The Japanese government has pushed back against the erection of a Russian monument commemorating victory over Japan, which depicts the destruction of a stone marker engraved with the chrysanthemum crest symbolizing the Japanese imperial family.
According to local media reports on September 6, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi posted on social media the previous day, protesting the unveiling ceremony of the statue commemorating victory over Japan held in Khabarovsk, Russia.
The statue depicts a Soviet soldier smashing with the butt of his rifle a stone marker inscribed with the words “Great Japanese Empire Boundary” and the chrysanthemum crest. It was modeled after the stone marker that Japan erected on the border with Russia when it occupied southern Sakhalin Island after the Russo-Japanese War, and Russia regards the chrysanthemum pattern as a symbol of Japanese militarism, according to an explanation by the Mainichi Shimbun.
Prime Minister Takaichi protested, saying, “The chrysanthemum crest is widely recognized as the emblem symbolizing Japan,” and “The installation of a monument depicting its destruction is absolutely unacceptable.” She added, “This is an issue related to the national sentiments of the Japanese people, and the government has strongly demanded that the Russian side halt the installation and remove it,” and “We will continue to strongly urge its removal.”
Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi also stated, “From the perspective of the sentiments of the Japanese people, it is unacceptable and extremely regrettable. We have strongly demanded that Russia halt the installation and remove it.”
However, Russia rejected Japan’s demand for removal. Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova said of Japan’s demand for the removal of the monument commemorating victory over Japan that day, “All that remains is to demand that the wind stop blowing and the sun stop shining,” and “Our history is based on facts, and our memory is preserved in monuments.”
She also fiercely criticized Japan for neglecting history, calling it a “disease.”
Earlier, tensions between the two countries have been rising, with Japan strongly protesting President Vladimir Putin’s visit to the Kuril Islands on August 13. On August 20, the Russian Pacific Fleet conducted missile firing drills near the southern Kuril Islands.
President Putin, attending the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit on September 2, said, “the deterioration in relations between Tokyo and Moscow is ‘entirely Japan’s fault,’ and the Japanese government immediately pushed back, saying it “cannot accept” this. Russia also warned that it would take countermeasures against Japan’s joint exercises with US and Australian forces in northern Hokkaido and elsewhere.
Japan and Russia have been unable to conclude a formal peace treaty since the end of World War 2 due to the territorial dispute over four islands of the Kuril chain.
