Japanese-Soviet Neutrality Pact

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Japanese Foreign Minister Matsuoka signs the contract

The Japanese-Soviet neutrality pact ( Japanese 日 ソ 中立 条約 nisso chūritsu jōyaku ; Russian Пакт о нейтралитете между СССР и Японией ) was a peace and friendship treaty during the Second World War . It was closed on April 13, 1941 between the Japanese Empire and the Soviet Union . The treaty was preceded by an armistice agreement on September 16, 1939, which put an end to the Japanese-Soviet border conflict between Manchukuo and the Mongolian People's Republic that had been going on since 1932 . The German Reich, allied with Japan, had also agreed a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union as early as 1939 .

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The treaty stipulated mutual inviolability and neutrality towards the other state in the event that one were to be attacked by a third country. The period of validity was set at five years. Both parties undertook to maintain peaceful and friendly relations between them and to respect one another's territorial integrity and inviolability. In addition, the Soviet Union promised to respect the territorial integrity and inviolability of Manchukuo, while Japan did the same for the Mongolian People's Republic. The Soviet Union had de facto recognized Manchukuo as early as 1935 by selling the East China Railroad .

Perception

One of the purposes of the pact was to keep the Soviet Union's back free in the event of a possible German attack. On the other hand, Japan did not want to get involved in a German-Soviet conflict that was expected by Japan.

Despite the conclusion of the Japanese-Soviet neutrality pact, it was initially not clear to the Soviet Union whether the treaty would also be complied with by Japan. Only the well-known radio message from Richard Sorge , an agent and correspondent for the Frankfurter Zeitung in Japan, to Moscow in mid-August 1941 gave certainty. He announced that the Japanese Privy Council had decided to finally end the fight against the Soviet Union from Manchukuo. Japan would be more willing to accept a war against the USA and the United Kingdom than to forego the raw material deposits of southern Indochina . This information, which was historically decisive for the war, gave the Soviet high command the strategic opportunity to move larger reserves in the form of Siberian troops from the Far East to the west.

It should be added that both parties had previously been pressured by their respective allies to break the treaty. This is how the National Socialist German Reich under Adolf Hitler would have liked to see Japan open a second front in the east after the three-power pact , while the United States of America, with President Roosevelt , urged the Soviet Union to support Japan after the Second World War .

Breach of contract by the Soviet Union

In a secret agreement at the Yalta Conference in February 1945, the Soviet Union undertook to open war against Japan two to three months after the German surrender. The Soviet declaration of war on Japan took place on August 8, 1945, exactly three months after the end of the war in Europe and two days after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima , at a time when the Japanese government was already preparing armistice talks. Since the Tennō issued the “ Imperial Decree on the End of the War ” on August 14, 1945 , the Red Army was able to occupy Manchukuo , the Kuril Islands and parts of Korea within six days as part of Operation August Storm .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Articel 1, Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact April 13, 1941. , Avalon Project at Yale University, accessed on July 1, 2017th
  2. ↑ Gerald Mund: East Asia in the mirror of German diplomacy: the private-service correspondence of the diplomat Herbert v. Dirksen from 1933 to 1938. Franz Steiner Verlag, 2006. P. 132.
  3. ^ Hermann Weber, Jakov Drabkin, Bernhard H. Bayerlein: Germany, Russia, Comintern - documents (1918-1943). Newly developed sources on the history of the KPD and German-Russian relations. Walter de Gruyter, 2015, p. 1532.
  4. ^ Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact April 13, 1941. Avalon Project at Yale University, accessed July 1, 2017.
  5. ^ Declaration Regarding Mongolia April 13, 1941. Avalon Project at Yale University, accessed July 1, 2017.
  6. ^ Stefan Talmon: Collective non-recognition of illegal states. Mohr Siebeck, 2006, p. 121.
  7. ↑ Gottfried Schramm: Handbook of the history of Russia. From autocratic reforms to the Soviet state. Volumes 1856–1945. Hiersemann-Verlag, 1992, p. 992.
  8. ↑ Hans-Jürgen Schlochauer: Dictionary of international law. Volume 2. Walter de Gruyter, 1961, p. 469.
  9. ↑ Harald Pöcher: Wars and battles in Japan from 1922 to 1945. LIT Verlag Münster, 2012, p. 76.

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