Soviet soldiers barged into Hirotoshi Kawata’s home on 4 Sept 1945, searching for hidden Japanese soldiers and valuables. Kawata, then 11, remembers understanding only two words they said: tokei, or wristwatch; and sake, which they went on to loot from the home.
It was the beginning of the Soviet takeover of a resource-rich chain of islands in northern Japan, to the terror of families who had thought that the worst of the war was over after Japan’s surrender. Japanese citizens were soon forbidden from working or moving freely, and women and children were detained for forced labour.
