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!

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

And that's how "Cyberpunk: Edgerunners" got made.

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

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🇯🇵🤝🇵🇱🤝🇩🇪🤝🇹🇼

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!

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.

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.

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

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

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

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!! 🙏 🫡

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

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.

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

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

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.

Now we know how the miracle of the Vistula happened, Piłsudski was a anime protagonist

Japan helped evacuate and save hundreds of Polish children from Russian Siberia. Children were housed and fed paid by personal funds of Japanese Empress. This is still remembered to this day in both countries.

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.

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!

Respect for Japan from Poland

Based Poland and Japan cooperation 😼💅

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.

It is worth mentioning the figure of Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese consul in Kaunas, Lithuania, who, during his work, having realized how the Germans treated people of other races in cooperation with the Polish underground, issued visas together with his wife (it took them 18-20 hours a day - but not the number of so-called family visas issued for several people) transit to Japan, which helped save 2,139 to 10,000 Jews. A large number of false visas were also issued by the Polish intelligence.n 1985, he received the Yad Vashem Award and - as the only Japanese - was honored with the title חסיד אומות העולם [hasid umot ha-olam] - "Righteous Among the Nations". However, Sugihara was too ill to go to receive the award, and his wife and daughter received it on his behalf.

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.

Germany also helped China a lot so 1939 was truly confusing

The Japanese rescued and sheltered nearly 900 Polish orphans from Siberia. Poland took care of the Japanese kids in need after the great tsunami wave.

Poland has always had a very dedicated and complicated diplomatic corps.

interesting, i had heard about this friendship but never knew the reason why. A common enemy sure can bring countries and peoples together

Tadeusz Piłsudski was much more accomplished than what was mentioned here too. His work with Ainu was basically the only reason Ainu culture (before they got assimilated) was preserved in any capacity and he even managed to make audio recordings of the Ainu language, which, Iirc, are the only in existence.

So, in Nanjing, there was a Nazi officer who sheltered Chinese civilians from rampaging Japanese troops, and in Siberian, the Japanese red cross sheltered Polish children from Russian Agression.

Hello Hilbert. I knew nothing of this, but it makes sense in that the two were at either end of the expanse that was under Russian or Soviet rule. Very interesting.

Why did Poland and Japan Work Together In World War 2? Because there is a big country inbetween that threatened both of them?

7:30 Enigma was cracked long before... by Poles in fact

Great pronunciation of polish words 👍

Most of my Polish friends were in some way into Japaneese culture, from anime, sushi, through practising karate or Zen, to learning Japaneese a couple of them 🤍❤️🤍❤️🤍

The hussar likes the samurai.

Imagine some one pulling a uno move on a nation today like Japan did lol "We don't declare war on North Korea as they are just forced into conflict thanks to China." Like the idea of just refusing someones declaration of war is itself amazing. "We declare war." "Nope you don't, we won't fight since we don't acknowledge your declaration of war as valid, you only did it under pressure so it doesn't count."

Japan anytime they find another country that also hates Russia: *"KAWAII ^_^ WE LOVE YOU"*

How very informative!! I'm from Poland but have a cousin who settled in Japan many years ago, I'll forward this to him for sure!

As a Pole I'm surprised but it makes sense against the Russian Empire but probably this alliance was weak.I was surprised when one Japanese who knows Polish language well wrote that some Japanese cities like Hiroshima had spelling mistake because it was translated from English. He also mentioned that polish language has a high range of consonants .Should be not HiroSZima but HiroŚima.

Utterly fascinating. Thank you so much for this video!

Great episode. Never knew

Holy shit I love you pronunciation of Polish names

Your "Józef Piłsudski" was perfect.

Nobody is going to mention how he nailed the pronounciation of polish names? I had to skip back few times to hear it again because i was so surprised, great job man

Dziękuję!

2 best allies of poland during ww2 were japan and hungary. And both of them were in the axis, meanwhile actual "allies" brits and french were worse than useless.

