Kremlin Rejects Japan Request Over Khabarovsk WWII Monument

Russia has rejected Japan’s request to remove or alter a new World War II memorial in Khabarovsk commemorating the Soviet victory over Japan in 1945. The roughly 50-foot monument depicts a Soviet soldier shattering a boundary marker bearing Japan’s 16-petal chrysanthemum crest, which Tokyo says is a widely recognized national symbol and that its destruction is unacceptable. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed Japan’s objections, accusing Tokyo of selective historical memory and saying Russia has not forgotten Japanese militarism or the Soviet victory. Russian officials also cited Japan’s failure to undergo a process comparable to Germany’s postwar denazification and Japanese leaders’ visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, where convicted war criminals are honored. The dispute adds to longstanding tensions over how Russia and Japan remember their wartime history and territorial conflicts in the Far East.