Abstract: Three main points are discussed in this paper：first，the substance of pro-war and anti-war sentiment during the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95;second,the concrete manifestation of the debate between the two factions during the different stages of the war;and third，the question of which faction should bear responsibility for losing the war。The paper argues that the debate between the pro-war and anti-war camps should be studied within the context of the struggle between the invasion of imperialism and the resistance of the people in modern China。In the days when the big powers dominated the world，the victims of their aggression had no choice but to rise against the invaders to defend their national independence and state sovereignty by waging adjust anti-aggression war.Although the debate between the pro-war and anti-war factions ran throughout the entire war， the issues they debated the policies they advanced and the measures they adopted were not the same in the different stages of the war.