Montana labor news., 1938-11-03
Japan Against Russia
In Far East Conflict

Was the clash at Lake Hassan in
East Siberia between Soviet and
japanese troops intended as a
prelude to a world war? Had Gen
eral Blucher's troops proved delin-
quent, Japan could possibly have
saved her face in China by switch
ing her bogged-down armies there
to the Soviet border for the invest
ment of DLavidostok by pushing a
wedge between it and Kabarosk, the
Soviet Far East military headquar-
tiers, while Hitler was settling the
Czechoslovakia question and getting
ready for a slice of the Ukrain,
granary of Europe. If such was the
intention, it proved a boomerang
and worked the other way about.
Leading Actors
The two prime factors in the Far
East situation are Soviet Russia on
the one side and militarist Japan on
the other. China, Great Britain and
U. S. A.. come in as secondary actors
in the main issue: "Who shall con-
troll Asia?" Japan's diplomatic and
military blunder of invading China
(south and central) was only meant
as an incident to be quickly settled
in Japan's favor turned out to be
of such staggering proportions as to
paralyze her deep laid plans. A
peaceful penetration such as she is
pursuing in the Philippine Islands
would have been more to her adj
vantage and much cheaper as much
of the wartime loot taken out of
China goes to individuals and the
balance doesn't benefit Japan much,
nowhere al paying wartime ex-
penses.
Timing the Undeclared War
Whether Japan had an under
standing with Kai Shek or not, the
fact remains that when the dictator
war-lord took Nankin and got the
other military chiefs under his
thumb, Japan got panicky for fear
she would be double-crossed same
as his former Communist, supporters
and saviors, we're. Something had
to be done and done quick.
U. S. S. r. was the dark horse, so
a worthless island or shifting sand
bar up the Amur River was occu-
pied by Japanese troops and a Soviet
boat sunk. For unknown reasons,
Litvinoff (Soviet minister of foreign
a~ffairs) after a feeble protest, took
a back seat and agreed to keep off
the island in dispute provided Japan
did the same and the incident was
closed. Evidently the Soviet was
too busy purging her army and could
be classed as a gaping spectator; so
thought Japan and Immediately the
bridge incident" near Shanghai
happened, a step hard to retrace,
Original Strategy Altered
While the original strategy of
Japan was to have occupied the
maritime province of Siberia as far
inland as Lake Baikal, Manchuria
and Outer Mongolia before coming
to grips with China proper, the
feverish haste in which Stain lin
ternational secretary, Communist
party had fortified DLavidostok
environs, almost to jeopardize his
first "5-year PLAN" decided Japan
to 60 the other way about with
North China to form a base of opera
ton for a final assault on East
Siberia.
Plans Out Of Hands
Man Proposes, God DispOSes"
From now on things went screwy
and got plumb out of hands for
Japan. While her navy and Nip
ponese troops were investing Shang-
hal, another column mixed with
Manchoukou irregulars were batter
ing their way against Outer Mon
golia, a railroad having previously
been extended to that region. When
it appeared as if the Mongolians
were being pushed back, airplanes
appeared on the scene with 'Ham-
mer and Sickle" instead of the
Rising Sun" showing on their wings
and they administered a good
strafing to the invaders, nearby
Japanese airplanes ~discreetly found
work to do elsewhere. This clarified
the obscure boundary line between
Outer Mongolia and Manchuko and
(Copfinr1ad on paoa ~