Russian Civil War no relation Empire of Japan
Japan
The Japanese were initially asked in 1917 by the French to intervene in Russia but declined the request. 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 at first 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 Czechoslovak Legions and securing the Allied war matériel stockpiles. After heated debate in the Diet, the administration of Prime Minister Terauchi Masatake agreed to send 12,000 troops, but under solely Japanese command, independent of the 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. The Japanese first started landing troops in Vladivostok on a large scale on 8 August 1918, and by the end of the month 18,000 Japanese troops had arrived at the port with a further 6,000 moved up through Manchuria to Manchuli. On 18 August the Japanese General Otani Kikuzo assumed command of all the Allied forces.Legacy
Effects on Japanese politics
Japan's motives in the Siberian intervention were complex and poorly articulated. Ostensibly, Japan, as with the United States and the other international coalition forces, was in Siberia to safeguard stockpiled military supplies and to "rescue" the Czechoslovak Legion. However, the Japanese government's intense hostility to communism, a determination to recoup its past losses to Russia, and the perceived opportunity to settle the "northern problem" in Japan's security by either creating a buffer state, or by 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 shreds, leading to the army and government being involved in bitter controversy, as well as renewed factional 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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