The Greater East Asia Conference (1943) in front of the National Diet Building, Tokyo. The conference brought together the leading collaborators and Japanese administrators for their conquered territories. (public domain)
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On August 14, I visited Gohyaku Rakanji temple in Meguro, Tokyo, as in previous years, to honor the victims of the Kakkonbyo Incident. In the closing days of the Greater East Asia War in August 1945, the Soviet Union unilaterally broke the Japan-Soviet Neutrality Pact and invaded from three directions: Manchuria, Sakhalin, and the Kuril Islands. Even after Japan's surrender on August 15, 1945, the Soviet advance did not cease.
The Kakkonbyo Incident
The Kakkonbyo Incident unfolded on the day of Japan's surrender. On August 15, some 1,300 civilians evacuating from Xing'an in Manchukuo were attacked by Soviet tank units, and more than 1,000 were massacred. Many survivors either took their own lives or fell victim to further assaults. The tragedy, in short, continued even after the war was officially over.
This August 15, 2025, my thoughts were not so much on the simple fact that the war had ended 80 years earlier, but on how, even after Japan's surrender, the Soviet Union continued trampling the territory of the Empire. Professor Masafumi Asada of Seijo University notes that more than 30,000 Japanese soldiers were killed in clashes with Soviet forces, including those fought after the war's end. Civilian deaths reached some 245,000.
The last time a memorial service for the Kakkonbyo victims was held was two years ago, before bereaved families and other participants grew too old to continue.
Yet massacres carried out by Soviet troops after the war, such as the Mifune Incident and the Sado Settlement Site Incident, left even more dead. However, we must never let the memory of such atrocities fade.
Japan's Anti-Communist Policy
After the Russian Revolution, Japan found itself thrust into the role of bulwark against communism in East Asia. In 1919, communists founded the Comintern as a hub for international parties. It was a state that combined the military strength of the former Russian Empire with a new kind of ideological aggression, rallying under the slogan of "overthrowing the emperor system." Mongolia declared independence from China in 1911, but in 1924, under strong Soviet influence, it was reorganized as the communist Mongolian People's Republic.
Japan's Peace Preservation Law, enacted in 1925, was originally intended to prevent both the alteration of the national polity and the denial of private property. Nor was Japan unique in its response: one after another, countries around the world were passing their own anti-communist laws. Japan was hardly alone in suppressing radical ideology.
Post-WWII textbooks call the 1931-1945 period in Sino-Japanese relations the "Fifteen-year War." During this period, Soviet involvement allowed the Chinese Communist Party to expand its influence. To counter this, in 1936, Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact with Germany. Italy joined the following year, turning it into a tripartite anti-communist agreement. The Tripartite Pact of 1940 is often described as an extension of this, but the reality was very different.
Strategic Amnesia
Alongside the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of 1939, Japan went on to sign the Japan-Soviet Neutrality Pact in 1941. In doing so, it effectively abandoned its anti-communist stance. While the reasons are too complex to detail here, part of the government and military leadership leaned toward the Soviet Union and Germany.
At the same time, the Japanese media stoked hostility toward Britain and the United States. When the German-Soviet War erupted in June 1941, Japan's fanciful plan for a four-power alliance of Japan, Germany, Italy, and the Soviet Union collapsed.
Subsequently, postwar debate over Japan's choice of southern over northern expansion continued under the shadow of Soviet propaganda. The south meant turning toward Southeast Asia and the Pacific, while the north would have meant challenging the Soviet Union in Siberia.
As for the Nomonhan Incident, when I read Takeo Nagoshi's The Kremlin Secret Documents Speak as a student, I discovered that Soviet casualties had in fact exceeded those of the Japanese army. Yet even after these findings emerged from Soviet archives following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the academic consensus that Japan had suffered a one-sided defeat remained popular.
No Asian Liberation Without Anti-Communism
From the moment Germany's blitzkrieg against the Soviet Union stalled, to Japan's decision to wage war against Britain and the US, the strategy was clearly flawed. Yet had Japan not fought under the banner of Asian liberation, communist revolutions, or independence movements backed by the Soviet Union, would almost certainly have erupted across those colonies. The uprisings would likely have occurred on a scale even broader and more severe than what actually took place.
For Japan, which had adhered to international law, the Japan-Soviet Neutrality Pact became a shackle. It prevented Tokyo from aiding its German ally in the Soviet-German War.
Even at the landmark Greater East Asia Conference of 1943, Japan had an opportunity but failed to articulate the idea of anti-communism.
Moreover, as noted in this column on June 20, when the defense of Okinawa became hopeless, Japan turned to the Soviet Union to mediate peace with the Allies. This decision, however, granted Moscow the time it needed to prepare its entry into the war against Japan, to Tokyo's lasting regret.
Recognizing Historical Realities
This is why I regard the Greater East Asia War as a war to contain communism. Or, more precisely, a war in which Japan failed to uphold its anti-communist national policy, thereby prolonging and strengthening communist forces.
What I have set out here is not the entire story of that conflict. Yet the inability to respond appropriately to communism remains one of the most important lessons of modern history.
As Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba calls for "reflection" and "lessons" from the Greater East Asia War, one must ask: Does he truly recognize these historical realities? The aggression, massacres, and propaganda of communist states and their successors are not relics of the past.
On August 18, marking the 80th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of the Kurils, Russia unveiled a Victory over Japan Memorial on Shumshu Island. President Vladimir Putin used the occasion to justify Russia's control of the Northern Territories. To confront such claims, we must correctly grasp and share the lessons of the Greater East Asia War.
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Author: Jun Kuno
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