[Enclosure]
The Japanese
Embassy to the Department of
State
Memorandum
Within a period between March 12 and the end of May last, about
700 Japanese subjects at Nikolaievsk in the Province of
Sakhalien, including officers and men of the garrison and
members of the Consulate as well as civilian residents, men,
women and children alike, were subjected to a wholesale massacre
at the hands of the Bolsheviks through proceedings of
unspeakable brutality. The Japanese Government feel it their
duty to take suitable measures for upholding the dignity of a
nation so wantonly assailed. In the absence, however, of any
government at present with which the Japanese Government can
properly conduct negotiations on the subject, they have come to
the conclusion that they have no alternative but to seize and
occupy certain points in the Province of Sakhalien which may be
found necessary, until a legal government shall have been
established in Russia and the present question satisfactorily
adjusted.
With regard to the region of Trans-Baikalia, the Japanese
Government have decided to proceed to the withdrawal of the
Japanese forces from that district, in pursuance of their
repeated declarations, considering that the whole Czecho-Slovak
troops have now taken departure.
In the direction of Vladivostock, however, the situation
constituting a grave menace to the security of Korea not only
shows no
[Page 517]
sign of
improvement, but proves distinctly aggravating, while a large
number of Japanese residents continue to reside in that
district. Accordingly, until the reestablishment of order and
tranquillity in the region, an appropriate number of Japanese
troops will be maintained around Vladivostock, as well as at
Khabarovsk which commands an important position in the line of
communication with the Province of Sakhalien.
[Washington,] July 3, 1920.
