Japanese – Soviet Border Clash

On July 11, 1938 fighting broke out between Soviet and Japanese forces near Khasan, where the borders of Manchuria, Korea and Siberia meet. The fighting, which would continue for about a month, was initiated by the Japanese Kwantung army which expected victory in part because they expected the Soviet army to be weakened by the recent political purges of its officer corp and in part because they were Japanese and the Russians were not.

In the event although the two sides were roughly equal in number the Soviets were superior in armor, artillery and aircraft and the Japanese could make no progress against them. In the end there was a cease fire (August 11th) and an agreement (August 14th) to refer the matter of the correct boundary to a joint Soviet-Japanese border commission.

This was a setback for the Japanese who were motivated in part by a resentment over the 500 aircraft and other military supplies that the Soviets had sent to China since July of 1937. The Japanese had hoped to exert some deterrent effect on Soviet military aid to China. In May, the Japanese had used diplomacy to persuade Germany to withdraw its military advisors from China.

You may have noticed that the pace of postings about military events between China and Japan has slowed over time. This is emblematic of the fact that at this time the pace of Japanese offensive operations had become glacial. This did not prevent the Japanese from picking a fight with the Soviets and the Japanese continued to maintain large forces facing the Russians and to maintain as well fantasies of an option to “strike north”. The 1938 clash was Japan’s first encounter with a better equipped enemy in the period covered by this blog and should have been a clue that superiority in number and quality of weapons and equipment counted for more than the Japanese, with their faith in the power of superior morale and fighting spirit, preferred to believe.

As an aside I want to mention That I am struck by how fluid the situation was between 1936 and 1939. The occasions on which countries behaved in conflict with their ultimate alignment after the United States entered the war were numerous and significant. There will be more examples of this phenomenon as events unfold.