Japan during the Siberian Intervention

The nihongo|Siberian Intervention|シベリア出兵|Shiberia Shuppei of 1918–1922 was the dispatch of troops of the Imperial Japanese Army to the Russian Maritime Provinces as part of a larger effort by western powers to support White Russian forces against the Bolshevik Red Army during the Russian Civil War.

Background

On August 23, 1914, Japan declared war on Germany and as a result of the treaty with Britain, Japan became a memeber of the Entente powers. Japan found itself on the side of its former enemy, Russia. In 1917, internal discord led to the overthrow of the Tsar and in November, the Provisional government. The newly formed Bolshevik government signed a peace treaty with Germany, leading to the collapse of the Eastern Front.

Japanese Participation

The Japanese were initially asked by the French in 1917, to intervene in Russia but declined the request.Humphreys, "The Way of the Heavenly Sword: The Japanese Army in the 1920's", page 25] However, the army general staff later came to view the Tsarist collapse as an opportunity to free Japan from any future threat from Russia by detaching Siberia and forming an independent buffer state. The Japanese government in the beginning refused to undertake such an expedition and it was not until the following year that events were set in motion that led to a change in this policy. In July 1918, President Wilson asked the Japanese government to supply 7,000 troops as part of an international coalition of 25,000 troops, including an American expeditionary force, planned to support the rescue of the Czech Legion and recuring of wartime supplies. After heated debate in the Diet, the administration of Prime Minister Terauchi Masatake agreed to send 12,000 troops, but under the command of Japan, rather than as part of an international coalition.

Once the political decision had been reached, the Imperial Japanese Army took over full control under Chief of Staff Yui Mitsue and extensive planning for the expedition was conducted.Humphreys, "The Way of the Heavenly Sword: The Japanese Army in the 1920's", page 26]

Effects on Japanese politics

Japan's motives in the Siberian Intervention were complex and poorly articulated. Overtly, Japan (as with the United States and the other international coalition forces) were in Siberia to safeguard stockpiled military supplies and to "rescue" the Czech Legion. However, the Japanese government's intense hostility to communism, a determination to recoup historical losses to Russia, and the perceived opportunity to settle the “northern problem” in Japan's security by either creating a buffer state, or through outright territorial acquisition were also factors. However, patronage of various White Movement leaders left Japan in a poor diplomatic position vis-à-vis the government of the Soviet Union, after the Red Army eventually emerged victorious from the Russian Civil War. The intervention tore Japan's wartime unity to shreads, leading to the army and government being involved in bitter controversy and renewed faction strife in the army itself.

Japanese casualties from the Siberian Expedition included some 5,000 dead from combat or illness, and the expenses incurred were in excess of 900 million yen.

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