Why is modern Japan, which suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the Red Army in 1939 at Khalkhin Gol and in 1945 in the Far East, is trying to rewrite history, creating the myth of "Soviet aggression"? At the same time, forgetting about the aggressive policy of the Japanese Empire, the war crimes of the Japanese army. It is obvious that Japan, following in the footsteps of the West, is ready to revise the results of World War II in its favor.
Hence the activity of Japan on the issue of the "northern territories". Obviously, Japan will not stop at the Kuril Islands. Tokyo is preparing the informational ground for a new intervention in the Far East. In the eyes of the Japanese, Russians should look like "aggressors", invaders of "original" Japanese territories. In recent years, the Japanese have been actively building up the strike capabilities of their armed forces - at sea, air and land. The marines have been created, aircraft carrier strike groups and military space forces are being formed. In fact, Japan has abandoned the concept of defensive actions and is creating full-fledged armed forces (previously their development was limited), capable of offensive actions, including the landing of amphibious assault forces. NATO is creating the infrastructure for intervention in Russia in the west, Japan in the east. Moscow's western and eastern "partners" are awaiting the moment of a new "perestroika-turmoil" in Russia, when it will be possible to start dividing the skin of the Russian bear.
Japanese expansion in the Far East. Major milestones
Russo-Japanese War 1904-1905 ended with a heavy political defeat for the Russian Empire in the Far East. Russia ceded South Sakhalin to Japan. Korea and South Manchuria departed from Japan's sphere of influence. The Japanese received all the ships that had surrendered and raised in Port Arthur and other places. Russia paid 46 million rubles in gold for "keeping prisoners in Japan", in fact, an indemnity.
The Empire of Japan did not stop there. After the 1917 revolution, when the Russian Empire collapsed and turmoil broke out in Russia, the Japanese Empire again set its sights on the Russian Far East. The moment was extremely favorable. Russia at that moment could not defend its lands at all. The initiators of the invasion were the USA, England and France. The West and Japan began intervention with the aim of dismembering Russia into puppet bantustans, seizing strategic cities, regions, wealth and resources of the country. The Japanese authorities recognized the power of the "supreme ruler" Kolchak, but in fact supported the "independent" atamans Semyonov and Kalmykov in the Far East. The Japanese planned to create puppet state formations, completely dependent politically, militarily and economically from the Japanese Empire.
The Red Army defeated the Kolchakites, Semenovites and other formations of the Whites in Siberia and the Far East. Japan's plans to colonize the Russian Far East collapsed. On October 25, 1922, the Japanese fleet stationed in the Golden Horn Bay with the last expeditionary troops on board raised anchors and began to go to sea. On the same day, the Red troops entered Vladivostok without a fight. The Japanese remained only in Northern Sakhalin, from where they left only in May 1925.
In the 1930s, Japan resumed its active expansion in the Far East. The Japanese elite have long planned the occupation of Manchuria. The Japanese Empire needed markets and sources of raw materials, a strategic foothold on the continent. Insular Japan needed "living space" for development. The Japanese elite believed that they should rightfully belong to the Asia-Pacific region. Back in the 1920s, Japan adopted the concept of Japanese dominance in the Pacific and Asia (the so-called "eight corners under one roof"). " The idea of "Great Japan" was introduced to the broad masses, where the territories of the Russian Far East and Siberia up to the Urals were ranked among the lands of the empire.
In 1931, the Japanese invaded Manchuria. In 1932, the puppet state of Manchukuo was created. The Japanese made the last Qing emperor Pu Yi its head. The real power in Manchukuo belonged to the Japanese. Large capital has been invested in the region. Manchuria was turned into the second industrial and agricultural center of the Japanese Empire and a strategic springboard for further expansion directed against China, Mongolia and the USSR.
