ABSTRACT
All but the Japanese Army had resigned themselves to the fact that the Red takeover was now a matter of ‘when’, not ‘if’. The Japanese had invested too much blood and yen in Eastern Siberia to abandon their stake timidly: 40 officers killed and a like number wounded, 730 enlisted men killed and 650 wounded, 500 soldiers dead from disease and anywhere from 180 to 500 million yen.1 In fact, in exchange for aid to the Whites, the Japanese now demanded Russian property with ‘written proof of equity’.2 Indeed, even several weeks later, the Japanese were ‘purchasing…many stores, forest lands, coal mines and all other property that they can get their hands on’.3 For 4 million yen, Japanese owners took control of the Chinese Eastern Railway’s fuel supply by purchasing a huge timber concession that came with its own railway spur and saw mill.4 However, if the Japanese Army had entertained any thoughts about departing Siberia, news of tragic events in the isolated town of Nikolaevsk-on-Amur forced them to remain to redeem their honor.
