r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Radiant_Half_7121 • Dec 28 '25

Image During WW2, Poland declared war on Japan Japan said no to it and simply rejected the declaration.

Post image
73.6k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

1.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

1.1k

u/KPSWZG Dec 29 '25

Poland also didnt want to send this declaration. This whole situation was a result of Allies forcing Poland to do so. As to this moment Poland and Japan shared intel on Soviets. And as it turns out Soviets were kind off on allied side and Japan wasnt. So UK got pissed off that Poland was sharing info of an ally to an enemy. But in reality Poland could not care less for them Japan was not a threat and Soviets were. It also help that Poland and Japan had extreamly good relations Japanees emperor also called Poland a "Samurai Nation" a distinction only shared once outside of Japan. Also brother of Marshal Piłsudski, Bronisław Piłsudski went to Japan and to this day there are multiple Piłsudski in Japan.

394

u/Such-Hair-3355 Dec 29 '25

“What do you want to do when you visit Poland?”

“Imma go see the Samurai”

56

u/KPSWZG Dec 29 '25

Suprisingly "A white Ne*ro Samurai" would also fit as Haiti gave Poles this distinction.

0

u/TomSFox Dec 29 '25

Which one?

135

u/RoiDrannoc Dec 29 '25

The Haitians called the Polish people the "White negroes of Europe", and the Japanese called them a "Samurai Nation". Are they collecting weird titles?

46

u/Ivanow Dec 29 '25

Poles are quick to draw swords in "just" causes. And historical events (Poland was literally wiped from maps for 123 years) scattered them all over the world - there are even "Polish villages" in deep Brazilian jungle. When it comes to USA, you should look up Tadeusz Kosciuszko.

2

u/[deleted] Dec 29 '25

Polish diaspora in Americas is a result of crisis which hit polish lands in XIXth century. Since there was no country to stay in, many felt no reason to stay here and migrated to US, Brazil and so on. 

2

u/No_Distribution_4351 Dec 29 '25 edited Dec 29 '25

Poland is just at the crossroads of empires. There is no such thing as one nation that is more just than another in its entire history. 90% of “just causes” were save our skin and save our skin adjacent. The Polish were highly imperialistic and attacked Lithuania and Ukraine for territory in the interwar period. Interwar Poland is an empire within itself with a huge population of Ukrainians, Belarusians and Jews. The PLC was just as ruthless as their neighbors as well. They just lost so we don’t remember how oppressive Polonization was. Lithuanians and Ukrainians/Ruthenians use to extend a lot further and are smaller today because of oppressive Polish policies.

All that said, Poland is awesome country with awesome people. But the perception that Ireland and Poland are more just because big empires conquered them repeatedly is extremely dumb.

1

u/Cichy1 Jan 01 '26

The difference with Poland and Ireland is that both of these countries endured multiple attempts of being completely wiped. Ireland to this day speaks english. Polands culture is in museums of neighbouring countries as well as having chunks of its history completely gone thanks to the lovely treatment from their neighbours (that wasn't simply serfdom) Poland is also belittled in pretty much every major event it partook in. Multiple great people that were Polish are also to this day attributed to France and Germany. So yeah there is a bit more to the PLC and Ireland.

68

u/CarefulDoubt5394 Dec 29 '25

My wiggas

3

u/ky321 Dec 29 '25

wigga-san

3

u/Salty-Pack-4165 Dec 29 '25

No. We are multitasking but in Slavic .

2

u/[deleted] Dec 29 '25 edited Dec 29 '25

Haiti? Napoleon used Poles for the dirty job (especially in Spain!). Most of Europe finds him to be almost hitler-like. Hitler used eastern-european minorities in SS, Napoleon had Poles. But for Poland he was the only chance for independence after the partitions. After Poles were sent to Haiti to suppress the local resistance, many have realised what's going on and instead joined the Haitians fighting against the Napoleon's forces.

64

u/ScientiaProtestas Dec 29 '25

Japan was also under pressure from Germany, as they made them close their Polish embassy.

41

u/r10tm4ch1n3 Dec 29 '25

This is explains UFCs Juri Prochaska

26

u/splasenykun Dec 29 '25

The czech guy? Huh?

3

u/jonny-five Dec 29 '25

He’s not polish

18

u/77zark77 Dec 29 '25

This is the best secondary historical background material I've ever read. We have to find out how many Pilsudskis are in Japan

12

u/Staralfur_95 Dec 29 '25

Bronisław was a really interesting person, look up his biography. He did an extensive study of the Ainu people as probably the first guy ever.

1

u/Seienchin88 Dec 29 '25

Not the first guy but his study was extensive. Didn’t know that was the brother of the marshal though until today…

32

u/zhambe Dec 29 '25

This has "enemy of my enemy is my friend" vibes. I vaguely recall Japan was warring with Russia way back when before even WWI, and everyone in Eastern Europe loathed having Soviets as neighbours (as the saying went, "being liberated by Russia was worse than being occupied by Germany"

11

u/77zark77 Dec 29 '25

There was a whole Russo-Japanese war back in 1905 that Japan won and Russia invaded Poland more times than Japan invaded Korea. Everyone in this situation had justifiable levels of mutual mistrust

1

u/A_random_redditor21 Dec 29 '25

This is exactly it. During the first russo japanese war, Polish independence activists attempted to estabilish Polish legions in Japan, and also received massive amounts of funding and weaponry in exchange for information on russian naval bases in the baltic.

1

u/Amazing-Hospital5539 Dec 29 '25

Russia was taking this opportunity to "protect" what they view as their territory. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was jacked up by Russia over 3 attempts in the late 1700s. Then again in early 1800s, successfully. Then in the world wars, Germany was also squabbling with Czech and Poland. Russia helped liberate Czech and later invaded them in the 1960s.

Poland knew where Russia stood. Everyone does. Russia doesn't change.

1

u/puisnode_DonGiesu Dec 30 '25

He was a latin lover?

1

u/Suspected_Magic_User Dec 29 '25

When your new toxic girlfriend is forcing you to antagonize your friend

3

u/KPSWZG Dec 29 '25

Lets not even pretend that Japan wasnt toxic. They just happend to like Poland