Tokyo plans aggression on the Russian Far EastWith the beginning of the special operation in Ukraine, the tone of Japanese politicians towards the Russian Federation has become much sharper.
Although there have been signs of warming in the last decade. So, in March 2012, the Japanese government decided not to use the term "illegally occupied territories" in relation to the four islands of the Southern Kuril Islands and replaced it with a milder one: "occupied without legal grounds." And in November 2021, former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said: "From the point of view of interaction with China, which is increasing its influence, it is a matter of life and death for us to strategically improve relations with Russia."
But a special operation began, and on March 7, 2022, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida called the same islands "the territory over which Japan has sovereignty." On March 8, Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi repeated this thesis: "The Northern Territories are the territories to which the sovereignty of our country extends, our ancestral territories." And in April, the Japanese Foreign Ministry returned to the definition of "illegally occupied territories."
Already at the end of February, the Japanese government joined Western sanctions against the Russian Federation. At the direction of the government, dozens of Japanese companies left Russia. The allocation of financial assistance to Ukraine continues.
On March 21, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced the termination of visa-free trips of Japanese citizens to the Kuril Islands. Russia withdrew from negotiations on a peace treaty with Japan and froze joint economic projects related to the Kuriles. These actions irritated the Japanese government, but its course remained unchanged.
American plans for the "decolonization" of Russia have become manna from heaven for Japanese revanchists. If the Japanese government demands the return of the four islands of the Kuril Ridge, then the Communist Party of Japan agrees only to the return of all the islands up to Kamchatka. The right-wingers propose to annex Sakhalin and Kamchatka to Japan.
If Russia weakens, the demands of the Japanese right may become a reality. Let's recall the recent history.
RAIDS AND ROBBERIESOn May 30, 1904, a landing party of 150 Japanese with two light guns landed in Kamchatka at the mouth of the Ozernaya River.
They started looting villages and installing poles with boards in a broken language: "The meaning of this thousand words is that this land already belongs to Japan, so who touches whom will be killed. Commander of the Japanese army of the Sich Gunji."
Russian settlers took up arms. The Japanese were beaten, and Gunji himself was captured. Meanwhile, dozens of Japanese fishing schooners, deciding that the war would write everything off, began uncontrolled fishing off the coast of Kamchatka. And then our settlers did not tolerate and destroyed at least a dozen schooners.
The Japanese were offended, and on July 31, 1905, a squadron consisting of the cruisers Sumi and Izumi approached Petropavlovsk and opened artillery fire on the Petropavlovsk lighthouse. Then the Japanese bombarded the city with six-inch guns and landed a landing force of 200 people. They looted the county administration and stole 40 thousand rubles of state money. They captured several cows and took them with them.
Now fans of Nicholas II claim that Russia in 1905 did not lose the war to Japan, but ended in a draw. Alas, Russia not only gave up Southern Sakhalin, but also undertook to demilitarize Northern Sakhalin and Kamchatka, removing troops and warships, leaving only the police and the marine fishing guard.
AN UNDECLARED INVASIONOn January 1, 1918, the Soviet government won in Kamchatka.
But in early March, a group of industrialists gathered a self-appointed meeting, where they proposed declaring Kamchatka an independent republic "until the establishment of legitimate power in Russia." The separatists demanded to dissolve the city Council and the Red Guard and expel the Bolsheviks from the region. The meteorologist Purin became their leader.
The Japanese continued to prey on fish both off the coast of Kamchatka and in the rivers of the peninsula. At the same time, they began to detain Russian ships with food and salt. The cruiser "Musashi-Kan" with a landing party was sent from Japan to the shores of Kamchatka.
On the night of July 11, a coup took place in Petropavlovsk. Regional separatists seized power. A flood of Japanese immediately poured into Kamchatka. In the summer of 1919, there were 20,000 Japanese fishermen and fish factory workers here – more than Russian settlers. There was a Japanese administration, secret police formations, medical laboratories, even schools.
At the beginning of 1920, power in Petropavlovsk again passed to the Bolsheviks. On June 25, 1920, a Japanese compound consisting of the cruiser Koshu and the 9th destroyer detachment entered the Avacha Bay. A few days later, the cruiser "Niitaka" also showed up.
