Editor's note: Lu Hao, a special commentator for CGTN, is the dean of the Strategic Studies Department of the Institute of Japanese Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

On July 31, Japan's National Intelligence Bureau was officially inaugurated, marking the launch of the country's first unified national institution tasked with coordinating overseas intelligence and security espionage operations in the post-war era. The move has quickly evoked painful historical memories across Asian countries that suffered under Japanese aggression. Looking back at modern history, Japan's espionage and secret service apparatus served as the vanguard blade of militarist expansion abroad. That bloodstained chapter of history stands as a stark warning: Any intelligence machinery harnessed to expansionist ambitions will forever be nailed to the pillar of historical shame.

During the War of Japanese Aggression against China, intelligence organizations, including the Kwantung Army Special Service Agencies, the Special Higher Police (Tokkō) and the Mei Agency, spread across Northeast, North and East China, extending their spy networks deep into Southeast Asia. Intelligence kingpins such as Kenji Doihara operated undercover in China for years to build espionage rings. He masterminded the September 18 Incident, installed the puppet state of Manchukuo, plotted the "North China Autonomy" campaign, and strove to divide and weaken China's resistance forces. Sadaaki Kagesa led the establishment of the Mei Agency, orchestrated the defection of Wang Jingwei's clique and engineered a puppet regime. Tokkō branches nationwide hunted down anti-Japanese patriots, carrying out secret arrests, torture and mass killings. Through intelligence infiltration, they enforced military occupation and colonial rule. Countless spies infiltrated towns and villages to gather military and political intelligence, stir up public unrest and plunder strategic resources. Covert intrigues on the intelligence front echoed artillery fire on battlefields, inflicting immense suffering on the peoples of China, the Korean Peninsula and Southeast Asia.

Justice prevails, and no crime escapes accountability. Following Japan's defeat in World War II, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East held trials to uphold justice. Kenji Doihara, classified as a Class-A war criminal, was sentenced to death by hanging. A host of secret service chiefs and veteran spies stained with innocent blood faced legal reckoning. No matter how much power they wielded in wartime or how elaborate their intelligence networks were, all the secret service forces serving schemes of aggression could not evade reckoning by history and justice. This historical record bears clear testimony: Once intelligence agencies stray from the path of peace and become tools for military expansion, they are doomed to collapse.

For China and victimized nations in the Korean Peninsula and Southeast Asia, Japan's intelligence bodies were far more than ordinary administrative agencies. They represented historical symbols intertwined with colonial oppression, wars of aggression and national suffering. Today, Japan is consolidating its fragmented intelligence capabilities to establish a centrally commanded National Intelligence Bureau with ever-expanding overseas intelligence mandates. The high vigilance maintained by Asian nations is no groundless suspicion, but rational precaution rooted in bitter historical experience. The people of Asia will not forget the disasters brought about by Japan's secret police rule in the past, nor will they ignore the expansion of Japan's intelligence system today.

Japanese authorities repeatedly cite purported regional security threats to justify the parallel expansion of intelligence frameworks and military capacity. The lessons of history remain fresh. The precedent of the militarist-era intelligence system fueling wartime mobilization must not be downplayed. Japan ought to face up to its history of aggression, draw profound lessons from the bitter past, cease its efforts to break the constraints of the post-war peaceful order, and abandon building an intelligence system tailored for war preparations.

Peace in the Asia-Pacific region demands collective safeguarding by all parties. Only by squarely confronting history and discarding expansionist thinking, and taking tangible actions to respond to the concerns of its Asian neighbors, can Japan heal historical rifts. Should Japan ignore the warnings of history and keep strengthening an intelligence apparatus with inherent potential for outward expansion, it will only further escalate regional tensions and plant long-term risks to peace in the Asia-Pacific.

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