When history is rewritten, war criminals are venerated and military buildup is branded as "self-defense," the specter of militarism hovers over the Asia-Pacific region. CGTN's Wang Guan notes that on the 80th anniversary of the Tokyo Trials, the Japanese government has revised history textbooks to downplay war crimes, scrapped the "Three Principles on Arms Exports" to loosen arms trade restrictions and multiple officials have paid high-profile visits to the Yasukuni Shrine that enshrines convicted war criminals. These constitute a systematic reshaping of perception. Wrapped in the image of a "polite and benign power," Japan's right wing is pushing for a more covert return of militarism and the very direction that the Tokyo Tribunal warned against – using "war as an instrument of national policy" – is being staged again in Japan.