The forgotten story of Japanese communists in the Soviet Union

On 26 February 2025, I published an article on my blog titled “Stalin'in yabancı komünistlere yönelik katliamı”, in which I discussed the severe repression, purges, and massacres faced by foreign communists living in the Soviet Union during Stalin’s rule. On 28 February 2025, I also published an English translation of the article under the same title; “Stalin's massacre of foreign communists”. On 1 March 2025, my friend Mac Urata, who lives in Japan and had read the article, sent me a WhatsApp message. He pointed out that many Japanese communists were also affected by Stalin’s purges and drew my attention to a Japanese website on the subject (http://netizen.html.xdomain.jp/Moscow.html).

When I started reading the website Mac sent me, using its English translation via Google Translate, I realised that it contained extensive information on the repression suffered by Japanese communists living in the Soviet Union during the 1930s and 1940s. After doing some research, I discovered that the historian behind the website, Tetsuro Kato, published an article titled "The Japanese Victims of Stalinist Terror in the USSR" in the Hitotsubashi Journal of Social Studies in 2000. [*]

A Stalin banner produced by the Fukuoka District Committee of the Communist Party of Japan (1950)

In his article, Kato points out that information about the Japanese victims of Stalinist terror only came to light in 1991, following the disintegration and collapse of the Soviet Union. The primary accusation levelled against these individuals was that they were "agents of Japanese imperialism". Of course, accusations of "sabotage" and "engagement in Trotskyist activities" were also among the fabricated charges brought against them.

Although it is not possible to determine an exact figure, at least for now, the available information suggests that around 100 Japanese people lived in the Soviet Union during the 1920s and 1930s. The vast majority of them were communists who had suffered severe repression at the hands of Japan’s imperial police. Among them were also a small number of non-communist workers, intellectuals, and artists.

Although the work of Kato, along with other journalists and scholars, has shed considerable light on the situation over the years, the exact number of victims remains unknown. However, it is estimated that around 80 Japanese lost their lives during the bloody Stalinist purges. This 80 per cent rate is consistent with Nathan Steinberger’s estimates for Germans and Austrians who were killed as a result of Stalinist purges:

Between 1933 and 1936 around 6,000 people, including family members, came from Germany and Austria to the Soviet Union. It can be said with absolute certainty that 80 percent of them died. [**]

After reading Kato’s website and article, following Mac’s suggestion, I (once again) realised that relying solely on Western sources to understand the repression and purges of foreign communists in the Soviet Union during Stalin’s era is inadequate. Based on what I have read so far, I can say that the tragedy experienced by Japanese communists during the Stalinist purges has been largely overlooked in Western-centric historiography. Moreover, this led me to reflect on how the oppression faced by not only Japanese communists but also other Asian and African communists in the Soviet Union have similarly been ignored.

[*] Tetsuro Kato, "The Japanese Victims of Stalinist Terror in the USSR", Hitotsubashi Journal of Social Studies #32, Temmuz 2000.

[**] An interview with Nathan Steinberger (1997)