The Second Sino-Japanese War was a military conflict fought primarily between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan from 7 July 1937 to 9 September 1945.

Its founding was the result of a national-level campaign in which historian and politician Hu Qiaomu played a central role.

[4] On 7 July 1987, the memorial hall was completed and opened to the public on the 50th anniversary of the outbreak of Chinese Anti-Japanese War.

[5] The children were given refugee clothes to wear and residence passes to carry, and visited a scene that included "Japanese devils" with loaded rifles, menacing "collaborationist interpreters," and sound effects creating a lifelike scene with the goal of bringing the history of the occupied zones "from books and films to reality[.

[9] The reason behind the creation of the museum is because economic reforms in China after 1970s “has caused an ideological gap that Beijing fears could lead to social and political fissure”, but “the store of political capital that is available to the CCP leadership from their own legacy of rule has nearly run dry”, especially when Mao also became a contested problematic figure, who no longer exist as the symbolic power that united China in the 1950s.

The museum then put forward the new official narrative with stronger rhetoric against Japan and a subsequent downgrading of fierce attacks on the Nationalist Party under Chiang Kai-shek during WWII.

The museum uses emotional language and varied tones to help emphasize the Japanese atrocities against the Chinese people.

It is the first art hall which represents the Second Sino-Japanese War that employs techniques of painting, sculpture, magic lantern and acoustics to exhibit the theme.

The exhibition halls of the museum also display some inscriptions from celebrities and some print, cartoons and picture posters of the Anti-Japanese War period.

Organized and supported by 8 departments of the central government and PLA, the exhibition kept the demands proposed by the CPC General Secretary Hu Jintao as its guiding doctrine, that is "Chinese people should cherish peace, work convertedly to create a bright future, while keeping the history in mind."

Beginning in 2018, the museum features China's Righteous Among the Nations and other Chinese figures who helped Jews escape Europe.