There was a time the issues of Japanese orphans left in China were discussed widely. They were also the victims of the unlawful action of Soviet. The abduction by North Korea in recent years is by no doubt unlawful. However, if you think about it, the Japanese internment in Soviet was a large scale abduction. Why was it not discussed as an international problem? It is very puzzling for me. Why did it not happen? We need to clarify the reason.
For example, there was practically no description about the Japanese interned in Soviet in the Japanese school textbooks after the war. Even if there was, the content was not enough.
During the fifties in Showa era (about 1975), campaigns for repatriation for the Siberian internment spread all of Japan, and each political party, including liberal democratic party organized the alliance of Congressmen. At that time, I asked the ministry of education to gather mainly high school textbooks of sociology.
The result was that most of the textbooks had no statement in regards to any facts of Japanese internment in Soviet. If there was any description, it was simply mentioned in only two or three lines, stating approximately 600,000 Japanese military men who were in old Manchuria and in North Korea were taken to Soviet as hostages. .
I wrote to the department in charge in Educational ministry and made a request to guide to add more description of the Japanese interned in Siberia at the time of screening of the textbooks. However, there reply was so short. They said they only had a function to correct any errors, and what should be written was not what ministry of education was supposed to decide.
I could not agree with their answer at all. They actually gave directions to add the national flag and the national anthem. They were clearly using their explanations for their benefits.
Back then, there was a rumor that scholars in Communist party was writing the textbook and teachers in Socialist party was teaching it. I have no way to prove it, but I am wondering if there was any atmosphere among the inspectors not to allow any factor of condemnation of Soviet.
There are more recent textbooks that have the statement about the Soviet internment, but the way it is written is very clerical. There is no statement that clarifies the unlawful action by Soviet. It is really regretful.