Soviet–Japanese Border Wars
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| Soviet-Japanese Border Wars | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 Soviet Union |
 Empire of Japan |
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Joseph Stalin Georgy Zhukov Vasili Blyukher |
Hirohito | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 80 000 soldiers, 756 tanks, 385 armoured vehicles, 779 artillery and 765 airfighters and bombers | 97 000 soldiers, | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Soviet Archival figures: 20,302 Killed or Missing 18,003 Wounded |
Japanese Estimate: 29,525 Killed 8,799 Wounded Soviet Estimate: 147,259 Killed, Wounded, Missing, or Captured |
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The Soviet–Japanese Border Wars were a series of border conflicts between the Soviet Union and Japan between 1938 and 1939.
After the occupation of Manchukuo and Korea, Japan turned its military interests to Soviet territories. Conflicts between the Japanese and the Soviets frequently happened on the border of Manchuria.
The Soviet-Japanese Border Wars served as a prelude to the upcoming World War II conflict in the same sense as the Spanish Civil War (and a number of other conflicts) did, as it essentially pitted the subsequent Allies and Axis Powers against each other.
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[edit] Battle of Lake Khasan
The Battle of Lake Khasan (July 29, 1938 – August 11, 1938) and also known as the Changkufeng Incident (Chinese and Japanese: 張鼓峰事件, Chinese pinyin: Zhānggǔfēng Shìjiàn, Japanese pronunciation: Chōkohō Jiken) in China and Japan, was an attempted military incursion of Manchukuo (Japanese) into the territory claimed by the Soviet Union. This incursion was founded in the beliefs of the Japanese side that the Soviet Union misinterpreted the demarcation of the boundary based on the Convention of Peking treaty between Imperial Russia and the former Qing-Dynasty China (and subsequent supplementary agreements on demarcation), and furthermore, that the demarcation markers were tampered with.
[edit] Battle of Khalkhin Gol
The Battle of Khalkhin Gol, sometimes spelled Halhin Gol or Khalkin Gol after the Halha River passing through the battlefield and known in Japan as the Nomonhan Incident (after a nearby village on the border between Mongolia and Manchuria), was the decisive engagement of the undeclared Soviet–Japanese Border War (1939), or Japanese–Soviet War. It should not be confused with the conflict in 1945 when the USSR declared war in support of the other Allies of World War II and launched Operation August Storm.
[edit] Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact
As a result of the Japanese defeat at Khalkhin Gol, Japan and the Soviet Union signed on April 13, 1941 a Neutrality Pact, similar to the German–Soviet non-aggression pact
Later in 1941, Japan would consider breaking the pact when the German Third Reich invaded the Soviet Union (Operation Barbarossa) at the start of the Great Patriotic War, but they made the crucial decision to keep it and to continue to press into Southeast Asia. This was said to be largely due to the Battle of Khalkhin Gol. The defeat there caused Japan not to join forces with Germany against the Soviet Union, even though Japan and Germany were part of the Tripartite Pact. On April 5, 1945 the Soviet Union unilaterally denounced the neutrality pact, noting that it would not renew the treaty when it expired on April 13, 1946. Four months later, prior to the expiration of the neutrality pact, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan, completely surprising the Japanese. The Soviet invasion of Manchuria was launched one hour after the declaration of war.
[edit] See also
- Russo-Japanese War
- Chinese Eastern Railway and the South Manchuria Railway
- Sino-Soviet conflict (1929)
- Soviet Invasion of Xinjiang
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