When Russia was divided in the wake of its 1917 revolution, the Entente powers intervened and occupied parts of the country. In Siberia, Japan sent a very large force and took control over a large chunk of it. But it didn't hang around and fully withdrew after a few short years. So why did it leave instead of trying to hold on to all of that resource-rich land? To find out watch this short and simple animated history documentary.

A special thanks to my Patreon supporters:

Jens Koch-Nommensen
Øystein Alsaker
Sergio M. Vela
Emil Świderek
khaki enthusiast
Eclipse 
Gin Aldeguer
Dennis Vandeban
robert lalonde
Brendan W
Michael Kram
Hasmuffin 
CharÉTS
Franco La Bruna
Ethan 
Southside Mitch
Don Bonnigan
John
Bradley chaulk
Adam Barrett
Justin Kubusch
Heath Robertson
JakeBak0905
Person
Leonard Frank
Travis Gardner
Vance Christiaanse
Emperor Kane
sharpie660
Aaron Conaway
Sean Uzar
ConspiracyPizza 
Sean D.
Joshua Rackstraw
Paul Munro
Steven Gibson
Korix Riylo
Phoenix Fats
Shauna K
Piotr Wojnowski
Mario Peshev
Jack Nelson
Brooks Woolson
Martha Grondin
Nathan Mendelsohn
Jane Sumpter
Harley Raptopoulos
Philip Yip
Alex Teplyakov
Joshua Schneider
Christopher Godfrey
Andreas Mosand
Mario Mejia
Erik Hare
Arthur Hosey Jr.
D. Mahlik
Contdoko12
Evan Ellingson
Manny F
zockotron
Peter Marino
Jamie van Brewen
Phillip Gathright
Allen Rines
Adrian Marine
Nicholas Menghini
Ron Johnson
Andrew F
Tony Belmonte
tegsirat 
John Orr
Matthew Toles
Duke
Bernardo Cavalcanti
Jose Recinto
Dr. Schtnizel
Thomas McGraw
MGS2600
Katie Flinn
Konstantin Bredyuk
Jacob Zachs
Tim Stone
Nick Macarius
Nolan Peale
Serius_Loyola
Tactical_Jackal 
mgnesium.poetry
Michael Galloway
Roman Kynčl
William Adderholdt
Clayton Schuman
Chase Labiste
John Garcia
Christopher S Nelson
sixbeforelunch
Vilena5
Bradley Backoff
Alan Romero
Angel Aguiñaga
HelloAgain
Andrew Patane
Sahni 
blaZzinG_FurY
Matt Reed
Ciege Engine
Chris Weisel
Jason Vandeventer
Windischgraetz
Duane Bridges
KNSTRKTVST
Joseph Hutchins
Ben Drums 24
Tino
Zachary Pascalar
ARandomPaperClip
Leena Al-Souki
Dullis 
Joe DeVito
Bodo Nuber
Patty Culp
Jason Gould
Ahmed Roshdi
Aaron Larrow
Warren Rudkin
george tyler
Matthew O'Connor
Joel Cromwell
Tall Jeff
Colm Byrne
Tyler Jenkins
Thomas McGill
Vegard Tønnessen
Spencer DeRosier
Curt Helmerich
C. C. C.
ThePalestRose
Joseph Reinsch
Blue Cardinal
Anthony McCann
David van Reyk
Bartosz Zasada
Ethan Harlow
Juan Castillo
alexccg
bas mensink
Perry Gagne
Logical Insanity
Justin Short
Valentyn
Liquid Chief
Colonel Oneill
Geoffrey Sparrow
William Clark
No way
Hexapuma
Andrew Niedbala
Tim Sweeney
Andrei Listochkin
Burt Clothier
Joel Wasserman
Sethars
Joseph Kerckhoff
ZCoupon
James 
Cade Summers
Carl Blanton
Thomas Wang
Ned Burke
Magdalena Reinberg-Leibel
Stefan Møller
Steve Bonds
BattleGoat Studios
Clay Carroll
Dexter_McAaron
Oliver Jenner
Tim Stumbaugh
Yared Cristiano
Chach
Robin!
Eric Askins
Matthew Ward
Melissa Prober
kevinh
Mars Project
SketerK
George Buce
Single-Seat Super-Maneuverable Twin-Turbofan Straight-Wing Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II with AGM-65 Maverick Missiles
Jonny Minogue
Matt Busch
Alen
Rob Rollins
Nathan Ngumi
Bren Ehnebuske
SirAlpaka 
Little Ernu
Moraxian 
Romney Manassa
Azul Bravestrong
Donald Weaver
Juan Benet
Anthony Uk
Emily Glover-Wilson
Colm Boyle
Zach Weakland
nullptr 
T. c. north
Richard Wolfe
Yosef Waysman
Brian Giordano
pdswanfleet 
Andrew Sever
Jeffrey Schneider
Hiro P
Mark Ploegstra
David Spellmeyer
Aeryn and Lisa Toland
Yuichiro Kakutani
Wolf 
Igor Stavchanskiy
Ryan Haber
Dustin Koellhoffer
Mark Littlehale
Tristan Kreller
Harrison Wiener
Dr. Howard Dr. Fine Dr. Howard
LambOfLeg 
YugiJitsu Games
Ian M
Kirk Hoffman
Mik Scheper
Heytun 
Sara Birnbaum
Robert Brockway
Will Sullivan
James R DeVries
Seth Reeves
Zachary Oertel
Dr. Sarno
Dutchball Animations
Isabel Harrison
Tom Ebert
Miky Hidalgo Morriss
George Caponera
Tranier Bocaj
Sean Long
biohazardgamer
Peter Konieczny
Dan W
Lech Duraj
Ali Sadighian
Kevin Phoenix
John Gross-Whitaker
Nathan Snyder
0_DannyBoy
Kishan Nair
Dan Reiher
Kinfe85
Alex G.
AltHistoryConjectures
Charles Doolittle
I'm Not In The Description
Oriki
Shakira Graham
Hunter Bayliss
Doug MacLean
Roko Lisica
Travis Mount
JT96
Lindorien 
Paul McGee
João Santos
Abdallah Al-Ammari
Typhoon2401
Daniel O'Reilly
Markus Lindström
blei95
Robin_Col
Kasi
Jan Bart Verbist
Ploshtinska polyudnica
Schwarzer Hai
M Scho
Tarsirrus
James
Rhys Little
Ash Elford
Ben L
Jackarice26
Twinny Hill
Gina Service
Harrison Tatem-Wyatt
zemnmez 
KingKyumber
Roberticus1992
Rhys Jackson
Phil Johnston