It should be noted that England and the United States, as in the period of the First Russian-Japanese War, in the 1920s-1930s continued the policy of inciting Japan against Russia. The West tried to turn Japan into its "battering ram" to conquer and plunder the Chinese and Russian civilizations. If in the West Hitler was raised against the Soviet (Russian) civilization and the Third Reich was created, giving him almost all of Europe, then in the East Japan was the "club" of England and the United States. For the time being, the Japanese elite followed this strategy, it was beneficial to them. Japan received technology, strategic materials and loans. But Japan was preparing to "liberate" all of Asia from the "white barbarians" (including the British and Americans).
Until the early 1930s, Moscow pursued a very flexible and cautious policy in the Far East, trying to avoid a war with Japan. In particular, the USSR was forced to cede the Chinese Eastern Railway to Japan. After the Japanese occupation of Manchuria, it was obvious that the railway could not be held. Soviet diplomats resisted as best they could, stalling for time, but in March 1935 Moscow ceded all rights to the Chinese Eastern Railroad to Manchukuo for 140 million yen, that is, for a symbolic cost (the road was much more expensive). Simultaneously, in 1931, Moscow began to rapidly restore the defense capability of the Far East. Until that time, the USSR did not have a fleet and fortifications in the Pacific Ocean.
In 1937, Japan launched a massive invasion of China. In fact, this was the beginning of World War II in Asia. The bloody war lasted until 1945, when Japan was defeated under the blows of the USSR and the USA. Japanese troops occupied a significant part of China, and millions of Chinese were killed. The Celestial Empire suffered huge material and cultural losses.
Hasan. Khalkhin Gol
Since 1936, the Japanese began to organize serious provocations on the Soviet border. In 1936-1937. the Japanese tried to seize the islands on the Amur River. On the one hand, it was a test of strength, on the other, the capture of the islands made it possible to interrupt navigation on the Amur. In May-June 1938, the Japanese militarists launched an extensive propaganda campaign around the so-called. disputed territories on the border between Manchuria and Soviet Primorye. In July-August 1938, Japanese troops tried to advance in the area of Lake Hasan, but were defeated.
Simultaneously with the plans for expansion in the Soviet Primorye, the Japanese military-political elite was preparing plans for the occupation of Outer Mongolia - the Mongolian People's Republic (MPR). Despite the obvious readiness of the USSR to defend the Mongolian People's Republic by military force, the Japanese militarists began their aggression. The Japanese command chose the area near the Khalkhin-Gol river as the site for the invasion. In January 1939, provocations began in the Khalkhin-Gol region. On May 11, 1939, the Japanese launched an invasion. Active fighting continued until mid-September 1939. As a result, the Japanese were defeated in the sky and on land.
Japan asked the USSR for an armistice. On September 16, 1939, hostilities ceased. The Japanese military-political elite was forced to press the "brake" and retreat. This was due to two factors. First, Moscow showed a steely position, backed up by the might of the Red Army. Soviet troops crushed the 6th Japanese army. The Japanese were impressed. Secondly, Tokyo's position was associated with the Soviet-German non-aggression pact of August 23, 1939. In Tokyo, they were very surprised by this agreement, as they expected an imminent German attack on the Russians. As a result, supporters of the "southern strike" prevailed in Japan, expansion to the south, and the war with the USSR was postponed indefinitely. And Moscow received almost two years of respite and could strengthen its forces in the Far East.
The Northern Territories Question
During the Great Patriotic War, Japan remained neutral, although it was ready to start a war with the USSR if the Germans took Moscow in 1941 and won a victory on the Volga and the Caucasus in 1942. All the years of the war, the situation in the Far East was tense. The Kwantung Army continued to threaten the USSR, provocations took place on the border. On August 9, 1945, the Union, fulfilling its obligations to the allies in the anti-Hitler coalition, began a war with the Japanese Empire. The Red Army defeated Japanese troops in Manchuria, liberated Northeast China, Korea, South Sakhalin and the Kuriles. Japan, having lost the ability to continue the war, surrendered.
