Moscow: Russia will release its records of nearly 580,000 Japanese prisoners who were in Siberian and Mongolian labour camps after World War II.
According to the Japan Times, the records, currently kept at a Moscow archive, document the transfer of an estimated 577,000 Japanese prisoners of war, taken into custody after Japan's surrender in 1945 to the Soviet Union.
Japanese officials from the Health, Labour and Welfare Ministry are on a five-day visit to Moscow to discuss the release of the materials.
Japan estimates about 55,000 prisoners died in Soviet labour camps.
IANS
First Published: Wednesday, August 29, 2012, 13:27