A series of commentaries published in newspapers in Chengdu, Sichuan Province have drawn public ridicule after they warned Chinese people not to be blinded by the alluring cultural values displayed at an exhibition about the Japanese cartoon series Doraemon and called on them not to forget about Japan's denial of wartime history.

After attracting tens of thousands of Doraemon fans during its nationwide tour that visited Beijing, Shanghai and other cities in China, the exhibition made a stop in Southwest China's Chengdu on August 16. It is planned to last till Sunday.

It attracted large crowds and sparked online discussions about the characters that people enjoyed when they were growing up. However three local newspapers under the Chengdu Daily Newspaper Group ran similar commentaries last week that saw the exhibition in a different light.

"[The character] Doraemon does not shoulder responsibility for cultural exchange, but the export of this character has a clear political connotations," the Chengdu Business Daily warned on Wednesday.

Running the headline "Be cautious of Doraemon who could blind us," the Chengdu Daily said Thursday that when the Chinese people "kiss the blue fatty," they should not forget about the other side of Japan.

The newspaper then slammed Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, accusing him of ignoring Japan's wartime atrocities and attempting to whitewash history.

But many Chinese netizens have claimed that the Chengdu newspapers have chosen the wrong target in trying to educate people about Japan's historical revisionism.

The manga series Doraemon was introduced to China in the 1980s; it features a robotic cat named Doraemon who travels back in time from the 22nd century to help his preteen friend with futuristic technology.

"We should not make a fuss [over a cartoon character] when dealing with nationalism," Liu Xiaofeng, a Japanese culture professor with Tsinghua University, told the Global Times.