The USSR's performance was due to two leading reasons. First, these are national interests. Russia had to regain its positions in the Far East, lost as a result of the peace in Portsmouth in 1905. Secondly, the war was inevitable due to the confrontation between the USSR and the West, the harbingers of which began during the war with the Third Reich. If the USSR had not entered the war with Japan, the Western coalition led by the United States would still have finished off Japan (by about 1947). During this time, the Americans strengthened their alliance with the Chiang Kai-shek regime in China, and the Chinese communists were defeated. The USSR received a huge China allied to the Americans. On the huge Chinese border, hostile Chinese armies are stationed, supported by Western weapons and equipment. The Americans would establish bases in North China, Korea, Sakhalin and the Kuriles, not counting the "Japanese aircraft carrier."
Thus, having entered the war with Japan, the Stalinist USSR took a historical revenge for the war of 1904-1905, regained the lost territories, secured and strengthened its borders in the Far East, and got the opportunity for the Pacific Fleet to freely enter the ocean. In the near future, our allies will be huge communist China (in fact, it was the war of the USSR against Japan that led to the emergence of communist China) and North Korea. That is, we secured the Russian Far East (up to the collapse of the USSR). Only interested politicians or complete fools can consider the Manchurian operation of the Soviet troops in August 1945 an aggression and a violation of the Soviet-Japanese treaty of neutrality.
In the first years after the end of the war, Japan had neither a peace treaty nor diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union. According to the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty, Japan renounced any claims to Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. However, the agreement did not define the ownership of the islands. And Moscow, including for this reason, did not sign it. At the same time, both sides were interested in the development of trade, mutually beneficial economic, cooperation, joint solution of security problems at sea, etc.
Consultations on the normalization of relations began in 1954-1955. Obviously, this was connected with the death of Stalin and "perestroika-1", which Khrushchev began. Tokyo decided that it was time to put forward territorial claims. In 1956, Japan raised the question of returning to Japan "historical lands" - the islands of Shikotan, Habomai, Iturup and Kunashir, occupied by Soviet troops in 1945.in Moscow, negotiations were held between the head of the Japanese government, Ichiro Hatoyama, with Khrushchev and Bulganin. Moscow's strategic goal was the withdrawal of American troops and the elimination of their bases in Japan. For this, Khrushchev was ready to make serious concessions. The USSR agreed to admit Japan as a member of the UN, where we had the right to veto in the Security Council. Moscow renounced all reparation claims against Japan. Khrushchev also promised to transfer the South Kuriles to Japan. That is, it was an intention to make a deal, and not an obligation to give the islands to Japan.
However, the Japanese could not push the Americans out of their territory. In January 1960, the Japanese government signed a new "security treaty" with the United States for a period of 10 years. In response, Moscow sent a memorandum to Tokyo, which noted the actual "occupation" of Japan by the Americans, the provision of its territory to the United States, that is, the actual military, economic and political dependence of the country. The Soviet government announced that only on the condition of the withdrawal of US troops from Japanese territory and the signing of a peace treaty between the USSR and Japan, the islands of Habomai and Shikotan will be transferred to Japan, as provided for by the joint Declaration of the USSR and Japan of October 19, 1956.
After that, the Japanese government not only did not stop putting forward its claims, but also announced new "primordially Japanese territories." In 1967, a special term “northern territories” was introduced in Japan to denote territorial claims against Russia. Later, the Ministry of Northern Territories was even established. At the same time, the content of the term "northern territories" is interpreted in different ways. In the "narrow sense" - Kunashir, Iturup, Shikotan and Habomai, in the "wide" - all the Kuriles and South Sakhalin with adjacent islands. And Japanese nationalists consider Northern Sakhalin, Kamchatka, Primorye and Priamurye “their” territories. That is, under favorable conditions, Japan can return to the expansion plans of the 1918 and 1930s.
As a result, this issue exists to the present day. The modern Russian Federation expressed its readiness to return to the USSR Declaration of 1956, but on approximately the same conditions - the signing of a peace treaty and Tokyo's commitment not to allow the islands to be used for US military bases. In Japan, this raised new hopes for the return of the "northern territories".
