Tsuyoshi Hasegawa1; 1 University of California at Santa Barbara, United States
Discussion
This paper is to present my views on Soviet-Japanese relations based on three papers in the panel, Japan in the Soviet Gaze in War and Postwar, 1943-1956. I will begin with the importance of Japanese imperialism that posed a threat to the security of the Soviet Union. Also Japan’s invasion of Manchuria and colonization of Manchuria that set a stage Soviet-Japanese War in the last stage of the Pacific War, which created the Japanese POW issue in the Soviet Union. Iakov Malik as the ambassador to Japan during the war was a keen observer of Japanese politics and an influential advisor to Stalin and the policy makers. Malik’s report he presented to Stalin in June 1944 became the basic policy that Stalin pursued at the Yalta Conference. Konstantin Smonov’s travelog during and after the war would reflect the Soviet perceptions of Japan at the crucial period, and an interesting barometer to examine how the Soviet writers perceived what Japan considered the betrayal of the Soviets against Japan. Finally, the POW issue became one of the focal point, together with the territorial issue, in postwar relationship between the Soviet Union and Japan in the Cold War. In sum, this paper in the form of comments on the three papers in the pane, intends to place Soviet-Japanese relations from Japanese imperialism to the war and to the Cold War.
