p The events which occurred in the area of Lake Khasan, the Soviet Far East, in Jiily and August 1938, provided clear evidence of the Soviet Union’s determination and readiness to give a resolute rebuff to aggression.

p While waging their war against China, the Japanese imperialists began to show themselves aggressive throughout the Far East, including the areas close to the Soviet frontiers. The Soviet government had to make repeated representations to the Japanese authorities. The Deputy People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs Stomonyakov drew the attention of the Japanese Ambassador in Moscow, Shigemitsu, to the fact, that there was a systematic campaign of slanrier and propaganda of war against the Soviet Union in Japan, often with the involvement, of official institutions and personalities. The Japanese military leaders did not stop short of direct calls for a war against the USSR. ^^177^^

p Japanese troops systematically violated the Soviet border. About a dozen Japanese combat aircraft invaded Soviet airspace on April 11, for example. On June 8, the Japanese attempted to land a 29-man armed band on (lie Soviet bank of the Amur River. The Japanese authorities had more than once detained Soviet ships without any excuse 136 whatsoever. On February 19, they seized the Soviet freighter Kuznetskstroi in a Japanese port, with a crew of 35 and 37 passengers. The Soviet press had every reason to qualify that as "yet another deliberate Japanese provocation".^^178^^

p At the same time, the Japanese ruling circles, drilling the nation for a war of aggression against the USSR, were stoking up anti-Soviet feelings in Japan. "Japan’s position with regard to the USSR,” the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs said, "has become still more aggressive and arrogant.” The Japanese militarists "are systematically striving to exacerbate relations, without missing a single occasion or opportunity for it. They have Japanese diplomacy, with Hirota and Shigemitsu in the lead, at their service." ^^179^^

p The Japanese acts of provocation had attained a particular degree of intensity by the middle of the year. The Japanese press (as the Asahi, Yomiuri and other newspapers) was openly calling for a war against the Soviet Union and the capture of the Soviet Far East. The Japanese troops stationed in Korea deliberately started acts of provocation against the Soviet frontier guards at Lake Khasan.^^180^^

p In mid-July, the Japanese Charge d’Affaires in Moscow turned to the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs with an unjustified claim that Soviet troops were illegally holding the western shore of Lake Khasan. The Japanese diplomat was offered to look through the 1869 Hunchung Agreement with a map appended to it which left no room for doubt that the western shore of the lake was part of Soviet territory.^^181^^

p Calling on the Soviet People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs on July 20, Japanese Ambassador Shigemitsu once more demanded the withdrawal of Soviet troops from the area concerned. "Otherwise,” the Ambassador threatened, "Japan would have to conclude that she has to resort to force.” Litvinov reminded the Ambassador that the Japanese Charge d’Affaires had been shown the official documents which quite clearly indicated the borderline passing through the mountains west of Lake Khasan. Soviet frontier guards in that area have no other object, the People’s Commissar said, than to defend the Soviet frontier. "There is complete peace on the border, and it can only be broken by the Japanese-Manchurian side which, in that case, will be held responsible for the consequences.” "As to the resort 137 to force,” the People’s Commissar emphasised, "if Mr. Ambassador considers such a threat and intimidation to be a good diplomatic expedient which may have an effect on certain states, in fact, he must know that such an expedient will not work in Moscow." ^^182^^

p On July 29, 1938, Japanese troops launched military operations against the Soviet frontier guards on the Western shore of Lake Khasan. With a wealth of facts at its disposal, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East found in its indictment of the major Japanese war criminals that the Japanese attack at Lake Khasan had been deliberately planned by the Japanese. The Tribunal stated that "the operations of Japanese troops were of a demonstrably aggressive character." ^^183^^

p Early in August, the Soviet forces launched resolute counter-action against the Japanese aggressors and cleared them out from Soviet territory on August 9. Heavily trounced, the Japanese had to retreat. A cease-fire agreement was achieved on August 10.

p The defeat of the Japanese invaders in the area at Lake Khasan was a telling blow to the aggressive designs of imperialist Japan, those against the USSR, in particular. The Soviet head of government V. M. Molotov, summing up the events at Lake Khasan in his report to a meeting of the Moscow City Soviet on November 6, 1938, stated: "Can there be any doubt that the Japanese attack on our maritime provinces was a test of strength for launching a war in the Far East? Should the Soviet Union have failed to demonstrate the firmness of its foreign policy in real action and its immutable commitment to the defence of its frontiers by the force of the Red Army, that could well have served as an occasion for staging further acts of aggression. Our adamant position during those events brought those high-handed adventure-seekers both in Tokyo and Berlin back to their senses and compelled them to beat a retreat. Beyond dispute, the Soviet Union has thereby rendered the greatest possible service to the cause of peace." ^^184^^

The defeat of the Japanese troops at Lake Khasan was, in particular, a case of minor assistance to the Chinese people who went on fighting against the Japanese aggressors. Having demonstrated that the Japanese invaders were by no means omnipotent, those events went far towards reinforcing Chinese people’s will to resist the aggressors.