Editor's Note: As 2025 marks the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War, CGTN presents "Forging a Peaceful Future," a special series of in-depth news analyses. These stories delve into the history, explore the post-war world order, and highlight how China's past has shaped its sustained contributions to global peace today.

Since July, China has been marking the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War through war films and themed museum exhibitions.

The commemorations will culminate on September 3 – China's Victory Day – commemorating the formal signing of Japan's surrender on September 2, 1945, which officially ended World War II.

From its very outset, the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression has held profound significance for safeguarding human civilization and defending world peace, constituting an integral part of the World Anti-Fascist War, said Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The victory in the war belonged to the Chinese people, and also to people across the world, Xi said at a symposium commemorating its 75th anniversary in 2020, adding that it will go down in the history of the Chinese nation as well as in the history of humanity's fight for justice.

Main Eastern theater vital for WWII victory

China was the first country in the world to stand up against a fascist aggressor, making it the first front of the global anti-fascist war.

Its resistance began with the September 18th Incident in 1931, which marked the very start of the Chinese people's fight against Japanese aggression. Then on July 7, 1937, the Lugou Bridge Incident in suburban Beijing ignited China's whole-nation resistance war against Japanese aggression and established the country as the main Eastern battlefield of WWII.

These events occurred years before Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland in 1939, which is often cited in traditional Western narratives as the beginning of WWII.

Robert Frank, secretary general for the International Congress of Historical Sciences (ICHS), said the start of the second World War, in fact, could be advanced to as early as 1931, when Japan invaded China's northeastern region.

"In France we call it the war of 1939-1945. But it's a world war. Not only a European war, and it did not begin in Europe," Frank, who is a French scholar, told media at an ICHS gathering in east China's Jinan City in 2015. "The war began here, in Asia."

China's resistance was also the longest-lasting of any nation in WWII, which continued until Japan's surrender in 1945, underscoring the immense sacrifices and sustained efforts of the Chinese people.

Citing incomplete data, Hu Heping, executive deputy head of the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said the war resulted in over 35 million Chinese military and civilian casualties from 1931 to 1945.

The nation's economic losses were staggering, with direct losses exceeding $100 billion and indirect losses reaching $500 billion, calculated in 1937 currency, Hu said.

What's more important, China consistently pinned down and combated the main forces of Japanese militarism in its battlefield, eliminating more than 1.5 million Japanese troops and playing a decisive role in the ultimate defeat of the Japanese aggressors.

China's war of resistance provided crucial strategic support to Allied operations, coordinating with operations in Europe and elsewhere in Asia, said Hu, adding that it disrupted attempts at strategic coordination among Japanese, German, and Italian fascist forces.

An ally that should not be forgotten

China played an indispensable role in establishing the world anti-fascist alliance and reconstructing the post-war international order.

On January 1, 1942, twenty-six nations, including China, the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union, issued the Declaration by the United Nations, which marked the official establishment of the anti-fascist alliance.

According to Hu Dekun, a professor at Wuhan University, China begun to actively take part in consultations to shape a new post-war order during the mid-to-late stages of the war.

China's efforts were instrumental in founding the UN and several key international economic organizations, including the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which would become the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund, and it also played a role in drafting the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, Hu wrote in July.

China's role and contributions in WWII, long overlooked in Western scholarship, are now receiving increasing attention, thanks in part to the joint efforts of a growing number of scholars.

Among them is Rana Mitter, a British historian and the author of "Forgotten Ally: China's World War II," which was named as a 2013 Book of the Year both by The Financial Times and the Economist.

Mitter told media in July that institutions such as the National WWII Museum in New Orleans and the Imperial War Museum in London have dedicated exhibition areas that systematically introduce China's historical role in WWII.

This has allowed more and more Westerners to learn about the heroic and moving history of the Chinese people's resistance, enabling this once-overlooked history to gradually enter the international spotlight, he said.

The Chinese battlefield has now been integrated into the overall narrative framework of global WWII history, he said, adding that China's history of resistance should not be ignored or downplayed.