Senators noted the politicisation of this issue by Tokyo and its striving to distort the true course of history.
The Federation Council held a roundtable discussion, “The echo of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki tragedy: The truth and lies on another anniversary of the US atomic bombings of Japanese cities.” The discussion was organised by the Federation Council committees on foreign affairs, and on defence and security.
Deputy Chair of the Federation Council Committee on Foreign Affairs Farit Mukhametshin acted as a moderator.
“The topic of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki tragedy we are discussing today is close and clear to the Russian people. Throughout the post-war period, our country has held the memory of the dead and expressed sympathy with the victims of these barbarous bombings,” the Senator said.
He recalled that famous Soviet poet Rasul Gamzatov was shocked by the tragic story of a Japanese girl, Sadako Sasaki, when he visited Hiroshima in 1965. He wrote a verse entitled “Cranes” that became the lyrics of a song of the same name. It launched a new international anti-nuclear movement. On 22 October 2009, UNESCO added the White Cranes festival to the international list of commemorative events dedicated to those who died in all wars.
“The tragedy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki has not receded into the past. I think the Japanese people will suffer from the consequences of this for decades to come. The politicisation of this problem by Tokyo and its striving to distort the true course of history sound perplexing against this background,” Mr Mukhametshin said.
“Much to our surprise, the Japanese government stubbornly tries to silence the fact that it was the United States who bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Speaking in public, Japanese officials do not mention the name of the country that committed this inhuman act. When drafting multilateral documents on nuclear disarmament, Japanese officials do all they can to avoid any references to the US as the state responsible for the bombings,” the senator pointed out.
Mr Mukhametshin went on to say that Japanese textbooks also distort the motives and conditions that led to the USSR’s entry into the war. “This material is presented in such a way that it makes schoolchildren think the blame for the bombings falls on our country.”
Farit Mukhametshin noted that Japan’s unfriendly position was also manifest in the refusal to invite the Ambassador of Russia to Japan to the Peace Memorial Ceremony that is held every year on the anniversary of the tragic events in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. “In the meantime, the Japanese authorities have invariably invited American officials to the memorial ceremonies since 2010 even though the US has never even apologised to the Japanese people for these inhuman bombings.”
“This state of affairs only causes indignation. It requires a balanced and unbiased assessment and the debunking of new fakes,” the Senator stressed. He recalled that the USSR launched the war against Japan on 9 August 1945, in execution of its allied commitments to the US. “In ten days, our troops defeated the Kwantung Army and eliminated the puppet states of Mengkiang and Manchukuo. These military victories and the plans for a Soviet landing in Japan compelled Japan to surrender.”
Farit Mukhametshin noted that, unfortunately, an increasing number of Japanese, mostly young people, believe that the atomic bombs were dropped by the USSR. “Brainwashed by US propaganda, many Japanese applaud their authorities for anti-Russia sanctions, while young nationalists chant: ‘We will avenge Russia for Hiroshima!’” He said Japanese authorities also try to connect the atomic bombings of Japanese cities with the special military operation in Ukraine.
Farit Mukhametshin expressed indignation over Tokyo’s attempts to extrapolate its Russophobic views to inter-regional ties, cultural and humanitarian cooperation and people-to-people contacts in violation of universal moral values. “Thus, Japan unilaterally discontinued the Year of Russian-Japanese Inter-Regional and Twin City Exchanges. To justify Japan’s territorial claims, its authorities are conducting various events all over the county to demonstrate overtly distorted ideas about the history of bilateral relations.”
Deputy Chair of the Federation Council Committee on Defence and Security Yuri Valyaev observed that the US nuclear strikes on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the bombing of Dresden and other German cities within the Soviet sphere of influence pursued exclusively political goals – to show off their military might and intimidate Soviet leadership. “Even Western historians have recognised the lack of a military need to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These attacks were immoral and amounted to a war crime or a form of state terrorism,” he said.
The participants in the roundtable discussion noted the Russophobic position of the Japanese government. It is using even the most tragic pages of its national history for opportunistic purposes, trying to falsify historical facts and shift the blame for the tragedy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to the USSR under US influence. They emphasised the importance of maintaining the historical truth about World War II.
The roundtable discussion was attended by Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Russia to Japan Mikhail Galuzin, Director of the Foreign Ministry Third Asian Department Nikolai Nozdrev, representatives of federal executive government bodies, scholars and experts.