Russia on September 3 celebrated the end of World War II, a virtual anniversary of the former Soviet Union’s victory over Japan.

Seventy-five years after the war’s end, Moscow has changed the date of this anniversary from September 2 to September 3, in an apparent bid to align itself with Beijing’s celebration of the anniversary of the “Victory of China’s War of Resistance Against Japan.”

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Russia has been maneuvering to build a united front with China in the “history war” against Japan, with the aim of justifying the former Soviet Union’s illegal conduct shortly before and after the end of World War II, including its occupation of Japan’s Northern Territories, a group of four islands off Japan’s northern main island of Hokkaido.

Map of Japan showing Northern Territories, Senkaku Islands and Takeshima Island of Japan

The former Soviet Union only entered the war against Japan on August 9, 1945, just before the end of the war, by breaking the Japan-Soviet Neutrality Treaty. It continued its one-sidedly military invasion even after Japan accepted the Potsdam Declaration, ending the Pacific War, on August 14. The Soviet military marched into Manchuria, the Korean Peninsula, Sakhalin, and Chishima (Kuril) islands, landing on Etorofu Island, the biggest island in the Northern Territories, on August 28.

The Soviet invasion continued even after September 2, 1945, when the signing ceremony marking Japan’s surrender was held, and continued until they completed the occupation of the four Northern Territories islands on September 5. Their actions were nothing more than those of a thief at a fire.