From International Press Correspondence, Vol. 2 No. 45, 7 June 1922, pp. 335–336.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive
Soldiers of Japan!
You have been in Siberia for the past four long years. Many of you, moreover, sacrificed happiness and comfort; nay more, many of your brother soldiers have been killed on the Siberian battlefields, and yet you are still engaged in the bloody fight with the Russian army. Why all these sacrifices and deaths? Have you ever thought of yourselves in this murderer’s business? No! You are simply obeying the Army Command, and what is more, you are doing the brutal work of the militarist class of Japan. If you had thought of this you would not now be where you are!
Soldiers! You are committing the gravest mistake by blindly obeying the orders of the army leaders. Don’t you know that you are fighting against the Russian Red soldiers who are defending the only Workers’ and Peasants’ Government, the Soviet Republic? You are sons of the Japanese workers and peasants just as the Russian Red soldiers. But by your present conduct you are fighting for the capitalist government and the capitalist interests of Japan. The government and the capitalists of Japan have been oppressing and exploiting you at home for their own self-interest. Don’t you know that the Russian Red Soldiers are defending their government and their own country? The Russian workers and peasants have destroyed the capitalist government and done away with the capitalist class!
In your blind obedience to Japanese militarism you have been attempting for nearly four years to destroy the Soviet Republic of the workers and peasants who have done away with the oppressive Czar and his capitalist government.
Why have you been all these long years in Siberia? In order to strengthen the government and the capitalists of Japan who are oppressing you and will oppress you as long as you are willing to fight and sacrifice yourselves for them! Don’t think for a moment that you are serving your country’s best interests by staying in Siberia, which is not your country but belongs to the Russian workers and peasants! On the contrary, you are damaging the cause and interests of your own country, Japan. The Russians are not your enemies. Japan never declared war against Russia. The Russian workers are your friends, if only you could understand and follow the example of the Russian workers and peasants! Morally, you are committing the most outrageous crime against the Russians and against humanity! Are you not ashamed of yourselves now? Quit like men, lay down your arms and go home! That will serve the best interests of Japan.
Soldiers! The Russian Red soldiers are fighting not only for their own revolution but for the World Social Revolution. They are serving the cause of the workers and peasants, they are trying to reconstruct their national economy in spite of famine and the countless difficulties that confront them owing to the long foreign and civil wars. Soldiers of Japan! You should admire the heroic struggle of the Russian workers and peasants and should help them in every way instead of attacking them in the most trying and critical moment of their new national lies!
Soldiers! You are being misled and are ruining your lives and happiness in an unjust foreign invasion. You are fighting a most disgraceful and inhuman war. Yours is the robbers’ fight to steal another’s country! Your death is a dog’s death. No one will be benefited thereby; but Japan will be disgraced, her future will be rendered difficult and the establishment of friendly relations with your neighbors, the Russian workers and peasants, is being impeded. Lay down your arms, pack up your belongings go back to your country and improve conditions back home! That is the best policy for you and your country. It will help you as well as the Russian workers and peasants. If your officers hinder you, disarm them and do as the Russian soldiers did four years ago! This is the message of a man who lovea Japan and the Japanese proletariat, who was raised as a peasant boy, who farmed, burnt charcoal, carried burdens for a living and has been a labor leader, Socialist agitator and Communist organizer for the past fifty years. Support the Russian Workers’ and Peasants’ Republic by quitting Siberia at once! This is the best thing you can now do!
Moscow, May 12th, 1922
Last updated on 27 December 2019