2026-07-28
Originally published on 2022-03-29.
The following is taken from an article by Michio Ezaki published in today’s Sankei Shimbun in the Seiron column under the title “A Historical Perspective for Confronting Russian Aggression.”
As I have already written, he is one of the most distinguished emerging critics in the postwar world.
This article is essential reading not only for the Japanese people but for people throughout the world.
Readers will realize that what is written in this article applies almost exactly as it stands to China as well.
All emphasis in the text other than the headings is mine.
Deprived of Freedom and Suffering Under Repression
Poland, the Baltic states, and other countries neighboring Russia have reacted fiercely against Russia’s “aggression” against Ukraine and continue to support Ukraine.
These neighboring countries remember being occupied and ruled by the Soviet Union during and after World War II and suffering human-rights repression, and therefore regard the situation as one in which “we could be next tomorrow.”
Yet because of the Soviet Union’s thorough control of information, the international community remained largely unaware of Soviet “crimes” for many years after the war.
Far from merely being unaware of them, the international community, and particularly the liberal media, emphasized the Soviet Union’s achievement in defeating Nazi Germany.
The reality of Soviet occupation and human-rights repression became widely known only after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 and the Baltic states, Poland, and other countries regained their freedom.
The neighboring countries that had been deprived of their freedom and suffered human-rights repression began collecting and publishing records of what had actually happened.
Partly as a result of the efforts of these neighboring countries, on September 19, 2019, three years ago, the European Parliament, an institution of the European Union, adopted a resolution entitled “Importance of European Remembrance for the Future of Europe,” which stated as follows.
《Eighty years earlier, on August 23, the communist Soviet Union and Nazi Germany concluded a non-aggression pact known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, and through its secret protocol divided Europe and the territories of independent states situated between these two totalitarian regimes, incorporating them into their respective spheres of interest and paving the way for the outbreak of World War II.》
On the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of the war, the European Parliament finally criticized the Soviet Union as an “aggressor state” and acknowledged the error of the Nuremberg trials in treating the Soviet Union as being on the side of justice.
The resolution continues.
《As a direct consequence of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and the subsequent German-Soviet Boundary and Friendship Treaty of September 28, 1939, the Republic of Poland was invaded first by Hitler and, two weeks later, by Stalin, deprived of its independence, and subjected to an unprecedented tragedy for the Polish people.
The communist Soviet Union began a war of aggression against Finland on November 30, 1939, and in June 1940 occupied and annexed part of Romania, never returning it, while also annexing the independent republics of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.》
The Soviet Union Did Not Honor the Ceasefire Agreements
Soviet “aggression” continued even after ceasefire agreements had been reached.
The Soviet Union did not honor those agreements and continued its “aggression” against neighboring countries.
《After the end of World War II (…) several European countries remained under dictatorial regimes, while some were placed under direct Soviet occupation or influence and continued for half a century to be deprived of their freedom, independence, dignity, human rights, and socioeconomic development.》
During the war, executions of intellectuals, looting, assault, and forced labor in Siberia and elsewhere were widespread in Poland and the Baltic states under Soviet occupation.
Moreover, after the ceasefire agreements, these countries, which should have regained their freedom and independence, were turned into Soviet satellite states.
In 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed, the Baltic states regained their independence, and Poland recovered its freedom.
However, the Putin administration began justifying Soviet “aggression” and moving once again toward restoring the Soviet Union.
It is only natural that Poland and other neighboring countries should be alarmed.
The European Parliament also pointed out the following.
《In August 2019, Russian government officials denied responsibility for the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and its consequences and are now spreading the view that it was in fact Poland, the Baltic states, and the West that caused World War II.
(…)
We are deeply concerned by the efforts of the current Russian leadership to distort historical facts in order to conceal the crimes committed by the Soviet totalitarian regime.
(…)
We call on the European Commission to resolutely oppose such efforts.》
The “Victors’ View of History” Is No Longer Tenable
Nevertheless, on June 18, 2020, President Putin contributed an essay entitled “The Real Lessons of the 75th Anniversary of World War II” to the electronic edition of the American political and foreign-affairs magazine The National Interest, in which he dismissed the European Parliament’s resolution as “nonsense.”
Thus, the confrontation had intensified between Western countries criticizing Soviet “aggression and human-rights repression” and the Putin administration, which remained committed to a “victors’ view of history” that justified Soviet “aggression” on the basis of the Soviet Union’s role in defeating Nazi Germany.
Yet there was little interest in this controversy in Japan.
But should Japan not also take part in this debate from the standpoint of respecting freedom and human rights?
After all, even after Japan accepted the Potsdam Declaration, large numbers of Japanese were detained by the Soviet Union in Siberia, where many lost their lives, while Japan was also deprived of the Northern Territories, which remain illegally occupied to this day.
Following Russia’s “aggression” against Ukraine, Japan also decided to impose sanctions on Russia from the standpoint of opposing attempts to change the status quo by force.
At the same time, Japan should cooperate with Europe and the United States in confronting and thoroughly criticizing President Putin’s peculiar historical perspective that justifies Soviet “aggression.”
The victors’ view of history that regards the Soviet Union as the side of justice is no longer tenable.