Chapter 74 Section Thirteen

Furthermore, the Yoshida government was on the verge of collapse due to the shipbuilding corruption case. Therefore, the political factions confronting Yoshida—Hatoyama, Ishibashi, Matsumura, and Miki all acted to explicitly seek peace with the Soviet Union.In addition, another faction in the Liberal Democratic Party also expressed dissatisfaction with Yoshida's one-sided approach to the United States. (Later, the Hatoyama Cabinet was established. Rastovorov’s former colleague, Domnitsky, a member of the Soviet representative organization, approached Hatoyama through a certain channel, finally overcame the obstruction of the Yoshida faction, and concluded the long-awaited " Japan-Soviet Treaty. Until then, the fierce struggle between the political forces of Yoshida and Hatoyama has deepened to an unimaginable level.)

In this way, for the Yoshida government, the announcement of the "Rastovorov incident" played a role in pouring cold water on the pro-Soviet faction.In other words, the Soviets themselves revealed the large-scale conspiracy activities of the Soviet Union in Japan.This is more real than the mouth of a third party, and it gives ordinary people a more intimate feeling.The Japanese were all the more shocked when Rastovorov testified before a U.S. Senate subcommittee that almost all of the twenty-three members of the Soviet Union's representative office in Japan stayed in Japan for intelligence purposes. .

But compared with the thirty-three members of the Soviet representative office, how many people are there in the American embassy in Japan?It is said that there are more than 200 regular American workers, and about 600 Japanese are employed, making a total of nearly 900 people. Counting the informal staff, it forms a large lineup of more than 1,000 people.The thirty-three so-called "intelligence personnel" of the Soviet Union who stayed in Japan were no match for the large group of people in the American embassy who had almost the same mission.It is now common knowledge that half the work of embassies abroad is intelligence gathering.But hearing Rastovorov testify about the "intelligence activities of thirty-three members of the Soviet representative body" creates a nervous feeling in the average person that it is really a fuss.

Rastovorov had another mission.That was two years after the announcement of this incident, on May 13, 1956 (Showa 31), Sergei, the counselor of the Soviet embassy in the United Kingdom, took office as a representative of the fishery agency in Tokyo. The Chefpinsky thing.This Chevpinsky was the Soviet representative participating in the fishery negotiations, when the fishery issue became a major issue between the Soviet government and the Japanese government.However, some aspects of Japan believed that Chevpinsky's entry was the beginning of the Soviet Union's conspiracy in Japan.That said, rumors spread that Chefpinsky was not a diplomat but an expert in espionage.

Knowledgeable officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, such as Haruhiko Nishi, the ambassador to the UK at the time, and Shunichi Matsumoto, one of the Japanese representatives participating in the Japan-Soviet negotiations, all believed that Chevbinsky was a normal diplomat, so this rumor cannot but be said to be bizarre of.But the background of the rumor gradually became clear before long.It turned out that it came from Rastovorov.The source stems from his testimony before a subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee of the United States Senate on May 29 of the same year. And it's not just about Chefpinsky.Before that, on February 8, at the same subcommittee, Rastovorov also said the following:

"Morris: 'Do you know of any instances where Soviet trade missions were used for espionage?' "Rastovorov: 'They use commercial missions, embassies and diplomatic missions abroad.' "Morris: 'Can you talk about your experience with this? Give some practical examples from your own experience.' "Rastovorov: 'Let me give you a practical example. For example, Colonel Domnitsky, the head of the trade mission to Tokyo, this person is the head of the Soviet trade mission to Japan, but this official Positions are used to cover espionage in that country. It is the same everywhere in the world. Seventy to eighty percent of the members of the trade mission belong to the spy department.'”

In short, Rastovorov stayed in the United States with the task of "weakening" Japan's approach to the Soviet Union.This also means that the United States uses his method very cleverly. Rastovorov was thus used to various effects.When he first arrived in the United States, the hospitality authorities thought he was a useful dignitary and were disappointed when they found out later that he was an ineffective third-rate man.But it turns out that his usefulness lies in such a place. "The Rastovorov Incident" is a lame drama with empty content, but it has many lessons for the Japanese people.That is, the bow-shaped Japanese archipelago located at the eastern end of Asia has become an abyss of espionage for the United States and the Soviet Union, and many Japanese were involved in this whirlpool and suffered bad luck.The same situation may continue in the future.

This incident shows that our daily peaceful life can be destroyed by some conspiracy at any time.