In the Republic of China (ROC), the state that bore the brunt of the war effort against Japan’s brutal invasion and which persists in democratic Taiwan, the telling was very different. Taiwanese writers have critiqued Beijing’s retelling as an attempt to rewrite the past, erase the Nationalist forces that led China’s wartime resistance , and retroactively cement the place of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in that history . In Taipei in August, Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te marked the end of the war in the Pacific by reminding all nations of how a rising tide of authoritarianism preceded World War II. Then, as Beijing’s military parade commenced on Sept. 3, he pointedly remarked that Taiwan “does not commemorate peace with the barrel of a gun.” Even U.S. President Donald Trump protested the omission of stalwart U.S. support for China during the yearslong conflict.

September opened with remembrances of the 80th anniversary of the victory over Japan in World War II. True to form, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has frantically shoveled its triumphalist narrative onto a global audience—even though the state itself did not exist until several years after the war. Beijing held a bellicose parade showcasing its military and technological might (stealth jets, hypersonic missiles, undersea drones, high-powered lasers) while rolling out the red carpet for despots such as Russia’s Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.

September opened with remembrances of the 80th anniversary of the victory over Japan in World War II. True to form, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has frantically shoveled its triumphalist narrative onto a global audience—even though the state itself did not exist until several years after the war. Beijing held a bellicose parade showcasing its military and technological might (stealth jets, hypersonic missiles,