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During World War II , in addition to launching a full-scale war of aggression against China, Japan also fought with the US military on Pacific battlefield . At the same time, Japan's Kanto Army also broke out with the Soviet army.
After the war ended, a large number of Japanese prisoners of war were imprisoned by the Soviet Union in Siberia . According to the recollections of Japanese surviving prisoners of war, Siberia at that time was tantamount to purgatory on earth. According to official statistics, nearly one-third of the hundreds of thousands of Japanese prisoners in the Soviet Union failed to leave alive.
However, compared to death, what scares Japanese prisoners of war even more is the methods used by the Soviets to treat them. Many prisoners of war are unwilling to recall their experiences back then. So what did the Japanese prisoners of war in Siberia go through?
Soviet army
captured prisoners of war
As close neighbors, Japan and the Soviet Union have deep grievances in history. In the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, Russia lost to Japan. Later, the October Revolution broke out, and during which Japan also joined forces with many other Western countries to interfere. From that period, the Soviet Union and Japan had already formed a straitor.
However, the Soviet Union's strength is much stronger than Japan. In addition, Japan devoted its main energy to the invasion of China, and there were only some small frictions between the two countries, but the relationship has never been alleviated.
As the Japanese army launched a full-scale war of aggression against China, the peace between Japan and the Soviet Union also remained for a while. However, on May 11, 1939, the Japanese army and the puppet Manchukuo troops launched an attack on the Mongolian border defense force in the Halexin River area on the junction of Heilongjiang and Outer Mongolia.
then the scale of the battle continued to expand. In July, the Soviet Union appointed Zhukov as commander, leading the First Army Group to reinforce Mongolia.
Seeing the Soviet army's actions, the Japanese army also invested more troops. By August, the Japanese expanded troops reached 75,000, and a large number of artillery , tank and aircraft were put on the front line.
Japanese army
The Japanese army at that time was smooth sailing on the Chinese battlefield. Only with their ambitions were expanding, did they take the abacus to the Soviet Union. They hoped to resolve a series of border disputes on the Mongolian border through this victory.
However, the Japanese army's combat power was still unable to compete with the Soviet army. On August 20, the Soviet Union and Mongolian army launched a full-scale counterattack. In just 4 days, the Soviet army surrounded and annihilated the Japanese army in the Nomenkan area.
Although the remaining Japanese troops still wanted to counterattack, they were quickly defeated by the Soviet army. By August 31, the battle was basically over and the Soviet army won a great victory.
Although the Soviet army won a great victory on the battlefield, the situation in Europe at that time had drastic changes, and the Soviet Union had to shift its strategic focus westward. The Soviet Union had no intention of expanding its results on the Far East battlefield.
After this battle, the Japanese army also realized the strength of the Soviet army. They no longer dared to provoke the Soviet army easily on the Far East battlefield. The Japanese side also expressed their recognition of the existing borders after the war and ended the conflict. Subsequently, the Soviet Union also signed the "Soviet-Japan Armistice Agreement" with Japan.
Soviet
This war hit the arrogance of Japanese militarism. Japan also adjusted its strategy of the war and gave up the idea of attacking the Baikal area, but changed its main strategic goal to advance southward.
This also led to Japan taking the initiative to attack Pearl Harbor a few years later, and devoted more energy to the Pacific battlefield. At the same time, during the war between the Soviet Union and Germany, Japan, as a ally of Germany, did not dare to go to war with the Soviet Union easily, which largely influenced the direction of World War II.
In August 1945, Japan was already defeated, so the Soviet Union naturally would not miss this opportunity. They ignored the previous armistice agreement and sent 1.5 million troops across the Sino-Soviet and China-Mongolia border from the east, north and west directions to launch a full-scale attack on the Japanese Kwantung Army.
Although the Kwantung Army was the elite force of the Japanese army, the morale of the troops was sluggish at that time, and they did not expect the sudden attack of the Soviet Union, so they could not resist it soon.
The Soviet Union showed no mercy to the Kwantung Army. They relied on their powerful firepower to quickly annihilate the main force of the Kwantung Army. In this battle, 83,000 Kwantung Army was killed, and 594,000 people were captured. Not long after, Japan announced its unconditional surrender, and Japan surrendered to the Soviet Union, China and the United States at the same time.
Japanese army
China, the United States and the Soviet Union all captured many Japanese troops. After Japan surrendered to , the Japanese troops captured by China and the United States were treated relatively well, and most of the prisoners were finally able to return to Japan.
However, the Japanese army captured by the Soviet Union were not so lucky. After Japan surrendered, the Soviet Union did not mean to repatriate Japanese prisoners of war, but chose to take them back to Siberia. The prisoners of war at this time did not know what a tragic situation would be waiting for them.
