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A Chinese newspaper’s graphic declaring that “Japan wants a war again” and showing mushroom clouds over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, drew strong criticism from the Japanese foreign minister on Tuesday, adding to the continuing acrimony between the two countries over historical issues.

The foreign minister, Fumio Kishida, said that it was “imprudent” of the newspaper, the Chongqing Youth News, to publish the graphic, which ran in the July 3 edition, because it would offend survivors of the 1945 atomic bombings, according to the Kyodo News agency of Japan.

“I have instructed the ministry to refer the case swiftly to the paper through the Consulate General of Japan in Chongqing, and to make a strong protest — after confirming the facts about the report,” Kyodo News quoted Mr. Kishida as saying at a news conference.



This is the graphic from Chongqing Youth News（重庆青年报, 3 July）that has Japanese ForMin upset. //t.co/ob6anm0orw — Adam Cathcart (@adamcathcart) 8 Jul 14

The graphic shows a map of Japan marked with the Chinese and English names of Tokyo, Hiroshima and Nagasaki and is headlined “Japan wants a war again,” in both Chinese and English. The clouds over Hiroshima and Nagasaki are a reference to the bombs the United States released over the cities — the first and only use of nuclear weapons in warfare.

Mr. Kishida said he could “never tolerate” such a report given that he is both a “foreign minister of the only country that has suffered from atomic bombings and a lawmaker from bombed Hiroshima,” Kyodo News reported.

The graphic in the Chongqing Youth News, which is affiliated with the Chongqing Communist Youth League, followed the July 1 announcement by the Japanese government of a relaxation of restraints on its armed forces that have been in place for the past six decades under the country’s pacifist Constitution.

Some analysts say that China’s growing assertiveness in the region, along with decreasing American dominance in the region, were key factors influencing the debate in Japan over its post-war role in the region and world. Under the new interpretation of the Japanese Constitution, the Japanese military, known as the Self-Defense Forces, will be free to aid an ally under attack.

In China, memories and anger at Japan’s brutal wartime occupation remain in many people’s minds, reinforced by an education system that stresses China’s “century of humiliation” at the hands of foreigners from the mid-1800s to mid-1900s — and Japanese war crimes. When the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan announced the new military guidelines, the Chinese government and state news media condemned the move.

The Chongqing Youth News was no exception, but went further than some. Opposite the full-page graphic was an equally jingoistic commentary asking: “Were we too friendly to Japan in the past?”

The Japanese shift means that Japan can now “freely take part in wars overseas and use force,” the commentary asserted. “As the ‘butcher’ of World War II, the blood on Japan’s hands has not yet dried. Lifting the ban on collective self-defense is tantamount to putting ‘a knife’ back in the ‘murderer’s’ hands.”

But perhaps some of the blame lay with China, it said, as many Chinese, particularly after their country began pursuing economic reforms and a policy of opening to the outside world in the late 1970s, became less vigilant toward Japan.

The Chinese government often warns of Japanese militarism, and the state news media plays up the atrocities committed by Japanese troops in World War II, sometimes with graphic images. “Resisting Japan” has become such a normal part of Chinese discourse that even grandmothers have incorporated it into their patriotic dance routines.

At the same time, economic relations between China and Japan have strengthened over the years. But the Chongqing Youth News commentary argued that this “hot economics, cold politics” was a mistake and that the two sectors cannot rightfully be separated. “After all, every penny that Japanese companies earn could go towards its military budget for the next war,” the newspaper said.

“For more than 40 years we have been overly magnanimous and tolerant, in terms of recognition, emotions, actions and policies toward Japan,” the commentary read. China must take greater care from now on and “must acknowledge that, in the foreseeable future, direct confrontation between China and Japan is no longer a small probability,” it said.

The controversy over the graphic coincides with the 77th anniversary of the formal start of full-scale war between the two countries. Presiding over a ceremony on Monday commemorating the anniversary, President Xi Jinping complained of efforts to whitewash Japan’s aggression in China. “Anyone who wants to deny, distort or beautify the history of the invasion will definitely not find agreement from the people of China or the rest of the world,” he said.

One prominent veteran accused China of its own whitewashing of wartime history. A former Taiwanese official who served in World War II said the Beijing museum where Mr. Xi spoke on Monday gave “a one-sided interpretation of the history of the war,” according to a report from Taiwan’s state-owned Central News Agency.

Hau Pei-tsun, the former official who was in the Republic of China’s army during its fight against Japan, said during a visit to the Museum of the War of Chinese People’s Resistance against Japanese Aggression in Beijing that it downplayed the contribution of Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang forces while emphasizing the role of the China’s ruling Communist Party.

“It was Generalissimo Chiang leading” China “in the war,” against Japan, said Mr. Hau, 94, a former defense minister and prime minister of Taiwan. Chiang’s forces fled to the island after losing the civil war with Mao Zedong’s Communists in 1949.