August 15 marked the 72nd anniversary of the end of the Second World War. On the occasion, Japan remembered the 2.3 million Japanese military personnel and military employees and 800,000 Japanese civilians who died between the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937 and the end of World War II in 1945. Japan's annual commemoration of the end of the war shows that, seven decades on, there is no clear political consensus in Japan about how to remember the war. Some remember the 3.1 million dead while seeming to avoid the context of the war in which they died, while others are committed to preserving the memory of how destructive war can be, and the need for Japan to continue to embrace pacifism. More than 6,200 people attended a memorial service at the Nippon Budokan sports arena in Tokyo, which featured remarks by Prime Minister Abe Shinzo and Japanese Emperor Akihito. Abe's words were notable i...
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