Research On The Japanese Kwantung Army’s Defensive Fortress Against The Soviet Union

In 1931,after the Japanese Kwantung Army launched the " the Mukden Incident ",it took less than half a year to successively occupy the three northeastern provinces of China.In 1932,the last emperor Pu Yi was held to the northeast and established the puppet regime pseudo-Manchu State.On the one hand,the Japanese army in order to monopolize Northeast China and incorporate Northeast China into its colonial rule system;on the other hand,in order to utilize northeast China as Japan’s “first line of imperial defense” against the Soviet Union,and utilize it as a base to peep into the Soviet Union’s Far East.Thus,starting from May 1934,the kwantung army built 17 forts successively in batches along the border area of more than 5,000 kilometers from the China-Russia border of Hunchun in Jilin Province in the east,passing through the China-Russian border in Heilongjiang Province in the middle,west to Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Hailar,Aershan of China-Russia,China-Mongolia border.Besides according to the geographical location of the fortress and the strategic assumptions to the Soviet Union,the Kwantung Army divided the defensive fronts formed by the 17 fortresses into four parts: the east front,the northeast front,the north front,and the west front.Since the design and construction methods of the 17 Kanto Army’s defense battalions against the Soviet Union have learnt from the French Maginot line to some extent,they often compare it with the French Maginot line,calling it “Eastern Maginot Line."The political significance of the the Japanese Kwantung Army’s Defense Fortress against the Soviet Union is far greater than military significance.First,it is not only a historical extension of the struggle between Japan and Russia for northeastern hegemony in China and it is a product of strategic confrontation between Japan and the Soviet Union on the border of Manchus and Soviet Union,but also it is an important political and military fulcrum of the Japanese Kwantung Army’s attempt to monopolize the northeast of China.Second,the main strategic purpose of the Kwantung Army against the Soviet Union Defense Battle Fortress is to consolidate the "national defense" of the Puppet Manchuria,then occupy the northeast of China permanently.On the basis ofrealizing the transformation of Northeast of China into Japanese “first line of national defense”,and finally completes the strategic goal of attacking the Soviet Union.The J Japanese Kwantung Army Defense Fortress against the Soviet Union began construction in May 1934.By August 1945,Japan surrendered and lasted for 12 years.During this period,Japan exhausted sums of money,plundered a large amount of resources in northeastern China,enslaved millions of Chinese laborers and brought endless sufferings to the people of Northeast in China.In view of the current situation in China,the research on Japanese Kwantung Army Defense Fortress against the Soviet Union mainly focuses on the fortresses with larger scale and higher strategic status,such as hutou,dongning and hailar fortification.It is based on the collection of relevant archives and documents,monographs,survivors’ memoirs,etc.of the the Japanese Kwantung Army’s Defense Fortress against the Soviet Union,and learns from the existing research results to take a macroscopic view of the 17 buildings that Japanese Kwantung Army in Manchu built on the boundary line and they are academically sorted out on the construction time,purpose,scale,and composition of the fortress.The paper is divided into the following five parts:First,the introduction part mainly summarizes the current research status of the the Japanese Kwantung Army’s Defense Fortress against the Soviet Union at home and abroad,summarizes its research results and shortcomings.And introduce the main research content,methods and creations of this paper.Second,based on the collected information and the existing research results,it discusses the background and purpose of the Japanese Kwantung Army’s construction of the Soviet Defense Fortress.Third,according to the strategic changes of the Japanese armies and military trends,it discussed the time and scale of the construction of the Japanese defensive fortress by the Kwantung Army.Fourth,Soviet Union sent troops to northeastern China through the Soviet Union’s declaration of war against Japan in 1945.The result of the collapse of the defense line formed by the the Japanese Kwantung Army’s Defense Fortress against the Soviet Union,it discussed the reasons for the failure of the Soviet Defense Battle Fortress from different angles.Finally,it explored the mutual struggle between the two strategic ideas of the Japanese "Northern Advancement" and "Southward Advancement" behind it through the above analysis and combing.Furthermore,it clarifies the fact that theJapanese Kwantung Army used the fortification to permanently occupy the northeast of China and attempt to attack the Soviet Union.