Sixty-five years ago, Japan signed the instrument of surrender to end the Asia- Pacific war. The document clearly stated that all Japanese forces surrendered to Gen. Ho Ying-chin, the representative of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. China's mouthpiece, the People's Daily, however, ran an editorial recently claiming that it was the Chinese communist army that led the 1937-1945 War of Resistance Against Japan. The claim marks a stark denial of a statement made by Chinese President Hu Jintao five years ago that the Kuomintang (KMT) and the Communist Party of China (CPC) were both involved in the fight against the Japanese. As a matter of fact, it was KMT-led forces that assumed most of the combat missions against Japan. During the eight years of the war, more than 3 million KMT-loyal army officers and enlisted men, plus 6,164 air force pilots, sacrificed their lives in fierce battles with the enemy. The late CPC Chairman Mao Zedong on many occasions said his party owed much of its success in the civil war with the KMT after World War II to Japan's occupation of large swathes of Chinese territory, which weakened the KMT government's strength and undermined Chinese people's loyalty to Chiang. It is an indescribable tragedy that the two sides of the Taiwan Strait are still quarreling over who led the anti-Japanese war after all these years. Those in power typically control the right to write history. However, neither politics nor power can change historical facts. We hope China will faithfully and honestly face up to history, which is an attitude that will contribute to mutual trust and goodwill. (Editorial abstract -- Sept. 12, 2010). 