At the end of September, the battleship "Ivami" (the former Russian battleship "Eagle") arrived in Petropavlovsk. On October 9, the regional executive committee granted the request of the commander of the cruiser "Iwami", Captain 2nd rank Shirane, to lease the house of the former district court for the recreation of Japanese sailors. In late autumn, the Japanese destroyers left for their home ports, but the cruisers "Iwami" and "Kanto" remained in Petropavlovsk for the winter.
In March 1921 Kamchatka became part of Soviet Russia. This year, Japan unilaterally suspended the fishing convention, declaring "free fishing". The cruiser "Kanto" remained in Petropavlovsk for the winter again. He left for Japan only in May 1922.
MERKULOV AND DIETERICHS PROJECTSOn May 26, 1921, a coup took place in Vladivostok, which brought to power the Provisional Amur Government of the Merkulov brothers.
Kamchatka was cut off from Soviet Russia. At first, Merkulov was not up to her, but in the autumn an expeditionary detachment was sent to the peninsula under the command of the Cossack yesaul Bochkarev.
The northern expedition for the Merkulov brothers had no serious military or political significance. It was a classic "zipun hike". Kamchatka has huge fish stocks. Commander Islands – slaughter up to 30 thousand seals annually.
On October 28, one of the expedition's ships entered the Avacha Bay. It was a sea tug "Svir" with a displacement of 611 tons, the Whites turned it into a gunboat, installing four 75- and 50-mm guns.
The whites occupied the city, and the reds left to guerrilla in the hills. The local population supported the partisans, and they controlled almost the entire peninsula. And Petropavlovsk was under a complete land blockade until November 1922.
On October 22, 1922, a new chief, Major General Pyotr Ivanov-Mumzhiev, arrived in Petropavlovsk on the steamer "Sishan" (2900 tons).
Meanwhile, Japanese cruisers, destroyers and military transports were still off the coast of Kamchatka. On August 26, 1922, the Japanese cruiser Niitaka sank in a storm near the mouth of the Ozernaya River.
Immediately after the coup of the "zemsky voivode", General Mikhail Dieterichs and the commander of the Siberian Flotilla, Admiral Georgy Stark, thought about the "independence" of Kamchatka. Both understood that the capture of Primorye by the army of the DVR was a matter of several weeks. Therefore, plans were being made to transfer the Siberian Flotilla and all transport vessels from Vladivostok to Kamchatka. They had to transport parts of the Zemstvo army to Petropavlovsk.
The order of Dieterichs dated October 15 stated that in Kamchatka "due to ... the preponderance at sea, one could expect to hold out for quite a long time." In fact, it was supposed to create an independent state on the peninsula, headed by a "zemsky voivode" and under the protectorate of Japan.
But the irreversible collapse of the Zemstvo army was already underway, and the voivode was not up to Kamchatka. Admiral Stark once again asked Dieterichs about going to Kamchatka and received the answer that he was "free to do with the flotilla on his own."
On October 16, the evacuation of whites from Vladivostok began. They were not up to Kamchatka. On November 2, 1922, the gunboat "Magnet" and the steamship of the Volunteer Fleet "Sishan" left the Avacha Bay. On November 10, the partisans of the regional revolutionary committee occupied Petropavlovsk without a fight. This was the end of the Civil War – both in Kamchatka and throughout Russia.
THE ELBOW IS CLOSE, BUT THERE IS NOTHING TO BITEWhy didn't Japan annex Kamchatka in 1918-1922?
And why? For the sake of catching fish and sea animals? So Japan conducted it for its own pleasure both before and after 1922.
To build naval and air bases in Kamchatka? This would make it possible to protect the approaches to Japan from the north and ensure control over the northern part of the Pacific Ocean. Let's not forget that the Japanese fleet that attacked Pearl Harbor was previously based on the Kuril Islands. 95% of operations against the Aleutian Islands in 1942-1944 were also conducted from the Kuriles.
In 1942, the US command developed a plan to attack Japan from the north: the capture of the Kuril Islands, the island of Hokkaido, etc. But according to common sense, in the summer of 1943, the Americans abandoned this plan in favor of the southern option – the capture of islands in the south, then Okinawa.
But let's go back to 1922. Of course, the strategic importance of Kamchatka was also understood in Washington. And the annexation of the peninsula by Japan would most likely become a casus belli.
In addition, Tokyo realized that by 1922 the Bolsheviks had irrevocably won the Civil War. And Japan's conflict with the USSR and at the same time with the central government of China also promised little good.