After the Russian government was overthrown by the Bolsheviks in late 1917, the Entente sought to intervene.

This saw soldiers from those nations enter Russia across numerous fronts.

This was in order to secure resources, bolster their allies and prevent either from falling into German hands.

In Russia's far east, Japan led a major intervention which saw it invade Siberia and occupy all of these lands.

And given Japan's antagonistic history with Russia and its hatred of all things communist, why didn't it use the opportunity to take Siberia for itself?

So, when Russia left the First World War in 1917, the Entente were quite concerned.

The largest army had just left and soon afterwards its new leaders had handed the Central Powers all of this, and so France, Britain and later the United States opted to intervene.

At first Japan was very reluctant to get involved with intervening in Russia, And this was because if things went wrong it may have found itself caught up in a major land war near its borders.

And as such the Japanese government chose to sit it out.

That was until the Entente decided to go in without them.

Britain, Canada and the United States wanted to secure Vladivostok and so made plans to occupy the region around it.

Japan didn't want to be left out and so quickly agreed to join the invasion in 1918.

It was asked to provide about 10, 000 men for the operation, which they did, followed by a further 60, 000 men, just to be sure.

Such a large force concerned the British and the Americans who felt that maybe Japan wasn't just looking to secure a port for trade.

The plan had just been to occupy these lands to secure the port.

However, Japan kept on pushing and by 1920 they were up to here.

The government had also settled tens of thousands of Japanese civilians in the region and gave mineral rights to Japanese companies, which signalled that maybe they were there to stay.

Once their allies had been evacuated and it became clear that the Bolsheviks were going to win, the Entente withdrew, thus leaving the region to the Communists.

Well at least they had thought, because the Japanese chose to stay and those in the army were pushing the government to either annex the region or set up a permanent puppet state to act as a buffer against the communists.

Japanese politicians did not agree with the army though.

The problem was that the rest of the Entente were very uneasy about Japan grabbing so much land.

The United States especially was angered by the expansion of an empire which it had a mixed history with, especially given that further expansion in Siberia could potentially put Japan right next door to Alaska.

And also, even with the Japanese plantations, most of the people who lived in the region didn't want the Japanese to stay, and given Japan's support for Siberia's puppet rulers, who, frankly, weren't the nicest, the people in the region just wanted them gone.

Another issue was that with the rest of the Entente gone, Japan had to face the Bolsheviks alone, and the Bolsheviks were now able to bring a lot more force to bear on Siberia.

