| The Japanese prisoners of WWⅡ in the Soviet Union serve as the researchobject in this paper. From1945, when the prisoners were escorted to the Soviet Uniontill1956, when the last prisoners were shipped back to Japan, which lasted11years.The focus is the beginning of the study situation of the Japanese prisoners in theSoviet Union.This topic with its original intention appears for the first time in academic circles,in China, which has a pioneering significance. In practice, the tragic fate of theJapanese prisoners of war in the final analysis results from the Japanese militarism,which is a mirror to the rest of the world.In this paper, comprehensive research and contrast is conducted, based on theRussian government archives, the Japanese government s official data, personalmemoirs，and draws lessons from the research results of Russia, Japan, the UnitedStates, Germany and other foreign scholars and domestic scholars. Seriously fromcomparison of the Chinese scholars point of view, the real history is showed to theworld with great efforts on the revision.The thesis consists of seven chapters.Chapter One A revision of the receiving and accepting of the Japaneseprisoners.On the basis of the related materials from the Soviet Union and Japan, thepost-war Soviet was in a lack of housing and supplies, unable to guarantee theestablishment of basic living conditions for the required. Japanese prisoners receivework without preparation, haste, lack of basic equipment. The Soviet authorities inorder to improve the conditions of detention camp has taken necessary measures,however simple housing and tents is unusually cold winter in Siberia naturalenvironment and the camp does not comply with these instructions, no heating equipment, crowded housing etc.. At the later stage of these conditions only slightlyimproved. The relevant information from the Soviet Union and Japan s point of view,the Soviet Union is received at the prisoners is hasty circumstances, they are mainlyarranged in the Far East, Siberia, the Soviet Union files, to set up a total of49POWcamp, Kuznetsov, Russian scholars believe that the number of POW camp, far morethan these, only1945-1946years, the Soviet Union built71Japanese POW camps,each camp also includes a lot of prison management. One of the camp is the largest ofthe seventh camps Taishet POW camp, located in El Cusick, there are as many as50prison management stations.The Japanese Ministry of health and welfare put forward Fifty years history, inwhich the number of Japanese shelters and prisons in the Soviet Union was revealedfor about1200to1300, after a detailed study of the Soviet Union and Mongolianumber around the shelter to2000.Surrounded around the camp was by two to three layers of wood fencing andbarbed wire. Stalin ordered the production of800tons of barbed wire dedicated to theJapanese prisoners of war. At the beginning of2-3meters and is covered with twolayers of iron railings. The land was digging or sprinkle sand, this is to allow theescape people can leave footprints, and shelter, usually at all four corners of a lookout,twenty-four hours a day carrying armed guards watching, night is also continuouslighting, in addition, dogs moving along barbed wires.Chapter Two Supplies for the Japanese prisoners.On September28,1945the Soviet NKVD and the Red Army LogisticsMinisterial Instructions, announced the food supply standard for the Japaneseprisoners. Taken into account was the prisoners diet, the food supply of rice, fish,vegetables and other food.NKVD released announcement to improve Japanese military prison food supplybase and into the work efficiency of feeding system on December1,1946. In order toimprove the prison labor, bread, Cereals, potatoes and vegetables distribution dependson the amount of work completed. On December11,1947the Soviet Union Ministry standard, implemented in1950before returning to the end of his prisoners of war.Diet of prisoners was subdivided into10grades.NKVD material supply bureau made for prisoners day and night dietarystandards, not reached cannot in the Siberia area. Corruption, misappropriation andreselling became serious phenomena. Japanese prisoners of war in order tosupplement inadequate food and eat grass and other lead poisoning have occurredfrom time to time, the situation of malnutrition happened everywhere.The government of the Soviet Union and the Ministry of the interior of allprisoners clothes had a series of rules and detailed rules, the Japanese prisoners ofwar did not get much clothes distribution from the Soviet Union. Mostly from the oldarmy plundered the old products, or the Soviet army or the German army uniforms inthe garage. In most cases no change of clothes. Food supplies and clothing and otherreasons there are many frozen injured and freeze to death, is also the Japaneseprisoners of War illness, physical condition deteriorated and the main causes of death.Chapter