I am very sympathetic to the fact that the 9-18 incident was a cooked-up plan by the Japanese to start a war, and I agree that it was a shameful act.

But "the beginning of the darkest period in China’s modern history"?  Umm, only if you forget the largest famine in world history in the 1950s, or the "10 lost years" (what even LOCAL people call it) in the 60s and 70s.  And isn't it convenient to forget those, since they were inflicted on the Chinese people by their own leaders.

So yes, let's remember 9-18. But let's also call a spade a spade, and not indulge in maudlin, misleading superlatives.