Siberian Intervention

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Bolsheviks killed at Vladivostok

The 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 in the Russian Civil War.

1 Background
2 Japanese participation
3 Legacy
4 See also
5 External links
6 References

[edit] Background

Czech troop quarters in Siberia

Following the Russian October Revolution of 1917, the new Bolshevik government signed a separate peace with Germany. The collapse of the Russian front presented a tremendous problem to the Entente powers. Not only was Germany able to shift a large number of troops and war material from its eastern front to the west, Germany was also poised to secure the huge stockpiles of supplies that had been accumulating at Murmansk, Arkhangelsk and Vladivostok. Furthermore, the 50,000 man Czech Legion, fighting on the side of the Allies, was now trapped behind enemy-lines, and was attempting to fight its way out through the east to Vladivostok along the Bolshevik-held Trans-Siberian Railroad.

Faced with these concerns, Great Britain and France decided to military intervene in the Russian Civil War against the Bolshevik government. They had three objectives that they hoped to achieve:

prevent the Allied war material stockpiles in Russia from falling into German hands
rescue the Czech Legion and return it to the European front
resurrect the Eastern Front by installing a White Russian backed government.

Severely short of troops, the British and French requested that the United States provide troops for both the North Russia Campaign and the Siberian Campaign. In July 1918, against the advice of the War Department, President Wilson agreed to send 5,000 U.S. troops as the American North Russia Expeditionary Force (aka the Polar Bear Expedition) and 10,000 U.S. troops as the American Expeditionary Force Siberia.

[edit] Japanese participation

In July 1918, President Wilson approached the Japanese government with a request that Japan supply 7000 troops as part of an international coalition of 25,000 troops planned to support the American Expeditionary Force Siberia. 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 by November 1918, more than 70,000 Japanese troops had occupied all ports and major towns in the Russian Maritime Provinces and eastern Siberia.

In June 1920, America and its allied coalition partners withdrew from Vladivostok after the capture and execution of White Army leader Admiral Aleksandr Kolchak by the Red Army. However, the Japanese decided to stay, primarily due to fears of the spread of communism so close to Japan, and Japanese controlled Korea and Manchuria. The Japanese army provided military support to the Japanese-backed Priamur government based in Vladivostok against the Moscow-backed Far Eastern Republic.

The continued Japanese presence was viewed with considerable alarm by the United States, who suspected Japan of territorial designs on Siberia and the Russian Far East. Subjected to intense diplomatic pressure by the United States and Great Britain, and facing increasing domestic opposition due to the economic and human cost, the administration of Prime Minister Kato Tomosaburo withdrew the Japanese forces in October 1922.

[edit] Legacy

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.

Japanese casualties from the Siberian Expedition included some 5000 dead from combat or illness, and the expenses incurred were in excess of 900 million yen.