This meant that if Japan wanted to keep the region, it would need to commit hundreds of thousands of men and lots of money and resources to do so.

Furthermore, to make things more complicated, the Japanese government didn't trust the army.

There were concerns that generals were lying about casualty rates and what the Bolsheviks could actually do to retake Siberia.

And since they weren't 100% sure, they weren't going to risk it.

And so, the Japanese government agreed to withdraw and left Siberia in 1922.

And in the end, this was something that the Japanese weren't too upset about, because its somewhat light intervention in the First World War had seen the country gain Germany's colonies in the region for very little effort, meaning that by the 1920s Japan had still come out ahead.

Captain Psydog, The McWhopper, Miss Izzet, Winston K.

Wood, Camoon Yoon, Boogaloo Woogaloo, Gustav Swan, Aaron the White, Daniel Tobey, and Anthony Beckett, Maggie Patskowski, Shuenin, Spinning 3 Plates, Words About Books Podcast, Copper Tone, and Charles the First.


Speaker 0: After the Russian government was overthrown by the Bolsheviks in late 1917, the Entente sought to intervene. This saw soldiers from those nations enter Russia across numerous fronts. This was in order to secure resources, bolster their allies and prevent either from falling into German hands. In Russia's far east, Japan led a major intervention which saw it invade Siberia and occupy all of these lands. And given Japan's antagonistic history with Russia and its hatred of all things communist, why didn't it use the opportunity to take Siberia for itself?

So, when Russia left the First World War in 1917, the Entente were quite concerned. The largest army had just left and soon afterwards its new leaders had handed the Central Powers all of this, and so France, Britain and later the United States opted to intervene. At first Japan was very reluctant to get involved with intervening in Russia, And this was because if things went wrong it may have found itself caught up in a major land war near its borders. And as such the Japanese government chose to sit it out. That was until the Entente decided to go in without them.

Britain, Canada and the United States wanted to secure Vladivostok and so made plans to occupy the region around it. Japan didn't want to be left out and so quickly agreed to join the invasion in 1918. It was asked to provide about 10, 000 men for the operation, which they did, followed by a further 60, 000 men, just to be sure. Such a large force concerned the British and the Americans who felt that maybe Japan wasn't just looking to secure a port for trade. The plan had just been to occupy these lands to secure the port.

However, Japan kept on pushing and by 1920 they were up to here. The government had also settled tens of thousands of Japanese civilians in the region and gave mineral rights to Japanese companies, which signalled that maybe they were there to stay. Once their allies had been evacuated and it became clear that the Bolsheviks were going to win, the Entente withdrew, thus leaving the region to the Communists. Well at least they had thought, because the Japanese chose to stay and those in the army were pushing the government to either annex the region or set up a permanent puppet state to act as a buffer against the communists. Japanese politicians did not agree with the army though.

The problem was that the rest of the Entente were very uneasy about Japan grabbing so much land. The United States especially was angered by the expansion of an empire which it had a mixed history with, especially given that further expansion in Siberia could potentially put Japan right next door to Alaska. And also, even with the Japanese plantations, most of the people who lived in the region didn't want the Japanese to stay, and given Japan's support for Siberia's puppet rulers, who, frankly, weren't the nicest, the people in the region just wanted them gone. Another issue was that with the rest of the Entente gone, Japan had to face the Bolsheviks alone, and the Bolsheviks were now able to bring a lot more force to bear on Siberia. This meant that if Japan wanted to keep the region, it would need to commit hundreds of thousands of men and lots of money and resources to do so.

Furthermore, to make things more complicated, the Japanese government didn't trust the army. There were concerns that generals were lying about casualty rates and what the Bolsheviks could actually do to retake Siberia. And since they weren't 100% sure, they weren't going to risk it. And so, the Japanese government agreed to withdraw and left Siberia in 1922. And in the end, this was something that the Japanese weren't too upset about, because its somewhat light intervention in the First World War had seen the country gain Germany's colonies in the region for very little effort, meaning that by the 1920s Japan had still come out ahead.

Captain Psydog, The McWhopper, Miss Izzet, Winston K. Wood, Camoon Yoon, Boogaloo Woogaloo, Gustav Swan, Aaron the White, Daniel Tobey, and Anthony Beckett, Maggie Patskowski, Shuenin, Spinning 3 Plates, Words About Books Podcast, Copper Tone, and Charles the First. You

See all History Matters transcripts on Youtube

Why didn't Japan annex Siberia during the Russian Civil War? (Short Animated Documentary)