Three The labor utilization of the Japanese prisoners in the SovietUnionIn order to make up for the Soviet Union labor shortage, in1945construction ofthe national economy was began with the utilization of the Japanese prisoners thatwere placed to work in the Ministry of the interior and the Department of defensePOW camp in the Far East and Siberia in the independent labor camp. Workplacelack of preparation, labor arrangement and organization is not doing a good job; laborand labor material shortage, Japanese prisoner labor not only efficiency is not high,but is at a loss. In order to improve the work efficiency by using the quantitativefeeding system, reward and punishment system, socialist production competition andobtain an early repatriation opportunities reward system. Japanese prisoner laborenthusiasm and labor ability strengthens constantly, improve work efficiency.Japanese prisoners of war were Soviet forced labor, the labor is beneficial to therecovery of the post-war Soviet economy. Labor types are diverse, mainly to engagein heavy and more energetic national industrial sectors: non-ferrous metal industry,coal industry, mining and processing, forestry, fishery, the Department of human resources is extremely poor Japanese prisoners of war can be used as free cheap labor.It is calculated that in1946,0.7%-0.8%of the GDP (gross domestic product) of theSoviet Union was gained through the Japanese prison labor.Chapter Four Prisoners health, death and burialFrom1945August to November, Medical care was insufficient for the prisonerson their way to the Soviet Union,, there came the emergence of a large number ofwounded, onset, and dead, to rectify the medical, health should be a pressing matter ofthe moment.In the December of1945, they set up hospital, and medical, health conditionsalso had a bit improvement. Soviet medical facilities, medical supplies, medicalpersonnel shortage deficiency resulting in a very long period of time, the prevalenceof prisoners of war and mortality rate has been high,1945-1946had the highestmortality rate. In January16,1946, Soviet interior minister Sergei Koruglov issuedrequirements on reducing POW camp of morbidity and mortality in the instruction:improve the prisoner s physical condition, especially to the patients withmalnutrition food supply, increase their food; the hospital should strengtheninspection and treatment to patients, to ensure the supply of drugs and medicaldevices; to pay attention to the working conditions of prisoners, the labor conditionsare not met in economic institutions, do not allow prison labor, to be more strictly inaccordance with the food supply standard labor prisoners of war to provide food andprisoners of war.The cause of death of Japanese prisoners of war are freezing, starve to death,death, die of accident.The Soviet government failed to perform a proper bury for the dead prisoners.Due to unusually cold winter climate, Siberia area,50Celsius degrees below zero,It was unlikely for them to dig graves, so many prisoners bodies were left in thewilderness, only with snow covered. Buried in the other seasons, many deathprisoners cemetery could not be found due to the lack of grave markers.Chapter Five Daily life of the Japanese prisoners.Based on some statistics, prisoners didn t have a variety of cultural life andfamily communication until1947. With the development of the democracy movement, various culturalentertainment of prisoners appeared in around1947. Communication can be realizedthe Japanese prisoners of war. In fact, it is not free. The Soviet Union shall notinterfere with the autonomy principle in the prisoners, prisoners of war. In Sovietcustody retained command system to manage the old Japanese Army prisoners of war,and use this to improve production efficiency. When the war ended, the boss stillneeded to obey orders. At the same time, camp also has anti military struggle andlynching happened.The Soviet government in Japanese prisoner received at the beginning of theanti-fascist propaganda and political indoctrination. By hosting the anti-fascist schooland political training class, other forms of labor emulation, let the prisoners studyMarxism-Leninism theory, expose anti fascist crimes, use of incentives, to learn goodJapanese prisoners of war, learning of Marx s theory of personnel to raise standards,improve food reward accommodation, and advance the repatriation of opportunity.Although the Japanese prisoners supply was improved slightly, they still lived invery poor circumstances.Chapter Six The repatriating of the Japanese prisonersActually the prisoner negotiation was carried out between the Soviet Union andthe United States of America due to the fact that Japan is subject to the United Statesof America. According to the Soviet Union and the United States both in Tokyo inDecember19,1946formally signed the agreement, the number of monthly50000should the repatriation of