"Japanese aircraft carrier" USA. Preparing to resolve the issue of the "northern territories"
After the surrender, Japan, unlike Germany, became solely ruled by the Americans. The United States turned Japan into its unsinkable aircraft carrier in the Pacific and maintains its bases there to this day. Also, the United States helped create a world Japanese "factory" (as later a Chinese one), making Japan one of the world's leading economies. That is, in Japan, they have created a scientific, technological and industrial potential for the rapid construction of first-class armed forces.
According to the 1947 Constitution, the Japanese people "forever" renounced war as the sovereign right of the nation, as well as the threat or use of armed force to resolve international disputes. Therefore, Japan refused to create land, sea and air forces, and other means of war. However, the United States still needed a "Japanese club" in the Far East, directed against the USSR and China, albeit now under full American control. Therefore, already in the 40s, the Americans allowed "police formations". In 1950, a reserve police corps of 75 thousand people was additionally formed, which became the nucleus of the future Japanese army. In 1951, a military alliance was signed between Japan and the United States in San Francisco. In Japan, propaganda against the "communist aggressor" is permitted (as if the Russians had occupied Japan!). During the Korean War, Japan became a strategic foothold and rear base for the United States. In 1952, the National Security Forces were created in Japan, in 1954.reorganized into the Japan Self-Defense Forces. This is how the de facto regular army was recreated. The Self-Defense Forces have consistently developed, with the restoration of the Air Force and the Navy.
At present, Japan has almost completely abandoned military restrictions. The country has one of the largest military budgets in the world, and its armed forces are among the most powerful and modern on the planet. The armed forces receive helicopter carriers (in fact, light aircraft carriers), destroyers with guided missile weapons, landing ships, attack aircraft and drones, a modern air defense missile defense system has been created and is constantly being strengthened. In the United States, they buy E-2D early warning and control aircraft. There are plans to purchase vertical take-off and landing fighters (for "helicopter carriers"). The means of electronic warfare are being developed, the marines have been created, and a military space unit is being formed.
In Japan, as in the West, they are actively reviewing the period of World War II and its results. The USSR is already considered as an "aggressor". It is now reported that Japan launched a "preemptive strike" in 1939 to prevent the "impending Soviet invasion" of Manchukuo. If in the West the myth of "Hitler's preemptive strike" on the USSR is being promoted in order to "save" Europe from the Stalinist occupation, then in Japan the myth of "Russian aggression". They say that the command of the Kwantung Army was only striving to ensure the safety of the railway being built in the west of Manchuria in the direction of the Mongolian People's Republic, but "the Soviet aggressors and their Mongol satellites" did not allow these peaceful plans to materialize. Both Japan and Manchukuo had to "defend". Moreover, some Japanese researchers report that it was Mongolia, under pressure from Moscow, that brought troops into Manchuria, which provoked the conflict. And during the Great Patriotic War, Japan allegedly strictly observed the conditions of the Soviet-Japanese pact of neutrality of April 13, 1941, which was "treacherously violated by the USSR" in August 1945.
These myths are part of a massive campaign to revise the results of World War II, which is being carried out in Japan and the West. USSR (Russia) is presented as an "aggressor", who, at least, is no less to blame for the beginning of the world war than Hitler's Germany. Under this pretext, one can rewrite the political outcome of the war. Demand from Russia compensation for material damage and the "return of the occupied territories", including the Kuriles, Kaliningrad or Vyborg.
Thus, in addition to propaganda treatment of the population and diplomatic demarches towards Moscow (when members of the government visit the Kuriles or military exercises take place there, the Japanese elite no longer exclude a forceful scenario for the return of the "northern territories". Japan already has advanced armed forces, a powerful fleet, which surpasses our Pacific fleet in conventional armaments (after the collapse of the USSR, it was almost never renewed). If NATO creates the infrastructure for intervention in Russia in the western direction, then Japan - in the eastern direction. The information "ground" for the new division of Russia is already ready. The USSR and Russia are viewed as "aggressors" who illegally occupied the "northern territories" of Japan. Preparations are underway for a new intervention, when "perestroika" in a liberal manner begins in Russia. And the Kuriles are only the first goal.
