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Vladimir Putin sent greetings to the participants and guests of the International Research and Practice Forum, The Khabarovsk War Crime Trials: Historic Significance and Contemporary Challenges, which is taking place in Khabarovsk on September 6–7.
The message reads, in part:
“That trial of Japanese war criminals held in 1949, passed a legal, moral and ethical judgment on those who unleashed World War II and were guilty of terrible crimes against humanity – just as the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials did. That tribunal was an expression of our country’s principled position on that gross violation of international law, including the ban on the use of chemical and biological weapons. The Khabarovsk trial became the first major step towards the prohibition of such weapons of mass destruction, in fact, the forerunner of the 1972 UN Convention.
Therefore, your high-profile meeting has a special meaning for research and certainly, for practice. The discussion of the events of those years is based on facts and archival material. Such an honest and responsible position is very important for the preservation of historical memory, so as to effectively counter any attempts to distort the WWII events and to prevent their recurrence.
I hope that this Forum will make a significant contribution to a deeper understanding of the historical legacy of the Khabarovsk trials and their significance for the present, and your conclusions will greatly benefit further research work.”
The Khabarovsk War Crime Trials were hearings concerning former members of the Japanese Kwantung Army, held between December 25 and 30, 1949, and an expression of the Soviet Union’s principled position regarding the development and use of bacteriological weapons by militarist Japan.
September 6, 2021