Japanese WWII crimes revisited: Soviet files detail mass beheadings in Manchuria

Newly released archival records shed light on mass killings in Hailar carried out on the first day of the Soviet offensive in the Far East On August 9, 1945, a notorious Japanese army unit executed dozens of civilian prisoners in the city of Hailar, on the day the Soviet Union launched an offensive against the Imperial Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo.To mark Victory over Japan Day (V-J Day), the Russian authorities published historical documents for the first time detailing the killings. The files were compiled by the Soviet military counterintelligence service (SMERSH), which investigated the crimes and brought some of those responsible to justice.Hailar, then a city of around 40,000 people, now part of China’s Inner Mongolia region, saw some of the fiercest fighting of the Soviet-Japanese conflict, which began on August 9, 1945. A major Japanese fortified complex in the area, built with forced Chinese labor during the occupation, has since become part of a memorial park.The crimes described in the documents released by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) took place elsewhere, at a secret police prison where the Japanese authorities held local residents suspected of harbori...