6 days ago
Newly declassified Russian records reveal more Japanese murders of Koreans in 1945
Newly declassified Russian government documents have revealed a new series of Japanese killings of Koreans in multiple locations in southern Sakhalin Island from Aug. 15 to early September 1945, the Mainichi Shimbun has learned from two Sakhalin-based researchers who obtained the materials.
The newly reported murders expand the known scope of the atrocities on what was at the time Japanese-controlled Karafuto.
The Soviet Union unilaterally broke the Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact and entered World War II against Japan on Aug. 9, 1945. Soviet forces invaded southern Sakhalin on Aug. 11, sparking about two weeks of ground fighting. The newly released records show that, amid the chaos and fear, rumors spread and Japanese residents accused Koreans of being Soviet spies, leading to a series of violent incidents.
Previously, two major cases were known from Soviet investigative records: the Kamishisuka incident, in which 18 people were killed at a police station on Aug. 17, 1945, and the Mizuho incident, in which 27 villagers were killed between around Aug. 20 and 25. The new documents reveal that similar killings occurred both before and after these dates, including in early September, after the Aug. 25 end of fighting between Japanese and Soviet forces.
Yulia Din of the Sakhalin Regional Museum said she filed an information request with the Russian government in 2019 and obtained investigative records, including witness statements, in 2021.
Elena Savelyeva of the Sakhalin museum's "Pobeda" memorial complex published a paper in 2024 based on these materials. According to her research, on Aug. 15, 1945, in Ushiro (now Orlovo) in the northwest part of southern Sakhalin, a Korean man was accused of signaling to Soviet aircraft during an air raid and was shot dead by eight Japanese soldiers. His body was then bayoneted by 27 Japanese under the pretext of combat training.
In what was then Chirikoro (now Nerpichye) in the northeast, a Korean man who belonged to a volunteer corps alongside Japanese was suspected of collaborating with the Soviets after requesting the same weapons as his Japanese comrades and shot dead on Aug. 15. In early September, another Korean man was shot dead on suspicion of planning to reveal hidden weapons caches to the Soviets.
Soviet authorities investigated these incidents, as they did with the Kamishisuka and Mizuho cases, questioning Japanese involved and searching for victims' bodies.
Din noted that some of these incidents had only come to light nearly 80 years after the war, adding that Koreans were supposed to be partners living alongside Japanese, but wartime conditions led to civilians killing civilians.
Koichi Inoue, professor emeritus of anthropology at Hokkaido University and an expert on the Mizuho incident, noted, "These investigative records were compiled from the Soviet government's perspective and may lack the Japanese or Korean viewpoint. If the Soviet invasion had not occurred, these incidents likely would not have happened." He added, "As the Soviet Army advanced southward and ground battles loomed, Japanese militarism erupted, and the turmoil likely turned toward Koreans, who had been colonized and ruled by Japan, drawing in even local farmers."
