Japanese Occupation Notes For Russia

An interesting site and very informative, although I don't think I'll be adding any of these to my own want list.

Japan invaded China (Manchuria) immediately before WW2.
Parts of Northern China along the route of the Trans Siberian Railway became dominated by Russian culture

I have a very old friend who considers herself of pure Russian culture, but who has never visited Russia. Her native language is Russian, and she obtained her university degree in the Chinese City of Harbin where she was born, the whole of her academic career was Russian in culture.
In fact, she knows very little Chinese language.
The Russian cultural background that she has is of the old Czarist type. Harbin maintained the old culture after the Communists took power after WW1.
She recalls that the Japanese treated both the Russian cultured, and the native Chinese very poorly.

These 'Russian' Japanese Invasion Notes were most probably intended for the Russian cultured population in Northern Manchuria. Harbin was the largest city in which the Russian cultured Chinese born population lived.

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Today, Harbin is Chinese cultured and has a Chinese name for the city.
Harbin is famous for the fabulous ice sculptures that sometimes find their way onto TV cultural programs.

Maybe even a bit later. The Tripartite Pact between Italy, Germany, and Japan meant that Japan was under pressure to enter the war with Germany by attacking Russia in the Far East. Between spring and early fall of 1941, Japan was actively planning for war either in the North against Russia, or in the South against Britain and Dutch forces. A Southern strategy would also have to include a strike against the American forces in the Philippines, and the US Fleet, either in San Diego or Pearl Harbor when it was moved there by Roosevelt in 1941.

The Japanese chose the Southern strategy, and thereby lost the war for themselves and Germany.