Free Coolid
According to Soviet records, a total of 594,000 Japanese prisoners of war were captured in the battle between the Soviet Union and the Japanese army. After the Japanese surrender, the Soviet Union would lose its ability to work.
and non-Japanese prisoners of war were handed over to China for processing. There were about 90,000 prisoners of war, and the remaining 500,000 prisoners of war were brought back to the Soviet Union by them.
The reason why the Soviets transported so many prisoners of war back to Siberia was because in the eyes of the Soviets, these prisoners of war were their most scarce resources. Because what the Soviet Union lacked the most was the labor force to rebuild the country. These prisoners of war came to their doors, so the Soviet Union would naturally not miss it.
Japanese surrender
In World War II, in order to resist the German offensive, almost all the men who could go to the battlefield went to the front line. Although they finally won the war, they also paid a heavy price.
After the war, the Soviet Union was extremely short of labor force, which also led to the collapse of the economy in the Soviet Union. The Soviet authorities immediately decided to use Japanese prisoners of war to make up for the labor gap and thus atone for the crimes they committed before.
The Soviets were not ruthless in treating these prisoners of war. They were just thinking about how to quickly send these people to Siberia to engage in production, thereby helping the domestic economy get out of the predicament. According to regulations, the Soviet Union needed to use double-decker carriages to transport prisoners of war, and there could not be more than 90 people in one carriage.
But in fact, in order to reduce the number of trains in the Soviet Union, more than 100 people were squeezed into a carriage, and it was difficult for people inside to turn around. In addition, the train will only stop once a day, and there is no toilet in the car.
Every time I parked the car, there were prisoners on both sides of the railway. I could only see the feces in one place, and I couldn’t even find a place to stay.
Su Army
And the parking time is very short. Once a prisoner of war does not get on the bus within the specified time, he will be shot. According to statistics, about 50,000 soldiers were shot and killed on the way to Siberia.
Some Japanese prisoners of war recalled that when they were on the march, if there was any verbal conflict or what they did angered Soviet soldiers, they would be fired.
In addition to prisoners of war shot by Soviet soldiers, some prisoners of war will be left halfway and let them fend for themselves because they are too weak. These people are basically unable to withstand the extreme cold weather.
Although the other Japanese prisoners of war did not lose their lives on the road, most of them were already dying when they arrived in Siberia after the bumpy journey. And after coming to the labor camp in Siberia, their nightmare had just begun.
Japanese Army
Purgatory
According to the recollections of Japanese prisoners of war, because the conditions for transporting prisoners of war along the way were very bad, when they came to the Siberian labor camp, everyone was not only in good health, but also in poor health.
So when they arrived, the Soviet army ordered all prisoners of war to go to the big bathing grounds to take a bath. However, because the bath space is limited, many soldiers have to wait for a few hours in the ice and snow.
When escorting prisoners of war to the labor camp, many Soviet people gathered on both sides of the road to watch the fun. People who had just experienced the war were full of hatred for Japanese prisoners of war, and they shouted that they would let Japanese prisoners of war commit suicide.
There are also children throwing stones and spitting at the prisoners of war. But what they didn't know was that at this time the Japanese soldiers no longer had the fanaticism during the war, and few people would choose to stop themselves.
After these prisoners of war entered the labor camp, what awaited them was endless and heavy work, because the Soviet Union left these prisoners of war in order to fill the gap in the labor force.
Soviet
Japanese prisoners of war are responsible for road construction and mining. These tasks are very hard. In order to ensure the warmth of everyone, many Japanese prisoners of war are arranged to engage in logging, which has a huge workload.
The heavy workload and the already poor physical condition, many prisoners of war quickly lost their lives because of their serious illness. Although the Soviet Union also sent doctors to regularly check their bodies for prisoners of war.
But the doctor only regards prisoners of war as labor force, believing that treating them is a waste. The result of the examination is mainly to pick out good health and engage in more heavy labor.
When the prisoners of war arrived in Siberia it was August, and the temperature was low but tolerable. But as time came to winter, the prisoners of war gradually began to lose their grip.
Because most of them were in summer clothes that were sent in August, without gloves, hats, cotton shoes and other items to keep warm. In the cold weather, Japanese prisoners of war could only grit their teeth and complete the tasks assigned to them. According to incomplete statistics, more than 20,000 Japanese prisoners of war failed to survive the winter of 1945.
Japanese army
In addition to working in Siberia, Japanese prisoners of war also needed a large amount of labor. Some prisoners of war were sent to other places for work. At that time, Japanese prisoners of war were seen in many railway and highway projects in the Soviet Union.
Japanese prisoners of war did heavy work, but they found it difficult to eat enough, which was also because the Soviet agricultural production was affected by the war and the output was less than half of the previous war.
