The Secret Cold War History of Japan and Germany: Historical Truths Revealed by East German Classified Documents

The world has changed completely. Russia and China advocate hegemonism, while the United States disrupts the international order. Liberal democracy is on the defensive.

Has Japan truly been at peace throughout the post-war era? Was the Cold War period really tranquil? Or is it simply that we do not know the truth?

I have long focused on East Germany, which played a core role in the Communist bloc. I believed that by understanding the policies toward Japan of East Germany—a Soviet satellite state—one could understand the movements of the entire Communist sphere in the Far East.

Furthermore, Japan-Germany relations during the Cold War have focused almost exclusively on West Germany, leaving the points of contact with East Germany—the "honor student of Eastern Europe"—unexplained. Something didn't sit right with me. I suspected there was a major secret.

I decided to uncover this historical void through a thorough investigation. It is painstaking work that requires digging up facts and filling in the pieces of history. Yet, I felt that if I did not take this on, the truth might remain hidden forever and disappear. Having traveled back and forth between Japan and Germany since childhood, I felt a lifelong responsibility to confront this.

While the US and USSR bear great responsibility for the division of Korea, Japan's responsibility is also not small. Against the backdrop of this division, the Park Chung-hee administration chose Zainichi Korean students as sacrifices to prolong its regime.

It is my nature to pursue things to the very end once I start. Alongside my main job as a reporter for the Nikkei, I enrolled in the Center for Politics at the Free University of Berlin. I obtained classified documents created by East Germany's dictatorial party and secret police through disclosure requests and other means, reading through 800,000 pages over more than 10 years. I tracked down contact information for East German party officials and conducted hundreds of interviews.

Combining the testimony of East German leaders who finally spoke out with documents that were once classified, a startling reality emerged. East Germany worked with the Soviet Union to expand networks within Japanese political and business circles, spreading propaganda and disinformation. They were also involved in state-sponsored industrial espionage.

Many politicians and business leaders representing post-war Japan appear in the documents as "collaborators." This means they were assisting the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact behind the scenes. Japan prioritized immediate economic interests, creating holes in the Western security system.

Even today, authoritarian states spread disinformation around the world, interfere in elections, and seek smuggling routes to evade economic sanctions. What should the retreating democratic camp do? Lessons from the past teach us that we must confront them resolutely. We cannot allow history to be buried in darkness.

『The Secret Cold War History of Japan and Germany: Historical Truths Revealed by East German Classified Documents』

Shogo Akagawa

Keio University Press

452 pages, 3,520 yen (tax included)