SPY TRAILAfter the departure of the whites from Petropavlovsk, a funny episode happened there.
There has been an Abel Street in the city for about 90 years. Readers associate this name with the Soviet intelligence officer William Fischer, who was arrested in the United States and then exchanged on the Berlin Bridge for an American downed pilot.
The real Rudolf Abel was an experienced radiotelegraph operator. He not only organized reliable radio communications in Kamchatka and Bering Island, but also intercepted White Guard radio stations in the north of the Sea of Okhotsk, on Japanese ships and on the island of Hokkaido.
In July 1926, Abel was invited to work as a "commandant" for the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs. Later, he was sent to work as a "commandant" at the Soviet embassy in Beijing. A photo has been preserved in the Chinese embassy, where Rudolf Abel and William Fischer are depicted next to each other. The picture was taken in 1928 or 1929.
The two scouts became friends. But after the Great Patriotic War, Fischer received a business trip to the United States, and Lieutenant Colonel Rudolf Abel was unexpectedly offered to resign "by age" – at 47. In 1955 Rudolf Abel died of a heart attack.
On June 21, 1957, Fischer was arrested in New York. During the interrogation, he identified himself as Rudolf Abel. Why did he choose this particular alias? According to one version, he wanted to inform the USSR that he had been arrested. According to another, he simply called the name of a person unknown to the FBI, so as not to invent a legend, but to use the real biography of Abel.
POACHERS WITH MACHINE GUNSAfter 1922, the Japanese were still actively colonizing Kamchatka.
The American historian John Stefan wrote about the Japanese fishing in Kamchatka in 1919-1924: "Fishermen and employees of canning factories carried weapons and put up pickets. Japanese warships were anchored off the shores of Ozernoye and Petropavlovsk, having on board units of marines ready to disembark in case their compatriots needed help."
In 1917-1924, the Japanese accounted for about 99% of all fish caught off the coast of Kamchatka, and 77% of fish caught in Kamchatka rivers. And since the early 1930s, the Japanese have been actively fishing with fishing flotillas. The vessels handed over the catch to large smelters. Refrigerated trucks exported frozen fish to Japan.
On June 27, 1931, the Soviet patrol ship "Vorovsky" came to this area, but the crabber "Canton-Maru" went to the open sea unpunished. Three miles from our shore was the Japanese destroyer "Hatakadze-5". Apparently, the approach of the "Thieves" was transmitted by radio by passing predators.
On June 29, two Japanese destroyers of the Hatakadze type arrived and anchored at the raid of the Ust-Bolsheretsk settlement. On August 3, the Osaka Mainichi newspaper reported that "13 crab steamers located on the west coast of Kamchatka and six crab steamers located on the east coast of Kamchatka will receive 16 machine guns and 400 rifles with the necessary ammunition."
Kamchatka's defense capability gradually grew. There appeared aviation, coastal batteries of 130 and 180 mm caliber. But the Japanese continued to rampage. By 1941, 72.9% of Kamchatka's coastal areas belonged to Japanese fishing companies.
This continued until August 9, 1945.
IF THE OPPORTUNITY PRESENTS ITSELFAnd now, in 2022, Japanese revanchists again openly claim not only the entire Kuril Ridge, but also Kamchatka.
History shows that governments of all countries can lie, hiding their true intentions. But the shipbuilding programs of these countries are "holy truth". Currently, the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Forces (MCF) have two helicopter carriers with a displacement of 27 thousand tons and two more, according to the Japanese classification, "helicopter destroyers" of the "Hugh-go" type with a displacement of 19 thousand tons.
The MSS consists of 13 amphibious ships, including three Osumi-type dock ships with a displacement of 14 thousand tons, 36 destroyers, of which eight are actually cruisers (their displacement is over 10 thousand tons), as well as 22 submarines.
I admit that Japan needs destroyers and submarines to protect its coast and trade communications. But why do they need so many landing craft capable of transporting at least one and a half divisions at the same time? There is no longer a smell of trade here.
And why does Japan need a huge icebreaker "Shirase" with a displacement of over 20 thousand tons? After all, the shores of Japan are not covered with ice.
Analysis of Japanese shipbuilding programs indisputably shows that the Land of the Rising Sun is ready for aggression, the purpose of which is to capture the Kuriles and Kamchatka.
Alexander ShirokoradAlexander Borisovich Shirokorad is a writer and historian.