So called „ partitions of Poland „ [ Commonwealth of Poland and Dutchy of Lithuania ] is only an euphemism for theft and robbery : Russia - Prusia - Austria divided their neighbour Poland between themselves, it was the largest land grab in the European history. Prussia , a small insignificant German principality, suddenly doubled in size, Russian Empire grabbed most of vast territory of Poland , and Habsburg Empire ( despite being Catholic ) took still a large chunk of Southern Poland. All three participated in a premeditated and unprovoked dismembering of the only free democracy in Europe, the only successful political Union of two distinct independent States in Europe, which was a political feat not matched ever since. It was also a grand theft of Poland’s wealth and treasure , a looting operation - for example Russians stole from Warsaw the largest library in Europe at that time , the 400,000 volumes Załuski Library in Warsaw - transported it to Moscow to lay foundation for the Moscow University - the Załuski Library is still in Moscow. And millions of conscripts for their armies were forcefully extracted from the occupied Polish lands. It is legitimate to say that destruction of the Polish Commonwealth in the XVII century paved the way for horrors of the XX century in Europe and of now. For the European ( and global ) security and stability Poland must be restored to its historical significance. Polonia Semper Fidelis.

Polish-Japanese friendship (almost love!😅) could happen only, for Poland & Japan have absolutely NO contradictory interests, but both had/have one common ENEMY - it is Russia😅; in fact no one in Poland would like anything as "Nanjing Massacre" (!!!😢), but - anyway - towards Polish people, Japan proved to be chivalric👍 PS. My Polish father in '80's lived in Poland, & started training of karate... He still loves this Japanese fight skill trainings, & it was connected to Bruce Lee movies!😅🎃

The fact you can respond to a war declaration with "Nahhh

Poland : I demand satisfaction Sir ! Japan : You are drunk Poland , go home ! Poland : Good day to you Sir, Sayo-nara.

Respect to Poland 🇲🇨 From usa 🇺🇸

Very interesting and important information. I had no clue about that - that was not taught in my school in Poland and never mentioned anywhere, really.

My great greatgrandfather was a Polish conscript who fought in the Russo-Japanese war of 1904. He was lucky to make it trough. And many out of 250 000 mobilized Poles from russian partition started their military career on war with Japan. Lately becoming those, among the others, officers from the photos.

This video so random I’m watching it all the way through.

wooo, that was quite a tour of some interesting and obscure backroads of history

I want to see you make a video about the “National Committee for a Free Germany” (NKFD). Which operated in ww2 as a German Exile organization in the Soviet Union. It played a role in the formation of east Germany. Its a underrated subject that would your video style.

Awesome video!

Well done 👏 Very interesting 👌

Actually Japan had a much bigger impact on Poland's history. In early 1200' Poland was facing Mongol invasion. Mongols reached Legnica which is on the current western border of Poland and won the battle. Lajkonik which is a tourist attraction in Krakow is actually a depiction of a Mongol raider. Also bugle call in Kracow old town ends so suddenly to remind that the guard playing the bugle died killed by Mongolian arrow. However Mongolian invaders returned back to Mongolia after fiasco of Kublai Khan's invasion of Japan. The very same invasion which ended up in entire fleet being destroyed by the God's Wind - Kamikaze.

All new to me, but it makes things so much clearer!

I'd love to know what lead to them declaring peace so many years later. Was it just an oversight, or some other circumstance...

Many thx for relly interest piece of WW2 history 👍

Poles had allies? What next, Frenchmen aren't all cowards?

I miss the old "Poland Japan WW2" title back before you re-posted it 😉

Thank you for bringing that part of history to our attention. We Poles are aware of the stories of saved Polish children, but putting it in even wider context is fascinating. The latest chapter in those friendly relations is the financial help for rebuilding Ukraine ofered through Poland last year.

