August 24, 2025

A memorial service for the former Japanese prisoner-of-war internees who had died in Siberia and Mongolia after WWII took place in Tokyo’s Chidorigafuchi National Cemetery on August 23, the day marking 80 years since Stalin, commander in chief of the former Soviet Union, issued a secret order to transfer Japanese POWs to Siberia.

This event is annually hosted by the privately operated “Support and Documentation Center for the ex-POWs and Internees by Soviet Russia after WWII, Japan”.

Along with representatives from ruling and opposition parties, Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Koike Akira spoke as a guest. He stressed that Stalin’s order violated international law and constituted an inhumane state-sponsored crime.

Koike referred to a special measures law for postwar forced internees, aka the “Siberia Special Measures Law,” which was enacted in 2010. He pointed out that the law excludes Koreans and Taiwanese who were forcibly mobilized by Japan as military personnel from the payment of special benefits and that no progress has been made in state projects, such as the collection of the remains of POWs who died in Siberia or Mongolia, under Article 13 of the law. He said that as the law was enacted unanimously, not only politicians, but also the government have the responsibility to properly implement the law.