The 12th Free Nations of Post Russia Forum was held in Taipei, Taiwan, during Sep 18-19.What is Free Nations of Post Russia Forum?
The Free Nations of Post Russia Forum began after Russia's aggression against Ukraine in 2022. The first forum convened on May 8-9 of the same year, in Warsaw, Poland. The organizer and the participants aim to separate the Russian Federation into 41 independent nation states. Each one is a victim of Russia and demands decolonization of Russia. Therefore, "Russia's Rupture" is the common will among the participants. #MakeRussiaSmallAgain The participants range from Parliament members to scholars, professors, experts, activists, and so on. The book written by one of the usual speakers, Januz Bugajski, a senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation in Washington DC, titled "Failed State: A Guide to Russia's Rupture" suggests strategies for the US and other Western powers to employ in managing the impact of a Russia in decline. The forum has been held in the European Parliament, Hudson Institute in Washington DC of the US, Japanese National Diet, and many other locations throughout the world. On March 17, 2023, the Russian Prosecutor-General's Office labeled the forum an "undesirable organization" in Russia. I participated in the forum for the first time when it was held in Tokyo in Aug 2023 because a few months prior, in June, a delegation of the Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center (SMHRIC), the beloved friends of my husband and I, visited Tokyo, and they introduced the forum to us, with the ties being Mongolians; Mongolians colonized by China and Mongolians colonized by Russia. *We introduced them to our National Diet members and to Japan Institute for National Fundamentals led by Yoshiko Sakurai, a nationally well-known conservative figure.
After the forum in Tokyo, my husband, Hidetoshi Ishii, President of Free Indo-Pacific Human Rights Information Center, interviewed the main speakers and compiled their perspectives and backgrounds into a book in Japanese. I helped him with the interviews in English. The book includes a 3-way discussion with Professor Yoshihiko Okabe of Kobe Gakuin University, Japan-based Ukranian scholar Andrii Gurenko, and the author, Hidetoshi Ishii.
My video message on Post Russia Forum's YouTube channel before the event:I served as a translator for my husband, Hidetoshi Ishii, President of Free Indo-Pacific Human Rights Information Center. |
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Discussion Panel 3: The defeat of the Russian Federation in Ukraine and the Decolonization of the Russian Federation as a key to the preventive deterrence of aggression and militarism of the People's Republic of China
Moderator:
Arūnas Degutis, Signatory of the Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania, Member of European Parliament 2004-2009 Speakers:
Sergej Sumlenny, European Resilience Initiative Center
Robert E. Kelly, Professor of Political Science, Pusan National University
Andrii Gurenko, Scholor, political commentator
Yoko Ishii, President of Free Tibet Fukuoka
Moderator:
Arūnas Degutis, Signatory of the Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania, Member of European Parliament 2004-2009 Speakers:
Sergej Sumlenny, European Resilience Initiative Center
Robert E. Kelly, Professor of Political Science, Pusan National University
Andrii Gurenko, Scholor, political commentator
Yoko Ishii, President of Free Tibet Fukuoka
My full speech:
Hello everyone.
I’m Yoko Ishii from Japan.
Thank you very much for having me here today.
I’d like to share my Japanese perspective with you.
Let me get started with a brief introduction of myself.
I’m the President of Free Tibet Fukuoka.
What that means is, I’m a freedom fighter. Some people call me a human rights activist as well.
I value freedom, independence, and democracy.
My group’s name is “Free Tibet Fukuoka” because we want to free Tibet and we work with fellow freedom fighters globally.
Tibet, as you probably know, is an independent country that has been colonized by the Chinese Communist Party regime since 1951 just as the Soviet Union did to your nation states, or just as the Russian Federation is colonizing your nation states right now.
In addition to Tibet, I also support other nation states that are colonized by the CCP regime in the same way such as Uyghur which you may know as East Turkestan, Southern Mongolia, and Hong Kong together with Chinese people seeking democracy in China.
Taiwan, where we are today, is also at a critical moment in history.
And I’ve always stood with Taiwanese people with Taiwanese identity.
But why is such a woman like me here today at the Free Nations of Post-Russia Forum?
Aside from the reason being that I’m a freedom fighter, I have mainly 2 other reasons.
China and Russia work together for the same purpose. They are the same to us.
Since Russia began its military aggression against Ukraine, Japan has strived to provide support to Ukraine.
Japan is neither a NATO nor a European country.
But from all the way from East Asia, Japan has provided a lot of our money and aids to Ukraine as much as we can.
