Few people today remember that since Poland regained independence in 1918, Poland has declared war on only one country. Conflicts with Soviet Russia and the Third Reich were not formally launched by either side. De jure Rzeczpospolita only challenged Japan in 1941. It's just that the Japanese simply did not accept the declaration of war.
Before the war, in the 1930s, Poland established quite specific relations with Japan. Representatives of the imperial family unofficially visited the country on the Vistula River, bilateral trade agreements were signed, but both interviews collaborated most intensively. Both Polish and Japanese information services gave priority to obtaining data on the USSR. Why then should they not act together, since their interests were convergent and the two countries were far enough apart so as not to parade each other? In a word, we got on well with the Japanese until 1939, when the war broke out and Poland disappeared from the map of Europe again.
The war is getting seriously global
Two years later, on December 7, 1941, the Imperial Navy attacked the US Navy base at Pearl Harbor. Only after this event did the Second World War become literally "world" - the conflict broke out in the Pacific, Germany declared war on the United States, and the United States joined the fight on all fronts. Pearl Harbor also sent a signal to the European Allies.
Great Britain immediately decided to declare war on Japan, and so did the British dominions, as well as the allied governments in exile:Poland, Belgium, the Netherlands, and the French Committee of National Liberation. In addition, diplomatic relations with the Land of the Rising Sun and its allies were severed by Venezuela, Colombia, Egypt, Mexico and Greece.
Hideki Tōjō. It was he who did not want a war with Poland.
Well… horror! In Tokyo, they must have shuddered at the news that military powers such as the Free French or the Belgian government in exile had declared war on Japan. But the strangest of all this was anyway ... refusal to accept the war declared by the Polish Government in Exile . The then Prime Minister of Japan - Hideki Tōjō - commented on this fact as follows: We do not accept the challenges of the Poles. Poles, fighting for their freedom, declared war on us under pressure from Great Britain.
So we have two phenomena at once. Not only that Poland declared the only war in the entire century , this war has not been accepted yet, which is hardly the case in international relations.
So we finally fight or are we friends?
Besides, many Poles were strongly against the government's decisions. This group included, for example, Minister Józef Beck, interned in Romania, who said: Poland declared war on Japan, which - as you can see from the perspective of time - had neither much justification nor, above all, political sense. What can a declaration of war on Japan do for Poland.
An ordinary Polish sailor on the ORP "Dragon" spoke of the situation in a similar vein. The sea wolf is Wincenty Cygan, author of "The Navy Blue Crew". In the pages of the book he mentions:
Our government, declaring war [...] also declared it against Japan. But it should be over there. Then it would be enough to follow the example of British policy, which has not done anything against Russia flooding our country so far. Since Russia is not a direct threat to Britain, the British did not consider her an enemy.
What did Poles need the war with Japan for? (photo:Światowid 1935)
So in what sense could Japan threaten us? At a time when masses of Poles, refugees from "friendly" Russia, found an shelter, care and free bread with "hostile" Japan, our government declared war on this side.
As you can see, the Japanese showed great understanding. Gypsy also writes that "Dragon" was to be transferred to Ceylon and from there, as part of the tenth cruiser squadron, conduct operations against Japan, which Polish sailors did not like very much. To their satisfaction, the allocation was finally changed.
A long and bloody conflict
Lest it were, the matter did not end there! The war between Poland and Japan lasted formally until ... 1957, when the Treaty on the restoration of normal relations between the Polish People's Republic and Japan was signed. The first point of this document states that the state of war between the Polish People's Republic and Japan ceases with the entry into force of the Treaty.
I must admit that it was a very long and extremely bloody war - Polish and Japanese troops fought to the death ... zero times . Fortunately, the Polish government came to its senses and decided that it would be better if the war with Japan was only left on paper. Anyway, during this "conflict", the intelligence services of both countries continued to cooperate in collecting data about the USSR and Germany, and Polish agents traveled the world thanks to diplomatic passports of Manchukuo (controlled by those "hostile" Japanese at the time).
Sources:
- Sergeĭ Vladimirovich Bakhrushin, History of diplomacy , vol. IV, Warsaw 1981.
- Wincenty Cygan, Granatowa Załoga, Gdańsk 2011.
- Włodzimierz T. Kowalski, Tragedy in Gibraltar , Bydgoszcz 1989.