On this day, 81 years ago, Japan engineered the pretext for its invasion of the Chinese mainland.

The commemoration of the Manchurian Incident as it is known comes at just the right moment, as Japan needs to engage in some sincere soul-searching about the brutalities it inflicted on the rest of Asia as a result of its aggression and about its current belligerence.

It is also an opportune moment for the international community to focus on the illegality of Japan's present antics.

The Cairo Declaration of 1943 and the Potsdam Proclamation of 1945 defined the terms for the Japanese surrender at the end of World War II. The two treaties restored to China the territory that had been seized by Japan and this included the Diaoyu Islands and its affiliated islets.

However, the San Francisco Peace Treaty, which was signed between Japan, the United States and some other countries in 1951 without China being present, put the islands of Okinawa, named the Liu Chiu Islands in China, under US administration, and in 1953 the Civil Administration of the Islands under US control arbitrarily expanded its jurisdiction to include the Diaoyu Islands and its affiliated islets.

When the US and Japan signed the Okinawa Reversion Agreement in 1971 the Diaoyu Islands and other Chinese islets were arbitrarily included in the territories and territorial waters to be "reverted" to Japan, enabling Japan to gain de facto control of the Diaoyu Islands.

China has never agreed to or accepted this arrangement.

Japan's "nationalization" of the Diaoyu Islands makes the observation of the Manchurian Incident even more meaningful, as it is clear that Japan is trying to negate the legal terms of its surrender and turn back the clock.

But China will never forget Sept 18, 1931 because it was the beginning of the darkest period in China's modern history.

Japan already occupied Taiwan and the Korean Peninsula even before the Manchuria Incident and its aggressive territorial expansion was a consistent policy of the Japanese government, military and the pre-war "zaibatsu" conglomerates. At the same time, Japanese newspapers whipped up war hysteria in Japan, claiming the military was defending their country's interests. In this way they mobilized the public into supporting Japan's war of aggression. Worryingly, this sounds familiar.

So, today as we reflect on the past, we have to ask: Where is Japan heading?

(China Daily 09/18/2012 page8)