During the Sino-Japanese War since 1894, Japan destroyed and plundered large numbers of Chinese books. Based on the analysis and summary of related literatures, this paper discusses the damage and destruction from those aggressive wars, and emphasizes the importance of illuminating the destructive nature of Japan’s cultural aggression. Our project has gathered relevant historical materials, including news reports, manuscripts, diaries, records of cultural institutions, and government records. Relevant historical materials have been classified: the history of colleges and universities or local chronicles, the history of libraries, and the history of cultural education during the Anti-Japanese War. Articles that document how many books belonging to public libraries, school libraries, cultural institutions and the libraries of private bibliophiles were lost, and how those books were destroyed and plundered by the Japanese have also been studied. This project identifies five significant issues: time and territory of plundering, organizations carrying out the plundering, methods of plundering, preservation activities for books, and the losses of books. This paper traces the history of Japanese cultural aggression, creates a three-step framework, and studies the characteristics and functions of different kinds of historical materials and ways to use them, which provides a firm foundation for ongoing studies and facilitates further studies.
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