The author of the article is H.E. Nikolay Kudashev, the Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the Republic of Singapore.
On September 3, our country celebrates the day of military glory of Russia, “The Day of Victory over Militarist Japan and the End of World War II.” We believe that this name reflects the historical truth and the enduring significance of the great feat of the Soviet people, soldiers and officers in defending our Motherland and the peoples of Asia from the Japanese military. The crushing defeat of the enemy in Manchuria, Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands in August-September 1945 made a decisive contribution to the defeat and surrender of Japan (and liberation of Singapore as well), thereby putting an end to the bloodshed begun by Hitler Germany and its allies and opening the way to the restoration of long-awaited peace on the planet.
On September 2, 1945, on board of the US battleship Missouri, Japanese Foreign Minister M. Shigemitsu and Chief of the Japanese General Staff Y. Umezu signed an act of unconditional surrender in the presence of representatives of the Allied powers. The victorious conclusion of the war with Japan marked the end of World War II. In Soviet Union is accordance with the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, September 3 (next day) was declared a holiday.
The memory of those events, that left deep and non-healing scars in history of many nations, including Russia and Singapore, is more relevant today than ever. The processes that are taking place on the world stage now clearly demonstrate how quickly some states consign tragic pages and crimes in their own history to oblivion, especially if the “inconvenient” facts of the past contradict the political endeavours in the present.
We see that under the Kishida administration Japan is again, like 90 years ago, embarking on the path of revanchism and Russophobia, and is carrying out accelerated remilitarization, including the formation of an offensive potential. In the 1930s antiwar activists inside and outside the country repeatedly warned about the danger of the militaristic frenzy that gripped Tokyo. But these sensible voices were not heard, and the war ended in a national disaster for Japan. We hope that the Japanese people will have enough wisdom to convince politicians not to repeat the fatal mistakes of their predecessors and to abandon dangerous plans that threaten to destabilize the geopolitical situation in the Asia-Pacific region and the world as a whole.
But Japan is not acting only on its own. There are other forces behind it, that, refusing to admit the responsibility for the first and the only use of nuclear weapons in the warfare, tries to arm its former enemy against independent sovereign countries like Russia and China, draw divisive lines in Asia and the Pacific through establishing minilateral alliances, endangering existing ASEAN-centric security architecture. All this is only to secure their elusive world domination at the cost of lives and livelihoods of the people of Asia. The same way as it was done in Europe, where Europeans and Ukrainians pay high (and sometimes, ultimate) price for the US ambitions to limitlessly enlarge NATO with the ignorance to security concerns of others and using Russophobic regimes for these purposes.
This day also reminds us about Japanese experiments with dangerous pathogens, that took place in Singapore under their rule. But even today Singapore cannot be considered free from this evil. As we learn from evidence acquired during the special military operation, US military biological activities in Ukraine are clear violations of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction (Biological Weapons Convention or BWC). Therefore, it is necessary to remain vigilant with regard to the suspicious activities of this kind that are highly likely expected to be conducted by other US laboratories, including Naval Medical Research Center-Asia (NMRC-A) in Singapore and its branches in Cambodia and Thailand.
That’s how neocolonial approach is making way in many parts of the world. Like-minded countries should join their hands in building democratic international order, based on mutual respect and balances of interests. The vivid example is recent significant enlargement of BRICS on its XV summit in Johannesburg at and growing interest in the world to this format of relations between states in general. In Asia and the Pacific ASEAN can play a still greater role in securing peace, stability and prosperity. Today it’s time for Asian wisdom to prevail over the ambitions of irresponsible superpower in futile attempts to ensure its world hegemony by neocolonial means.