Due to the excessive pacifism and longstanding constitutional restrictions, though, we haven’t been able to send weapons, and so on.
But so far, what we have contributed are such as:
As for money, data for the two-year period beginning January 2022 shows that Japan has so far provided approximately 1.7 trillion yen in assistance. This is the sixth largest amount among developed countries, after Norway.
We’re geographically so far away from Ukraine.
And we’re not in a good condition. Japan is dealing with reconstruction itself as natural disasters hit regularly. Many of our people are having financial problems due to our economic situation.
And why does Japan care so much about Ukraine regardless?
Because the victory of the Authoritarian State, Russia, would send a wrong signal to CCP led China.
If Russia wins, it will either show a pattern or set a precedent that if it illegally pushes and pushes and pushes around with military force and invades other countries, it can change the status quo, conquer, and get the territory it wants.
If such a case came to reality, it would become an incentive to China.
We must stand strong to show that no invasion is allowed.
Now, related to that, let me share a phrase that’s very common in Japan.
It is from the commentary which our former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe gave online for the symposium in Taiwan.
And that is, “A Taiwan emergency is a Japanese emergency.”
In his speech, he noted that “the environment that Japan and Taiwan will face in the future will be fraught with tension. The Senkaku Islands and Yonaguni Island are not far from Taiwan. An armed invasion of Taiwan would pose a grave danger to Japan. A Taiwan emergency is a Japanese emergency, and therefore an emergency for the Japan-U.S. alliance,” he said.
What this means is, there would be so many negative consequences without the victory of Ukraine.
Ukraine must win. Russia must lose.
So that China would not invade Taiwan.
Rather, China would realize that they can’t do the same as Russia.
I believe that we need to go even further and dissolve China and Russia.
That’s the outcome we must achieve.
The majority of the problems that we’re facing in the world today would be solved or eased just by that, whether they’re human rights issues, environmental issues, territorial issues, or historical issues.
Nobody thought the Soviet Union would collapse. But it did.
I work with those nation states that are colonized by CCP led China.
And I’m here with all of you, that represent the nation states under Russia’s rule that want to get independent.
China and Russia, especially tied together, are very strong.
However, when external as well as internal pressure is applied at the same time, I believe that WE will have a chance for a bright future.
We’re all in this together.
My country, Japan, is fighting for you.
And when an emergency occurs here, I expect that you fight for us, too.
Make Russia Small Again!
Thanks for your attention.
===
I’m Yoko Ishii from Japan.
Thank you very much for having me here today.
I’d like to share my Japanese perspective with you.
Let me get started with a brief introduction of myself.
I’m the President of Free Tibet Fukuoka.
What that means is, I’m a freedom fighter. Some people call me a human rights activist as well.
I value freedom, independence, and democracy.
My group’s name is “Free Tibet Fukuoka” because we want to free Tibet and we work with fellow freedom fighters globally.
Tibet, as you probably know, is an independent country that has been colonized by the Chinese Communist Party regime since 1951 just as the Soviet Union did to your nation states, or just as the Russian Federation is colonizing your nation states right now.
In addition to Tibet, I also support other nation states that are colonized by the CCP regime in the same way such as Uyghur which you may know as East Turkestan, Southern Mongolia, and Hong Kong together with Chinese people seeking democracy in China.
Taiwan, where we are today, is also at a critical moment in history.
And I’ve always stood with Taiwanese people with Taiwanese identity.
But why is such a woman like me here today at the Free Nations of Post-Russia Forum?
Aside from the reason being that I’m a freedom fighter, I have mainly 2 other reasons.
- CCP-led China is working closely with Russia. How we Japanese view the world today is that it is divided into 2 big sides. China and Russia are on the authoritarian side while people like us are on the Free World side. Enemy’s friend is our enemy.
In fact, as for my country Japan, if you compare the number of activities in the four months before and after February 24, when Russian aggression against Ukraine began, the number of China & Russia’s military actions around Japan increased 2.5 times after the aggression.
China and Russia not only regularly hold joint military and naval exercises, outside of those exercises, their bombers fly together around Japan. Their ships also sail together around Japan.
China and Russia work together for the same purpose. They are the same to us.
- Simply because Russia was and is Japan’s enemy.
Japan fought a war with Russia in 1904 to 1905. We won, but they continued to be our enemy, and towards the end of World War II, the Soviet Union unilaterally broke the Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact, which was still in effect at the time, and they entered the war against Japan. They invaded Manchuria.
The Soviet Union also forcibly sent approximately 600 thousand Japanese to Siberia and interned them which was illegal. However, 55,000 of them are said to have been died.
