Soviet perfidy
Sir: Apropos the commonly held view that the dropping of A-bombs saved millions of American and Japanese lives ('Let's call it slap-a-Jap week', 5 August), allow me to say the following. My father, Setsuzo Sawada, formerly ambassador to Brazil, served the Suzuki (so-called war terminat- ing) cabinet in April 1945, as a member of the board of cabinet advisers representing the foreign ministry. He told me in the Seventies that it was not the dropping of the 'mega-bomb' on Hiroshima, but the virtual declaration of war by the Soviet government on 8 August and the entry the following day of the Soviets into the Asian war theatre (in defiance of the neutrality pact that had existed between the two countries) which induced the Suzuki cabi- net to accept the Potsdam Declaration and surrender. It is interesting to note that although the atrocities committed by the Japanese military are now remembered, even the Japanese media rarely remember the Soviets' perfidious act of that day in August and the subsequent illegal deten- tion and atrocious treatment by the Sovi- ets of almost 600,000 Japanese soldiers and civilians. Certain parts of the past seem to be politically correct and worth remembering, other parts not.
PA. Sawada
Professor of Modern History, Nihon University, Salcurajosui, Setagayaku, Tokyo, Japan
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