Japan And The Soviet Union Zhang Drum Peak Events

In July 1938, a military conflict between Japan and the Soviet Union took placein Changkufeng Area in Jilin Province, China. (This is so called the "ChangkufengIncident" in the history and "Lake Khasan Incident by the Soviet Union)Changkufeng is located in Fangchuan Villiage, Hunchun where the common boundaryof China, Russia and North Korea goes. After the September 18th Incident, Japanactively implemented a mainland policy, making a serious threat to the securityof the Far East area of Soviet Union. The relatively calm relationship betweenthe two countries was broken. After Japan supported deposed Emperor of the theQing Dynasty to establish the puppet Manchu state in the Northeast region of China,Japanese forces and the Soviet Union' s red army confronted directly on the"Manchu" -Soviet border, with border conflicts breaking out repeatedly. Therelations between the two countries turned into a military confrontation. Amongthose, the Changkufeng Incident is one of large-scale military conflicts betweenJapan and the Soviet Union.This paper tries to start from the development and evolution of themultilateral political relations in Northeast Asia following the Russian-JapaneseWar, demonstrating that Changkufeng conflict was not an ordinary borderconfrontation which contained profound political and military significance andreflected the complexity of international relations; further revealingChangkufeng Conflict posed a major impact on the situation in Northeast Asiathrough analysis of the background, course and result of this conflict.The full text is divided into three parts. The first chaptermainly discussesthe situation in the Far East after the Russian-Japanese War, and the Soviet-Japanrelations before the Changkufeng Incident. First, analyze changes in the relationsbetween Japan and the Soviet Union through Japan and the Soviet's militaryactivities in the Far East; Second, analyze Far East policies Japan and the SovietUnion implemented after the September 18th Incident.The second chapter mainly discusses the course and consequences ofJapan-Soviet Changkufeng conflict. The direct cause of the Changkufeng Incidentcomes from different interpretations of the Sino-Russian Hunchun Border Treatyof 1886, which defined the border of this region. The Soviet side believed theborder line of this region should pass the peak of Changkufeng Mt., as a result,Changkufeng Mt. belonged to both the Muchu state and the Soviet Union and theyhad half of the mountain respectively, while Japan insisted that the border line of this region should pass along the eastern side of Changkufeng Mt., thereforethe entire Changkufeng Mt. should be part of the territory of the puppet Manchustate. In the time of period between July and August 1938, Japan and the SovietUnion fought fiercely in the region of Changkufeng and finally stopped militaryoperations through negotiations. The conflict was ended with the Soviet occupationof and the withdrawal of Japanese troops from the Changkufeng Mt. Both sides putinto this battle a large quantity of forces and weapons, with a big number ofcasualties.The third chapter mainly discusses the impact of the Changkufeng Incident.The Changkufeng Incident was ended with the failure of the Japanese forces, however,the Japanese supreme headquarters studied and made certain that, the Soviet Unionhad no intention to dispatch troops to fight against Japan, and then officiallyordered to attack and take Wuhan and its surrounding areas on August 22. And inMay 1939, Japan launched a larger-scale war of aggression against Soviet-Mongolianarmy of Mongolian People's Republic in the western region of Nomenkan to the westof the Northeast region. In the end, it was a crushing defeat for the Japanese.After these two "north-marching" attempts failed, Japan had to turn its directionof aggression and expansion from the north to the south. Although the Soviet Uniontook an advantage in the two conflicts, they did not rushto send troops againstthe Japanese, instead of signing the Soviet-Japan Neutrality Treaty with Japanin April 1941.