BEIJING, May 5 -- China made indelible contributions to the World Anti-Fascist War as it held back Japanese aggression at tremendous costs, overseas historians and experts have said.

As this year marks the 70th anniversary of the victory of the World Anti-Fascist War, China's contributions and sacrifices have been increasingly recognized by the international community.

China's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression between 1937 and 1945 was an essential part of the World Anti-Fascist War, said Kim Joo-yong, a research fellow with the Institute of Korean Independence Movement Studies.

Kim blasted Japan for its reluctance to apologize for its wartime atrocities in WWII.

Without China's resistance that held back at least 600,000 troops of the Japanese army, the situation would have been much harder for the Western allies in the Asian front, Rana Mitter, director of Oxford University's China Center, told Xinhua.

In most time of the WWII, China was the only serious force of resistance against Japan in East and Southeast Asia, preventing Japan from diverting its resources and therefore warfare to other regions, said Mitter.

Noting that China won its place as a permanent member of the UN Security Council because of its contributions in WWII, Mitter called for more Westerners to know more about China's wartime history as China enjoys growing global influence in today's world.

Sergei Lousianin, deputy director of Russia's Far East Institute, said China's role in WWII has been long underestimated from a traditional Europe-centric historical perspective.

China, as a matter of fact, became the first member of the anti-Fascist international coalition as early as 1937, Lousianin said. "Among the coalition members, China's participation was the longest."

Another Russian expert, Yuri Chudodeev from Moscow-based Institute of Oriental Studies, agreed that WWII actually began in Asia when Lugou Bridge, also known as the Marco Polo Bridge, a crucial access point to Beijing, was attacked by Japanese troops in 1937 rather than in Europe with Germany's invasion of Poland in 1939.

Chudodeev also noted that little attention has been put to China's sacrifices during the war.

"Historians say much about genocide of Jews and Armenians, but they mention little about genocide of Chinese, the Nanking Massacre in particular," said Chudodeev.

In December 1937, Japanese troops captured Nanking (Nanjing), then China's capital, and started a 40-odd-day slaughter. More than 300,000 Chinese, including soldiers who had laid down their arms, were killed and over 20,000 women were raped.

Lester Tenney, a 94-year-old WWII veteran who was invited as a guest of Congressman Mike Honda at Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's speech to a joint meeting of Congress on April 29, urged Tokyo to reflect its heinous acts during WWII and draw a lesson from it.

"The grandfathers of young Japanese do not talk about it, so the young people don't know what happened," said Tenney.

"We have to let the young people know the history. The only way we can correct it is by knowing it," he added.