Japanese prisoners of war and civilian back to Japan. TheSoviet Union is responsible for transporting repatriated reached the port of departure,the ship, ship provided by the Macarthur headquarters, the Japanese government tobear all expenses and repatriation, including fuel for ships, and the repatriation ofpersonnel of food, sanitation and health etc..The Sudanese side actually took the stage to the Japanese prisoners of war toreturn policy. By the end of December of1946, the Soviet Union made the firstrepatriation. A total of25000healthy prisoners transferred to the repatriation ofinstitutions, not including the sick and weak. Since then, the Soviet Union began the repatriation of Japanese civilians and prisoners of war. First the repatriation of sick,infirm, advanced workers and political indoctrination actively cooperate.Social organizations and public opinions in Japan accelerated repatriation of theprisoners.A particularly important information was discovered on October18,1956by theSoviet foreign ministry, namely, The file of1945arrest of the Japanese prisoner, inwhich the Russian Federation national archives documents mentioned that, from1945to1956, a total of546,752prisoners were released, repatriated, including112generalsand25,728officers. In addition, during this time there are6241detained and arrestedby the Japanese were repatriated to Japan. It is apparent to make a comparison thatItar-Tass reported that the repatriation of510,409POWs returned.Japan s Post-war History Volume Four mentioned in1946-1950,510,409Japanese prisoners were repatriated, which was not completed until the end of1956.As for the number of the repatriation of Japanese prisoners, the Soviet Union andJapan and other countries had showed difference, but basically reached a consensus.Chapter Seven Issues of Japanese prisoners of warThe Soviet Union and Japan have significantly different ways of addressing theprisoners. The Soviet Union reckoned that according to international laws and rules ofwar, the Japanese soldiers were captured in combat, so they should be in the prisonerstatus, while Japan believed and spread the concept of Siberia detention. InJapanese society and politics, the most commonly used terms are not captured butdetainees. The ancient Japan considered a prisoner of war as a disgrace. Therefore,what could be accepted was a death command, but not a prisoner. The term "prisonersof war" and the long-term chaos "detainees" understanding the cause of today difficultto determine accurately transferred to the Soviet POW camp, died and was buried inthe Soviet Union before the Japanese War staff.On September1,1945, the Soviet Far East commander Vasilevsky gave asummary report that announced594,000prisoners of Japanese soldiers and officers,prisoners, including110lieutenants. However, no method of calculation wasmentioned on whether number of the death prisoners, number of repatriation,. In fact, there is a considerable number of civilians in the camps.The Japanese Ministry of Health Care Assistance Bureau statistics indicated thatthe total number of Japanese soldiers detained there was about575,000, while JiriSjeng, Russia s well-known Siberia detention history researcher, Institute of OrientalStudies, Minister of International Cooperation Department, pointed out that the totalwas639,000.It is still in suspense how many Japanese died in captivity. According to theJapanese Ministry of Health Care Assistance Bureau statistics, about60,000peopledead in Siberia during the detention, which added up to10%of the prisoners. Andaccording to the United States of America researchers Ning Mo s the verificationSiberia detention, the deaths summed up to254,000, the missing and presumed93,000, with a total number of about340,000. In addition, according to the surveyduring the period from1945to1949, up to374,041people died in the Soviet Union.Based on the various aspects of the materials, it is believed that at least600,000Japanese prisoners of war were detained in the Soviet Union, among which, the deathtoll could not be determined. On top of that, many other problems about the prisonershave not achieved agreement.ConclusionOn the basis of the study of the1945-1956prisoners of war, it is believed thatthe Soviet Union made a lot of effort for that matter, but due to deficiency of politicaland economic culture, the Japanese prisoners suffered a tragic destiny. What theSoviet Union had done was far from the standards reached in Geneva Treaty, and eventhe opposite.However, to our knowledge, Fascist Germany and Japan were more brutal andinhuman in the treatment of prisoners, which was even worse than what the SovietUnion had managed to do.The study of the Japanese prisoners of WWⅡ is still in its infancy. And it isbelieved that as the publishing of related historical documents and materials, this issueneeds further study. |
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