How about Japanese women? There were Japanese women that were returning to Japan from places including Manchuria, and they were awaited not only by looting of property but also sexual assault by Soviet soldiers.
These women were forced to become pregnant or they got STDs.
As a result, abortions, which were illegal at the time in Japan, were performed as an extrajudicial measure, for example, at the Futsukaichi Recreation Center, that was secretly established in Chikushino City, Fukuoka Prefecture, which is my hometown.
The staff of the Center consisted of two doctors and ten nurses, who are said to have operated on a total of 400 to 500 people.
According to our records and testimonies, it is clear that many of those women were assaulted by Soviet soldiers.
The locals hold an annual ceremony to commemorate the women and unborn babies that lost their lives.
The Soviet Union illegally took away our land as well.
After Japan accepted the Potsdam Declaration, amid the chaos caused by the Soviet Union, they illegally occupied all of the four northern islands which are called the Northern Territories.
Because of the existence of the Northern Territories issue, a peace treaty between Japan and Russia has not yet been concluded.
Despite the fact that more than 70 years have passed since the end of the war, a peace treaty has not yet been concluded between Japan and Russia, which means, we’re still in the same state as those times.
Since Russia began its military aggression against Ukraine, Japan has strived to provide support to Ukraine.
Japan is neither a NATO nor a European country.
But from all the way from East Asia, Japan has provided a lot of our money and aids to Ukraine as much as we can.
Due to the excessive pacifism and longstanding constitutional restrictions, though, we haven’t been able to send weapons, and so on.
But so far, what we have contributed are such as:
- Bilateral/International Organizations Assistance
- Financial measures
- Trade measures
- Visa measures
- Support for landmine removal
- Support for the cultural and artistic revival
- Support in establishing a disaster medical system
- Leveraging Japan’s disaster experience for Ukraine’s reconstruction
- Promotion of economic growth and reconstruction
As for money, data for the two-year period beginning January 2022 shows that Japan has so far provided approximately 1.7 trillion yen in assistance. This is the sixth largest amount among developed countries, after Norway.
We’re geographically so far away from Ukraine.
And we’re not in a good condition. Japan is dealing with reconstruction itself as natural disasters hit regularly. Many of our people are having financial problems due to our economic situation.
And why does Japan care so much about Ukraine regardless?
Because the victory of the Authoritarian State, Russia, would send a wrong signal to CCP led China.
If Russia wins, it will either show a pattern or set a precedent that if it illegally pushes and pushes and pushes around with military force and invades other countries, it can change the status quo, conquer, and get the territory it wants.
If such a case came to reality, it would become an incentive to China.
We must stand strong to show that no invasion is allowed.
Now, related to that, let me share a phrase that’s very common in Japan.
It is from the commentary which our former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe gave online for the symposium in Taiwan.
And that is, “A Taiwan emergency is a Japanese emergency.”
In his speech, he noted that “the environment that Japan and Taiwan will face in the future will be fraught with tension. The Senkaku Islands and Yonaguni Island are not far from Taiwan. An armed invasion of Taiwan would pose a grave danger to Japan. A Taiwan emergency is a Japanese emergency, and therefore an emergency for the Japan-U.S. alliance,” he said.
What this means is, there would be so many negative consequences without the victory of Ukraine.
Ukraine must win. Russia must lose.
So that China would not invade Taiwan.
Rather, China would realize that they can’t do the same as Russia.
I believe that we need to go even further and dissolve China and Russia.
That’s the outcome we must achieve.
The majority of the problems that we’re facing in the world today would be solved or eased just by that, whether they’re human rights issues, environmental issues, territorial issues, or historical issues.
Nobody thought the Soviet Union would collapse. But it did.
I work with those nation states that are colonized by CCP led China.
And I’m here with all of you, that represent the nation states under Russia’s rule that want to get independent.
China and Russia, especially tied together, are very strong.
However, when external as well as internal pressure is applied at the same time, I believe that WE will have a chance for a bright future.
We’re all in this together.
My country, Japan, is fighting for you.
And when an emergency occurs here, I expect that you fight for us, too.
Make Russia Small Again!
Thanks for your attention.
===
Media coverage so far: Taipei Times
Forum calls for alliance to counter China
https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2024/09/30/2003824576
*I spoke as the President of Free Tibet Fukuoka, not my husband's organization.
https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2024/09/30/2003824576
*I spoke as the President of Free Tibet Fukuoka, not my husband's organization.
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Yoko Ishii
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