Comments by "Arthur Mosel" (@arthurmosel808) on "RUSSIA-JAPAN | A Kuril Islands Conflict?" video.
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@Sergej-Safonov Yes, a non-aggressive pact is not an alliance, the alliance was with NAZI Germany. The Soviet Union and NAZI Germany agreed on splitting Poland and the rest of Eastern Europe, and in 1939 and 40 both acted on it. The Japanese signed the non-aggression pact since the Soviets were now aligned with Germany. Even when the Soviets and Germans went to war, the Japanese honored that pact. The point you and other Russian apologists seem to refuse to acknowledge. The Soviets honored that pact by interning US aircraft and crews making emergency landings in Russian territory and trading strategic material with Japan, making a mockery of its new alliance against Germany by helping Japan against Soviet allies.
Yalta may have seen the Western Allies ask the Soviets to join in the Pacific War, Russia did not tell the Japanese that it changed its status.
As to proxie wars in Manchurian and Northern China, I find it interesting since the Soviets waged a war against the Manchurian Tuan opposed to both Japan and China in the late 1920s, defeating him. Since these conflicts were ended by the non-aggression pact; it is strange that those same issues can be used as an excuse for and attack in 1945. Logic would dictate that since Japan had honored the pact and the Soviets had as well (going so far as to cut off aid to Nationalist China); that conflict still existed between them prior to August 1945. As to the proxie wars, I can only think of one conflict at the time. Russia, whether Imperial or Soviet had been pushing southward in East Asia since at least the 1700s; taking land from both China and Japan. So, the question really is were these proxie wars or resistance to Russian aggression. Remember Sakhalin was still half Japanese until 1875 (earlier besides owning the whole island, it had all the Kyrils and enclaves on the Sibetian coast) when the Japanese ceded it in return for no further occupation of the Kyrils and no attempt on Hokkaido; and China lost significant lands in the north In the1800s and had initially lost lands starting in the mid-1600s. Russia has traditionally been an impererial power taking lands from others.
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@BBarNavi Unbelievably uninformed. Following WWII, part of pre-war Germany was given to Poland while Russia took over the part of Poland that Imperial Russia held until its breakup following WWI. Ethnic Germans whose families had lived in many Eastern European counties for centuries were forced out. In many cases the communist parties used these acts to help solidify their hold. A few years ago, the BBC had a documentary on this, and it is almost impossible to find even a reference to it today since it was brutally honest on what happened in Eastern Europe after the war. The ethnic Germans were forced out without food or adequate clothing and several million died, murdered, starved or frozen to death (those expelled in the late part of the year). Polish communists placed ethnic Germans in concentration camps. These ethnic Germans weren't NAZIs. NAZIs didn't largely move into occupied nations. I did not include mass rapes and torture in this list of sins. Two wrongs don't make a right. Fear of Germany having a desire for revenge helped keep East and West Germany as separate for many years, just as much as the Cold War.
By the way, you example holds up better for Japanese held areas; however, even there behavior was questionable. Taiwan had been held be Japan for 50 years; there were Japanese there who had never been to Japan, the same was true in Korea and parts of Manchuria. Mass murder, rape and other mistreatment as well as the theft of everything that a family had isn't morally correct. Also, read a history of the Chinese civil war period, and realize that much of what the Japanese either did or were accused of doing was done by one Chinese faction against another for years. The Nationalist government there was still trying to uproot the various Tuan, and Chiang was trying to build a truly National Army and nation instead of the collection of regional governments and troops with different training, weapons, and doctrine, so mistreatment there wasn't just done by Japanese. History is never as simple as many have been tought. I have been studying it (primarily military and the social and economic influences) nearly 60 years, reading material from multiplesources and nations either in English, English translations or where I knew enough in the original language, and I can guarantee that it is more complex than most have been taught. As an example, I challenged the classification of one US document that should have been unclassified years before, and found it contained information that was both embarrassing and the reason for certain events. In another document a key page had been "damaged" and replaced by a retype one in a larger font omitting a paragraph mentioned by another author, again both embarrassing and in this case damning. Try doing more research, you will find it enlightening.
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@sombrerogalaxy1 Even with Taiwan, the story is heavily muddied. In the early 1600s when the Dutch wanted to establish a factory (trading post on the Chinese mainland, they were told no; however, they were told that they could place on on Taiwan (I won't get into name changes) since it was not part of China. When the Dutch began, the Spanish already had a facility on the north end of the island, there were 22 Japanese villages along the coast and one lone Chinese village; most of the island was held by natives (genetics has shown the native Taiwanese are related to Fillipinos not Han Chinese). The Dutch saw the Spanish off; while the isolationist policy ended the Japanese settlements. During the next few years (especially after the Manchus took China) mainland Chinese arrived in some numbers preferring the Dutch to Chinese rulers.. After the Manchus took over, an adherent of the previous dynasty seized Taiwan from the Dutch and used it for raids on the mainland and general piracy in the region. While the Dutch were planning to take it back, the Manchu government decided to eliminate the thorn in their side and invaded, taking over the island. From that point on (1686 if I remember the year), it was administered from the closest mainland province. Such control that the Chinese had was limited to coastal plains with most of the island in native control (the Chinese could not defeat the natives who continued their way of life including head hunting. This was the situation in the 1870s when both France and Japan (1875, again if I remember), after shipwrecks, sent separate forces to punish the natives for killing shipwrecked sailors (taking their usual trophies. The reason for the punitive expeditions was the Chinese governments comments it had no control over the native peoples (obviously if you own a place you have control; however China only controlled coastal areas). During the roughly 200 years of Chinese control to this point, they had done almost no development of the island. Then after losing the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895), Japan claimed Taiwan and other territory, the most important a bit that got called Port Arthur after European pressure got Japan to get out and Russia promptly moved into it. The Japanese than did the following, gained control over the entire island and population (something the Chinese never did); they also started the first school system, modern roads, electrification, sanitation and water systems. Additionally they began industrialization. In other words, modernized the island. Were they brutal, no worse or better than the Chinese overlords had been (suggest that you look at the Chinese legal system and punishments, some hadn't changed in hundreds of years and were every bit as cruel as anything Japan did). During WWII, the Allies did bombard Taiwan, damaging the infrastructure. When the war ended, the Japanese were removed, but the Chinese Nationalists did little to repair the war's damage. Nothing very positive happened there until the Nationalist retreat to the island, and while the island recovered the mainland suffered under Maoist policies. So, Taiwan wasn't considered part of China until the 1680s and never was developed by mainland China. So, its history is far more complex than just calling it part of China.
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