Is your girlfriend a part of the reason why you make slightly more content revolving around Poland as of late, or did you just find bunch of interesting stories with Poland without any invovment from your girlfriend? Great work as always!

I don't know much about my ancestors, but my grandfather (Polish) said that his father was a translator in the Russian tsarist army in Manchuria.

This was indeed interesting. This is an easy, flowing narrative and smooth graphics. Educative. Thanks. - Polish would be outsiders in a unified Nihon. As were the native inhabitants = Ainu, who are not Han immigrants to the Japanese islands. Before their forced mixing with Japanese, to erase their true origins in one Japan, they had all the indictors of being Caucasoids. Probably these people were the True Samurai with round eyes and big noses and red hair. The Polish being called 'Samurai Nation' , @ 2' 14" is beguiling. After centuries of oppression and abuse, on 19 April 2019, the Ainu indigenous people were recognized by the Japanese State as being a unique, Native People, worthy of protection. Bronislaw Pilsudski - exile among the Ainu and first dictionary.

Thank you. I didn't know that I didn't know about this.

Fascinating. Thank you!

Thanks mate!

8:50 That's a bloody sad I did not ever knew the reason why the Japanese declined to join barbarossa plan. Thank you for that knowledge.

Nice! Great video :D And very interesting!

Samurai nation 😯 Jeepers, I already liked the Japanese, but after seeing this 🇵🇱❤️🇯🇵

thank you so much for this video, their intelligence cooperation is a very interesting topic.

Great clip! Congrats and good luck in you future endeavours!

This is really interesting. I had no idea.

There were actually casualties on Japan's side during the war. The Poles had to send some of their pilots over to the Pacific, and they shot down some Japanese aircraft

Polish State Police of pre War Poland trained Japanese Police and polish cryptologists were lecturers in pre War Japanese Academy.

As Pole I love Japan deeply. I think we are both bit fucked up and mental:p

Very interesting Thank you 😊

Would you please consider a story on the Enigma

Very interesting video

Thanks for the videos Hilbert! I learn a lot from watching your channel ^_^ Is there any chance you could make a video about the history of interactions between the Dutch and Japanese? That would definitely be something I'd be interested in seeing. Thanks again :)

We love Japan in Poland

hi :)

Great vid

I was expecting you’d bring up the strong 19th century ties between Prussia and Japan on this also. Prussia gave Japan a lot of advice on dealing with the bigger powers around them, and helped them develop their military that beat Russia in 1904. But a lot of stuff here I never knew. Thanks!

Nice how you manipulate. You speak of the Japanese disapproval of the German invasion of Poland, as if that act was a major influence why Japan never joined in Barbarossa - BUT you NEVER mention that Japan and the USSR had been fighting for months in Mongolia during the summer if 1939, NOR that Japan was hoping for intervention vs USSR by either Poland, or their Anti-Comintern Pact allies Nazi Germany and Mussolini Italy - or all three. THAT hope was shattered when the news of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact came out at the near same time the Japanese army was destroyed by the USSR. The invasion of Poland by Nazis was only the cherry on the top of the banana split of Disaster, NOT the main meal. The Japanese felt betrayed by their Anti-Comintern Pact allies while their army was in ruins. That is why Japan never joined the Barbarossa campaign.

Thank you, Japan 🙏 Greetings from Poland!

Well this is bizarre

interesting pice of history , ty

Lol the uno reverse card of diplomacy, love it 😂

Polnad: WAR KURWA! Japan: No. UwU

here before the video gets taken down

Japan was so disappointed when Poland was attacked that its then prime minister resigned because he wanted to add Poland to the alliance with Germany. Soon after, Japan moved to end its hostile relations with the Soviet Union and to include the Soviets in its alliance.

I'm Pole and I'm interesting in polish history, but IDK so many facts about Polish-Japan cooperation before WW2 and when it's began. RLY NICE VIDEO!!🙂