From International Press Correspondence, Vol. 2 No. 45, 7 June 1922, pp. 339.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive
To the Workers and Peasants of the World!
Comrades! Against the will and wishes of the workers and the peasants of Japan the Japanese government has sent a large army to Siberia to fight against the Red Army and to devastate the workers and peasants’ country. We, the revolutionary proletarians in Japan, are yet too weak and powerless against the aggressive and oppressive militarist government to stop this most inhuman and bloody slaughter by the Japanese imperialist army in Siberia. The Japanese army has been losing the people’s confidence ever since the fall of German militarism and the unjust Siberian invasion that has been undertaken by the militarist clique. The people have realized that such an invasion into a neighboring country without any cause or reason is a great detriment to Japan. This confidence in the army which they once had in the past has been almost destroyed in the Japanese masses by the worldwide anti-Japanese movement, when the masses of Japanese people realized that the increasing unpopularity and ever spreading anti-Japanese movement has been solely caused by the Japanese imperialist army, and its bloody and inhuman deeds in Siberia, China and Korea. The Japanese workers and peasants came out in opposition to Japan’s Siberian intervention. When Japan was sending the first Siberian invading army commanded by General Otani, who was to be the sole commander of all the Allied intervention armies in Siberia the Japanese workers and peasants showed – although in a vague manner – their unwillingness to support the foreign war by the now historic food riots, the greatest uprisings in Japan, covering two-thirds, of the entire area of the country centred in 142 cities and towns. These great uprisings started in a fishing village of Northern Japan on August 3rd, 1918, lasted 45 days and spread like wildfire all over the country in a few weeks. It is estimated that the numbers involved in the food riots were over ten million and that ninety percent of them were proletarians. This event with others prevented the governments from sending an army of one million soldiers to Siberia. Nonetheless, they sent seventy thousand instead of the seven thousand agreed upon among the robber capitalist Allies.
The Government has been deceiving the workers and peasants through the period of four long years. First it said, “To aid the Czecho-Slovaks.” The Japanese army has been constantly disturbing peace and order, but in order to obtain an apparent reason for retaining the army they invented a pretext, “In order to protect the lives and properties of the Japanese citizens in Siberia.” But there are hardly any Japanese who are not connected with the invading army such as merchants who conduct parasitic business with the army and soldiers. Then the army plotted a black scheme, a Sarajevo on a most gigantic scale at Nikolaievsk. It succeeded in the scheme and now the Japanese Government is demanding a big indemnity for the framed-up so-called Nikolaievsk massacre in order to get some concessions to satisfy its greedy imperialistic ambitions and designs in Siberia. Now by circumstantial force and pressure from outside and from the people at home it has started peace negotiations with the Far Eastern Republic at Dalny, but in order to keep the army in Siberia the most outrageous, audacious and impossible proposals have been laid on the table by the Japanese government.
As the result of the Genoa Conference the Allies agreed not to attack each other until the Hague Conference shall report on the economic situation. To this every Allied country but Japan agreed. The reason given by the Japanese representative Ishii reveals the most outspoken imperialistic designs of Japan in Siberia. Ambassador Ishii is the most bigoted, ultra-bureaucratic and militaristic spokesman of Japanese imperialism. He only represents the militarists and big moneyed powers of Japan. The vast majority of the people and the entire proletariat of Japan are opposed to the position assumed by Ishii. But the militarists and the big moneyed class rule the country.
The present attack on the Siberian Red Army is the last, desperate act of the Japanese imperialist army to kill the determined opposition of the people and an attempt to regain the last confidence which the army once had in the past. It is a well-known Napoleonic policy of the army authorities of Japan to turn the attention of the nation from dissatisfied conditions at home to the foreign field, which is least known to the people at large. The imperialist government and its array wish to smokescreen the imperialist designs in Siberia, are executing willful murderous attacks upon the Red Army in Siberia, and are devastating the already impoverished country of the workers and peasants for framed-up reasons that are reported to the public through the prostituted press of the country.
Proletarians of the world! This most outrageous invasion of the Japanese imperialists in Siberia can only be stopped by your concerted action at this critical moment. We, the Communist Party members and the revolutionary workers and peasants, are powerless before this powerful imperialist oppression although we are fighting against the imperialists at every possible step. We ask you to make the most determined propaganda against the Japanese Government’s conduct in Siberia. It is only the proletariat of the world that can stop the murderous war of the robber imperialists of Japan. As you know, the capitalist nations of the world have established their united front against the workers and peasants of the world, especially in the Far East – the united front of the joint exploitation of Allied capitalism, particularly in China. For this, Japanese imperialism, surrendering its special position in China, obtained a free hand in Korea, Manchuria and Siberia at the Washington Conference. And now Japanese imperialists are seizing what they got at the Washington Conference. What Japan reluctantly agreed to at Genoa as to the non-attack clause under the pressure of public opinion and the severe criticism of the Russian delegation will hardly stop the fighting against Siberians unless the proletariat of the world compels Japan to do so by extraordinary means of action and propaganda. Under such extraordinary and exceptional circumstances, and considering the critical situation in Russia, we, the advance guards of the Communist Party of Japan and the revolutionary workers, heartily approve and endorse the resolution adopted by six million workers of Great Britain – TO BOYCOTT THINGS JAPANESE AS LONG AS JAPAN KEEPS HER ARMY IN SIBERIA. We sincerely desire this shall be made an immediate aim of world wide propaganda and immediate action among the workers and peasants of England. France and America, where Japanese export trade has vital interests together with the Chinese and Indian proletariat We know full well that by this boycott the Japanese proletariat will suffer much but we will suffer for the Japanese proletariat because this will hit a hard blow at the Japanese imperialism while it will strengthen immensely the international position of the Japanese proletariat. By weakening, as the result of the boycott, Japanese imperialism, the Japanese proletariat will learn and experience the most valuable lesson on the united front of the workers of the world and will more readily combat against imperialism and militarism!
Proletarians of the world! We want you to act at once for the most vigorous propaganda against the Japanese attack on the Russian workers and peasants in Siberia. No doubt European and American imperialism and capitalism wish to weaken the Soviet position in Siberia and let Soviet Russia desperately pay sole attention to the Far East in order to tame her stiff-necked diplomacy and possibly to get a chance to let the Russian border countries attack the Soviet Republic! To this worldwide imperialist united front against Workers’ and Peasants’ Russia, the Second and Two and a Half Internationals are giving their support. Now the traitorous two Internationals openly come out to sabotage the World Labor Congress to establish the united front of the workers of the world against the capitalist offensive against the proletariat of Russia and other countries.
Proletarians of the world! Thus you see the present aggressive and brutal attacks on the Russian proletariat in Siberia are a part and parcel of the capitalist offensive against Soviet Russia and will injure the interests not only of the Russian proletariat but also of the proletariat of the world! The class-conscious Japanese workers and peasants are fighting against this most powerful imperialism by strikes, sabotage, riots and determined revolutionary demonstrations, are demanding the recognition of the Soviet Russian Government and the dictatorship of the proletariat of Japan for the Japanese as these were the conspicuous slogans of May Day this year.
Comrades of the world! It is the most urgent situation that we all are placed in now. Once more we ask you to help us in this momentous fight against the imperialism of Japan and also of the Allied Powers and to help the Soviet Russian Workers’ and Peasants’ Republic. We want your immediate cooperation and action against Japanese imperialism that is now attacking the helpless, worn out poor Siberians in the Far East!
The Executive Committee of the Communist Party of Japan
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Moscow, May 1922 |
Sen Katayama |
Last updated on 2 December 2020