In this case, the Soviet Union naturally gave priority to the citizens and would not spend too much food on prisoners of war. At that time, the bread that prisoners of war ate was pressed from grass powder, with almost no nutritional value, and everyone was hungry.
Later, in order to maintain the labor efficiency of prisoners of war, the Soviet Union proposed a profitable wage system. Those prisoners who do more work and do better can get more food.
Inspired by food, the prisoners of war worked harder, but the food they got was barely filled. For Japanese prisoners of war who came to Siberia, fatigue, hunger and cold were tormenting them every moment, but their miserable experiences did not stop there.
Soviet
Japanese prisoners of war
In addition to physical torture, Japanese prisoners of war also suffered a mental blow in Siberia. At that time, one of the tasks that Japanese prisoners of war were most afraid of was not the hardest logging, but burning bath water.
seems puzzling at first glance. The job of burning a bath water is not only easy, but also warms up. It should be very popular, but Japanese prisoners of war avoid it.
This is because the bath water burned by Japanese prisoners of war is not for themselves, but for Soviet soldiers. Although these prisoners of war have surrendered and have lost the courage to commit suicide by separatism, they still have strong self-esteem.
In their opinion, it is an insult to their own work of burning bath water for others, so they would rather cut down trees than stay in the camp to burn bath water.
In addition to this reason, they were unwilling to burn bath water, and they also did not want to face the criticism of the Soviet female soldiers. In fact, Soviet male soldiers did not take baths frequently, so the bath water burned by prisoners of war was mainly used for female soldiers, which was a greater humiliation for Japanese prisoners of war.
Soviet troops seized materials
Because the Soviets were generally tall and big, Japanese prisoners of war were mostly thin and small. Compared with the two, it was naturally because the Japanese prisoners of war were inferior, which also led to prisoners of war very unwilling to approach these female soldiers. What made it even more difficult for Japanese prisoners of war to accept was that the Soviets did not bury the dead compatriots, but instead threw them into the mine furnace.
In the eyes of the Soviets, dead prisoners of war were buried and occupied land resources. Moreover, they did not want to bury the Japanese corpses on the Soviets' land, so they threw the prisoners of war into the stove as fuel, thereby draining their final value.
mineral furnace turned into a crematorium, and the air smelled like meat every day, which was tantamount to a major blow to the spirit for the Japanese prisoners of war.
Compared with male soldiers, among the Japanese prisoners of war, the female soldiers ended up even more miserable. In addition to the workload that had to be completed during the day, they would also face even more tragic nightmares at night, and they would be sent to Soviet soldiers as playthings.
Japanese Army
According to statistics, most of the Japanese female prisoners of war in Siberia suffered from cymbiosis, and many people could not bear it and eventually died. Most of the remaining female prisoners of war in also lost their ability to give birth. Considering what the Japanese have done to women in other countries before, it can only be said that this is a retribution.
Japanese prisoners of war in Siberia have to endure physical and psychological torture every day. They only have one idea, that is, if they leave the Soviet Union, even if they can't return to Japan, they can go to China or other countries.
At that time, the Soviet Union also issued a clear regulation that as long as the doctor's condition certificate was obtained, they could be sent back to Japan. The result can naturally be imagined. No matter what means the prisoners of war use, no doctor is willing to issue a certificate.
and even some really sick people are difficult to get proof. In this hopeless situation, many prisoners of war chose to commit suicide because they could not see the hope of leaving.
So many prisoners of war were left in Siberia, and the Japanese side also tried their best to pick them up, but the Soviet Union had no reason to leave so much labor in vain, so they put forward conditions, and finally Japan agreed to give the Soviet Union 70 million US dollars of property to exchange for these prisoners of war.
Soviet
Under the consultation of the Japanese side, these prisoners of war returned to their motherland between 1946 and 1950, but nearly one-third remained in Siberia forever.
Among these prisoners of war who returned to Japan, about 50% of them left different degrees of disability, which was enough to foresee how miserable the situation of Japanese prisoners of war captured by the Soviet Union was.
compared with the millions of Japanese soldiers captured by our country, they were lucky because China fully demonstrated its generous demeanor and sent prisoners of war back to China in the shortest time, and did not maliciously kill these prisoners of war.
Although Japanese prisoners of war were not as good as death under the Soviets, Lenovo How did the Japanese treat people of other countries, especially countless compatriots in our country who died tragically under the sword of the Japanese invaders.
Even if Japanese prisoners of war were treated cruelly by the Soviets, they deserved it. Although many years have passed since the war, we cannot forget that history. At the same time, we must cherish the current peace more and avoid the war from letting similar tragedies happen again.
