakened Japan’s military capacity, thus allowing the Soviet Union to focus more on the European front.
China’s military resistance played a strategic role: tying down the Japanese military, it limited Japan’s capacity to fight elsewhere. China was a crucial force that helped tip the balance in the Pacific. Chinese resistance played an indispensable role in draining Japanese resources and weakening their overall strategic position, which laid the groundwork for the defeat of the Axis powers.
Myth Four. Japan’s Victimization
The portrayal of Japan as a victim of World War II, especially in the wake of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, is another difficult issue for many in China. This narrative tends to gloss over Japan’s role as the aggressor in Asia. The Nanjing Massacre, in which Japanese troops killed hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians, remains a contested topic in the West, with the debates drowned in casualty figures, historical context, and political sensitivities.
Many in China view this as an attempt to rewrite history, especially when the Chinese civilians’ suffering is overshadowed by Japan’s victimhood of atomic bombing.
Disregard for the overwhelming evidence of Japan’s war crimes, including eyewitnesses’ accounts and photographs of the atrocities and sexual slavery, arouse anger in Chinese society.
The Japanese leaders’ reluctance to fully acknowledge these crimes and make official and unreserved apologies, and the unwillingness of some political figures and institutions to confront this dark chapter of history exacerbate tensions, preventing genuine reconciliation.
Rewriting History with International Cooperation
These four myths, deeply rooted in Cold War politics, reflect Western persistent efforts to maintain global dominance. By emphasizing the West’s contribution and minimizing those of China and the Soviet Union, these narratives serve to consolidate the West’s political and ideological power.
Today, as global politics evolve towards multipolarity, it is crucial to rectify these historical misconceptions. Correcting them requires a robust international academic cooperation, and also Western scholars’ more nuanced understanding of China and the Soviet Union’s contributions to victory in WWII.
This may help prevent misunderstanding in the future and promote a more accurate global historical narrative. The 80th anniversary of the end of World War II offers an excellent opportunity to honor the role of all—not just Western—victor nations in the defeat of fascism.
