Japan PM says Putin's visit to disputed islands 'absolutely unacceptable'
BBC World →It was the first time the Russian leader had visited the Kuril islands, according to state media.
Japan Warns Russia Pact Must Be Kept: Must Prevent Disorders in Eastern Siberia Which Are Spreading Rapidly
Tokyo, Jan. 25.—"Japan holds her self responsible for the maintenance of peace in this part of the world and consequently in the event of that peace being endangered to the notice able detriment of our interests, the government of Japan will not hesitate a moment to take the proper meas ure." Thus Count Terauchi, the Japanese premier, spoke at the opening of the diet in referring to the internal dis orders in Russia spreading to the Rus sian possessions in Eastern Asia. The premier declared that the situa tion in Russia was causing him the greatest measure of anxiety.
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Japanese intervention in Siberia
In February 1918, a 'Siberia Planning Committee' was formed by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff and the Army Ministry with the aim of exploring the possibility that the Tsarist collapse was an opportunity to free Japan from any future threat from Russia by detaching Siberia and forming an independent buffer state. The Army proposed attacking on two fronts, from Vladivostok to Khabarovsk along the Amur River and also via the Chinese Eastern Railway to cut off the Russian Trans-Siberian Railway at Lake Baikal.
Wikipedia →Nikolayevsk incident
The Nikolayevsk incident was a series of mass killings that took place in the region of Nikolayevsk-on-Amur during the Russian Civil War. The massacre and terrorism perpetrated by the Red Army under Yakov Tryapitsyn killed thousands of Russians in Nikolaevsk and devastated the region. In general, historians agree that the event was a massacre in which there was 'unprecedented and unprovoked brutality' that killed and devastated many people.
Wikipedia →Japanese occupation of northern Sakhalin
Pretext for the occupation came in March of 1920, with the Nikolayevsk incident. Japan claimed occupation was necessary to protect Japanese people in the Russian Far East from the sort of massacres which had occurred in Nikolayevsk. On April 21, 1920, the Imperial Japanese Navy cruiser Mishima would dock 2,000 troops in Alexandrovsk without any resistance from the Red Army.
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