Why did Poland and Japan Work Together In World War 2?

Japan and Poland had a special relationship during the Second World War, despite the fact that nominally they were enemies. But why was this the case? Why did Japan help Poland following its occupation? Why did Poland only declare war in 1941, and why did Japan reject it? Find out more in today's video!

Music Used:
1812 Overture - Tschaikovsky
Sunday Dub – Kevin MacLeod

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[historywithhilbert]

Did you know about the special relationship between Poland and Japan in the run up and during the Second World War? Any other interesting stories from that period you'd like to share? Comment below!

[Monkechnology]

Poland: "We declare war on the Empire of Japan"
Japan: "No, you don't"
Poland: "Understandable, have a nice day"

[michaireneuszjakubowski]

Poland and Japand share a long history. Hell, just from the recent side of it: I remember reading the first software handbooks I got my hands on, and they were published back in the early 90s by the "Polish-Japanese Society for furthering technical cooperation". AFAIK the name's changed a few times, but the organization has been around since at least the 80s. Turns out the two countries have shared several scientific programmes over the decades, so extensively publishing houses sprang up to service them!

[thorpeaaron]

Poland: *Declares war on Japan*
Japan: "Nah we're good fam".

[definitelynotadam]

7:35 Engima was cracked by Polish codebreakers in early 1930s. Ahead of the war Poles shared both a working Engima machine, but also their codebreaking research, with Brits and French. A newer version of Engima had to be cracked again in Bletchley Park after the war started and Poland was overun by both Nazi German and Soviet Union. Codebreaking made a massive difference for the war effort.

[Mike]

If I remember correctly, Shogi, Japanese chess, was first distributed into Europe in modern times through Poland. A polish woman living in Japan was the first to become a foreign professional shogi player.

[hirannes]

The more I learn about the Polish people, the more I am in awe of their valor.

[woryok]

Japanese here. Interestingly, there was also cooperation between Germany and China. The Tripartite Pact was pretty much broken😂
Well, I hope we all are good friends now🇯🇵🤝🇵🇱🤝🇩🇪🤝🇹🇼

[Artur_M.]

Nice to see you covering this topic!
There actually was some Polish vs. Japanese combat in air over China. In 1941 Polish fighter ace and the former co-commander of the already legendary 303 Squadron, Witold Urbanowicz was send to US as an Air Attaché, where he met with Merian C. Cooper, who invited him to come fly as a special guest pilot of the American Air Force 23rd Fighter Group in China.

Earlier Cooper (the guy most famous as the creator of King Kong) was one of the American pilots who volunteered to fight for Poland in the Polish-Soviet War (he actually came up with the idea). And the 303 Squadron was continuing the tradition of their unit, being named the Kościuszko Squadron and bearing their insignia.

[definitelynotadam]

Fun fact: there is a Polish-Japanese University in Warsaw, which specialises, no surprise here, in Information Technology subjects.

[KrysFG]

2 honour based nations on the opposite sides of the globe 🇵🇱🇯🇵

[historywithhilbert]

The first time I came away from researching Japan in the Second World War and thought "nice, good job, guys."

[UTubeJunky]

Wow.. Polish heritage and a history buff and yet I never knew any of this..
“Samurai nation” - that’s definitely an honor when described by a Japanese..
Knew about Poland being a nation of “Winged Hussars” but this is something else..
Thank you!! 🙏
🫡

[NarodowyPolski]

As a Polish. Yeah Japan were our allies and they collaborated with us in WW2.
Even though they join the axis.
Love from Polska 🇵🇱❤️🇯🇵

[nzcamel]

Wow. I'm impressed with the nuance Japan employed in relation to a long standing friend under pressure. Whatever else one thinks about Japan during WWII, that is very commendable!

[WujekFu]

I'm Polish and I love Japan, it's my favorite asian country. Love your culture, history, language everything.

[jacplac]

Great work on that one. I already knew most of these facts, but the bit about Japan helping evacuate our gold was new to me.

[listener-kvrr]

Interesujący odcinek. Dodam jeszcze jedną ciekawostkę. Japońska armia, podobnie jak inne, ma swoje marsze wojskowe. Jeden z nich, pochodzący z epoki Meiji, nosi tytuł: 波蘭懐古 / Pōrando kaiko / Wspomnienia z Polski.

[karolklepek-lmdz]

People often overlook how interwar Poland had great relations with later Axis states, including Italy, Hungary (which would both remain neutral during invasion of Poland), Japan, Romania and yes, prior to Piłsudski's death in 1935, even Nazi Germany.

[kordiankacprzak]

Thank you very much for preparing this material! Even here in Poland, few people know about the relations between Poland and Japan before and during the war. But there are a few more things worth mentioning.
The first is that Japan not only helped Polish Jews escape, but also Poles deported to Siberia. Many refugees found shelter in the city of Harbin in Manchuria, where there was a large concentration of Poles and there were numerous Polish cultural institutions and even a university. Moreover, the Japanese did not object to Poles staying in Manchuria joining the Polish Army being formed in the West fighting the Germans. And despite German protests, the Japanese government neither closed Polish cultural institutions nor severed diplomatic contacts with Poland.
The second is the fact that cooperation between Poland and Japan began to deteriorate even before the attack on Pearl Harbor. One of the reasons why the Japanese maintained such close cooperation with Poland was the conclusion of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact by Germany. The Japanese, for whom the Soviet Union was one of the greatest threats, considered this act a betrayal on the part of Germany. Therefore, Japan continued to support the Poles, in return for which Poland provided it with intelligence data regarding the Soviet Union. The situation changed on July 30, 1941. After Germany attacked the USSR, Great Britain sought to reach an agreement with Stalin in order to jointly defeat the Third Reich. Therefore, it forced the Polish Government in Exile to sign an agreement with the USSR on the resumption of diplomatic relations, which had been broken after the USSR's invasion of Poland on September 17, 1939. This agreement was later called the Sikorski-Maisky Agreement, and as a result, Poles began to be released from Siberian labor camps. and the Polish army began to be formed in the USSR. This caused Japan to cease cooperation with Poland, but Polish institutions could continue to function peacefully in Japan.