In his two articles on the recent remembrance of the war against Japan by the Chinese Communist government, Rana Mitter approaches this memory from different aspects.  In his "Nationalism, History and the War Resistance Museum," he discusses in particular this new emphasis on nationalism  to bolster the image and status of the Chinese government in both the national and international arenas was reflected in the reinterpretations of WWII in China, notably in the building of war memorial museums.  The War of Resistance Museum in Beijing, (completed in 1987 and remodeled in 1997) was the Chinese government's attempt to refashion its role and China's role in the Pacific phase of WWII.  It simultaneously sent out several messages:

1. Unlike previous propaganda of war resistance that focused on Communist guerrilla warfare against Japan, this war museum situated China's war against Japan in the Pacific phase of World War II, emphasizing China's awareness of itself in the international arena, befitting its role as a growing international power in the world in the late 20th century.
2. Unlike previous depictions of the war, the museum also highlighted Nationalist participation in the war, a taboo in the past.  This served several purposes: a greater emphasis on nationalism rather than partisan struggles or ideological differences; and an encouraging signal to Taiwan that China was eager to discuss unification with Taiwan (c.f. East and West Germany).
3. Extensive borrowings of Western architectural styles, including using an anonymous deceased soldier to symbolize all the war dead.  This showed that China kept up with the times, was open and on the same level as Western art, to foster the belief that China was part of the international community.  The architecture was in sharp contrast to the more traditional reliefs surrounding the Monument of the People in the center of Tiananmen Square, built in 1958 during the Great Leap Forward.
4. Depiction of Japanese cruelty: a reminder not just to the Chinese audience, but also to the Japanese visitors to the museum, what history was really like.
5. Emphasis on martyrdom: all who died fighting against the  Japanese were called martyrs and their deaths called sacrifices [for the nation]; the phrase often used was: "the nameless martyrs are at one with the mountains and river" (Mitter, p.289).  Since China has no established religion, immortality in Chinese history has often been compared to being at one with the mountains and rivers.  So a linkage here between resistance against Japanese invasion and an emotional appeal to nationalism. This intense emotional appeal of the museum was also manifest in summer educational camps for primary to high school students where they were put through a reenactment of the war scenes.  In a way, the museum continues an education in the continuation of a revolutionary emphasis that moral education and education in class struggles did during and before the Cultural Revolution.

  In his "China's Changing Views Toward the World in An Age of Reform," Mitter further explores the reason behind this fascination with the war against Japan by the Chinese government.  Besides the new international status China consciously tries to cultivate through a depiction of (successful) Chinese participation in a world war, Ritter also sees a parallel between China in the 1980s/1990s and the 1930s-1940s during the Japanese invasion.  In both cases, China was threatened in its survival.  In the earlier case, it was a threat from Japanese invaders, and in the second case, it was threat from an opening Chinese economy, to the foreign stock market and investors.  With the opening up of China, much of China, including businesses and real estate, are up for sale.  One dramatic example is the real estate along the Shanghai bund: the narrow strip of Shanghai facing the Huangpu river.  Historically the buildings there were owned by foreign companies such as Shell and Citibank before the Communist takeover in 1949.  After the Communist takeover they were all confiscated by the Communist government. Today many of them are sold back to their earlier owners or to some other foreign companies.  There was a saying among the Chinese population: "Overnight, we return to the pre-Communist years," which referred to this kind of phenomenon.  The uncertainty of the Communist Chinese government over how far they should go in that direction without compromising Chinese sovereignty, the uncertainty of membership in the WTO and of reform in general: with inflation, unemployment, and many other new social issues popping up, the Chinese government, according to Mitter, again feels threatened by outside forces beyond its control, and a glorification of resistance against foreign powers was a way to bolster Chinese national morale, especially as right wing revision of Japanese history has been steadily on the rise in the past years.