WAR RESPONSIBILITY--delving into the past (17) / Responsibility of U.S., Soviet Union

The Yomiuri Shimbun

The war responsibility of the United States and the Soviet Union in the Showa War has barely been discussed.

The United States killed about 88,000 civilians and others in the Great Tokyo Air Raid of March 10, 1945, and made many similar raids across the country. In addition, the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japan, killing about 140,000 in Hiroshima and about 74,000 in Nagasaki.

Before those attacks, the U.S. forces examined how many incendiaries were necessary to incinerate Japanese cities by air raids of B-29 bombers. Some evidence shows U.S. President Harry Truman considered limiting the atomic bombs' targets to military facilities and soldiers. In reality, however, he ordered the atomic bombs dropped on the cities without an official warning.

Were the incendiary attacks and atomic bombings necessary although Japan's capacity to keep fighting was on the verge of collapse?

Helen Mears, a Japan expert and former member of the Advisory Committee for the Labor Bureau of the General Headquarters of the Occupation Forces, pointed out in her book, "Mirror for Americans, Japan," that the U.S. authorities made policy decisions based on an exaggerated image that portrayed the Japanese people as the most militaristic in the world--in spite of the fact that Japan's defeat was inevitable.

Then U.S. Air Force Gen. Curtis LeMay, who ordered the massive incendiary attack on Tokyo, said after World War II: "I suppose if I had lost the war, I would have been tried as a war criminal. Fortunately, we were on the winning side."

Meanwhile, the Soviet Union declared war against Japan on Aug. 8, 1945, and attacked the Kwantung Army in Manchuria (now northeastern China) on Aug. 9, the day the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki. Since the Japanese-Soviet Neutrality Pact was binding until April 1946, the Soviet entry into the war was an obvious violation of the pact.

On Aug. 14, Japan accepted the Potsdam Declaration and subsequently notified its acceptance to the Allied Forces. However, the Soviet forces continued fighting. They perpetrated all kinds of atrocities against not only the Japanese forces but also Japanese and Chinese citizens.

The Soviet forces gave up its plan to occupy Hokkaido in the face of U.S. opposition, but they occupied the Japanese northern territories--Etorofu, Kunashiri, Shikotan islands and the Habomai group of islets--between Aug. 28 through Sept. 5, despite the fact that Japan signed surrender documents on Sept. 2.

After giving up Hokkaido, Soviet leader Josef Stalin on Aug. 23 ordered Japanese soldiers and civilians to be sent as prisoners of war to Siberian internment camps, mainly for forced labor. About 575,000 Japanese soldiers and civilians were detained there and forced to work under brutal conditions. Records show at least 55,000 people died during their forced detention.