Masayuki Takayama’s latest Themis column argues that Zelensky should adopt Japan’s strategic brilliance from the Greater East Asia War and conduct a surprise strike on Moscow. The article reviews Russia’s historical atrocities—from the Soviet invasion of Manchuria to Siberian forced labor—and criticizes Putin’s current brutality and refusal to cease fire. Takayama condemns Zelensky’s “Pearl Harbor” analogy as historically ignorant and asserts that Japan, which fought without begging for aid, deserves respect before offering further assistance. A must-read for readers in Japan and worldwide.

This is from Masayuki Takayama’s serialized column published in the September issue of the subscription-based monthly magazine Themis.
This article once again proves that he is the one and only journalist in the postwar world.
It also proves that no one other than him is more deserving of the Nobel Prize in Literature or the Peace Prize.
This is essential reading not only for the Japanese people but for readers around the world.
Zelensky should learn from Japan and carry out a “surprise strike on Moscow.”
It is time to attack Russian territory following the brilliant tactics Japan executed in the Greater East Asia War with courage and wisdom.
He compared Russia’s invasion to Pearl Harbor.
Watching the war in Ukraine, there is something difficult to understand.
Why does Zelensky not attack Moscow?
Russia suddenly invaded Ukraine, slaughtered civilians, marched toward Kyiv, and attempted to seize it.
Putin likely intended to annex Ukraine into Russian territory and, using Belarus as cover, create some sort of Greater Slavic Union.
But Zelensky had not forgotten the method Putin used to blitz and seize Crimea.
When Russia began its operation, he immediately disrupted their communication networks.
Forced to communicate via mobile phones, the Russians were intercepted, locked on to, and their T-90 tanks were blown up by missiles.
As a result, Putin’s invasion—supposed to end in one week—remains unfinished two and a half years later.
Russian casualties reached 20,000 in the first year alone, surpassing the 15,000 fatalities in the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan that contributed to the USSR’s collapse.
Today, deaths exceed 50,000, approaching the number of U.S. casualties in the Vietnam War.
The Japanese know well Russia’s treacherous way of fighting.
They violated the Non-Aggression Pact without notice and attacked Japan from behind just before Japan accepted the Potsdam Declaration.
In Manchuria, they unleashed a hell of looting and rape against Japanese noncombatants.
The extent of the atrocity was enormous.
At the Futsukaichi Sanitarium in Hakata Port—where repatriation ships arrived—abortion operations were performed on women impregnated by rape, and according to surviving records, half of the perpetrators were Russians and the other half Koreans.
Russia violated international law and transported 600,000 Japanese captives to Siberia, forcing them into slave labor for ten years.
It was an atrocity comparable to the atomic bombings.
Putin must have believed such brutality would work again this time.
What a blunder he has made.
As for the war’s outlook, Putin has become obstinate and refuses any ceasefire.
He even goes around assassinating subordinates and journalists critical of him.
Hoping for him to commit suicide is futile.
One painfully understands the citizens who at least wish he would fall ill.
Yet somehow, the man remains extremely healthy, traveling energetically to China and North Korea to procure weapons and ammunition.
This leaves Zelensky as the only hope, but what is he thinking?
During his visit to the U.S., he compared Putin’s surprise invasion to “Pearl Harbor.”
What an insolent man.
That war was manipulated by the more cunning Franklin Roosevelt, who deliberately left the U.S. Pacific Fleet isolated and vulnerable in Hawaii, then provoked Japan with various hostile acts to induce an attack on Pearl Harbor.
Kind-hearted Japanese like Isoroku Yamamoto fell for it.
Without understanding any of this, Zelensky defames Japan while begging for money.
Unless he apologizes to the Japanese for his rudeness, he should not expect any further aid.
Japan fought a war against the imperialist colonial powers of Britain, the U.S., and the Netherlands.
At the same time, Chiang Kai-shek—bought off by the U.S.—was attacking from below.
Even then, Japan fought for three years without begging anyone for money, using every ounce of its own strength.
To be continued.