The National Broadcasting Company at its affiliated stations present the Pacific Story. The Pacific Story This is the story of the Pacific, the drama of the millions of people who live around this greatest sea, where the United States is now committed to a long-term policy of keeping the peace. This, as another public service of the National Broadcasting Company, is the background story of the events in the Pacific and their meaning to us and to the generations to come. Russia, the new power in the Pacific. Russia has at last reached the sea. Today, Russians stand on the Kuril Islands, on all of the island of Sakhalin, and in the ports of Diron and Port Arthur. That means that things are going to be different in the Pacific so far as Russia is concerned. It means that Russia, our nearest overseas neighbor, has one control of the shores of Asia from the Bering Spades to the islands of Japan, and then some. The Pacific Story We will fortify the Kuril Islands. We will make them a screen of steel. Russia has planned. Henceforward, the Kuril Islands will stand guard against future Japanese aggression and will assure freedom of the Pacific Ocean for the Soviet motherland. The Soviet has at last broken out of its isolation. As the Americans strove westward to reach the Pacific, the Russians strove eastward. And as it took the Americans more than a century, so also it took the Russians. It must be remembered Russia is nearly three times as large as the United States. The greatest land mass on earth. It is 40 times the size of France. It is 1 6 the land surface of the earth. 1 6 the land surface of the earth. But until now our country was landlocked. We have many rivers, four of the longest in the world, but none gives us an outlet to the great oceans. The Volga flows into the Caspian Sea. The Yenisei and the Lena flow northward into the Arctic Ocean. And the Amur River flows into the Sea of the Horde. All these rivers are great rivers. They have for centuries been the lines of communication through the great territories of Russia. Down these rivers came the settlers from Europe. Cossacks, convicts, peasants, soldiers of fortune. That river is endless. There is a sea beyond this. Sometimes I wonder. Some of our own people have seen it. Dzerzhnev saw it. Dzerzhnev lived 200 years ago. How do we know he saw it? Atlasov and Kovalev and Zinoviev saw it 50 years later. They even made settlements on Tantanka. The natives burned their ports and drove them out, but they went back. Wilderness. Rivers and wilderness. Will we ever see anything else? The settlers moved eastward, down the rivers and the tributaries, then over land, then in boats again, then over rocky heartbreaking terrain, and at last Kamchatka Peninsula and the ice-free port they had heard of. Petropavlovsk. There it is. Warmed by the Japanese current and ice-free the year round. Petropavlovsk. It is real. That is the open Pacific you see there. Then across that ocean must be America. The New World. Petropavlovsk. This will be our outpost on the Pacific. The Russians had an ice-free port on the open Pacific, but it was situated on a lonely peninsula with access to the mainland difficult and thousands of miles of wilderness between it and the cities of European Russia. In relation to European Russia, it was like an ice-free port in Alaska in 1850 in relation to New York. Someday perhaps it would mean something. Someday when Siberia had been developed and when adequate communications had been built. But in 1850, the most it could become was the center of the Russian Pacific Naval Squadron. The attention of the world was again focused on the Far East. Russia and Britain were on bad terms and relations were growing worse. They were in conflict in the Crimea. They were also in conflict in Asia. Karparoviyov, who was governor general of Siberia, went back to Europe to confer with its arm. Britain is trying to checkmate us, Your Highness. Why is this? She's after a trade monopoly in the Far East. Can Russia compete with Britain in the Far East, Karparoviyov? Your Highness, Siberia is a land of untold resources. We cannot dream the extent of this wealth. Minerals, timber, fishing, furs. It will take us generations to develop it. But it is of no value to us unless we can trade with it. And for this we must have outlets. We must have ports. We must have markets. And these we cannot have as long as Britain continues to block us. Yes, we must have outlets. But we need more than that. Armed forces? Your Highness, if the British should attack our possessions in the East, how could we defend them? We must have more strength in the East. Yes. Britain has already forced an entry into China. Now she's trying to secure a similar monopoly throughout all Asia. Count Maroviyov, Russia is facing war with Britain here in Europe. Under these conditions, it is doubtful that we could support also a military operation in the Far East. Therefore, we must... General Maroviyov went back to Siberia. To him, with almost empty hands, felt the task of stopping the British in the Far East. 2,000 miles up the Amur River, he assembled an undisputed force. Hurry! Get those horses into the boat! Heal the bear! Heal the bear! Heal the bear! Get up there! Get up there! Get those cannon aboard! Here, give them man and cannon into the boat! Hurry! All together now! Lift! Lift! Up into the boat! Careful! Don't drop those guns! They'll go through the bottom! Get those horses up there! Come on! Out of the way! Ammunition coming through! Ammunition coming through! General Maroviyov, sir? We should have all the boats loaded and secured by daylight, sir. Is the food stored safely? As safe as anything can be in these boats, sir. These boats were not built to carry forces and cannons. We must do with what we have. Yes, sir. How many men will we have? About one thousand, perhaps a few less. Take every precaution. We have a long journey before us. We will sail at dawn. Yes, sir. What about the Chinese? The Chinese regard the Amur as their river. Yes? If they should use force, they will not pursue it. We will deal with that when it comes. Now, get those provisions aboard and see the results. Before the sun was up, the makeshift invasion fleet was moving down the river. Horses, cannons, ammunition, provisions crowded into the boats with the men. There is a Chinese force ahead of us there, at the bend of the river, sir. I know that for the world. Do they have gunboats there, sir? Yes. Chinese boats! Chinese boats! Chinese gunboats are in the stream to stop us. Do we fire on them, sir? No. Raise the flag and signal them to come over here. Yes, sir. With the Russian fleet of boats scattered over the great river, the Chinese gunboat came up alongside General Moraviyov's boat. All these boats are Russian? All of them. This river is a Chinese stream. No Russian force has a right to sail on it. I am carrying out a mission for His Imperial Majesty. It's ours. You will order your boats to land at the port. I have 8,000 men in this force. 8,000? Yes. It would be difficult for us to affect the landing. Is it not so? Yes. It would be difficult. The boats sail down. Moraviyov sailed down the river. His makeshift invasion force stretched out for a hundred miles. At the point where the armor turns northward, he unloaded his force. And horses, men, cannon, munitions, provisions started across the wilderness of what is now the maritime province of Soviet Asia. Down to the Gulf of Tartary they went, this non-descript army. On the barren shore of the wilderness, Moraviyov had assembled a fleet of small ocean-going vessels. He embarked his force and sailed to the peninsula of Kamchatka for the ice-free port of Petropavlovsk. They're returning our fire from the shore, sir. It's fantastic. How could they have shore batteries hidden in this godforsaken wilderness? I don't know, sir, but the cannon they're using is a very powerful weapon. I don't know, sir, but the cannon they're using is as big as ours or bigger. How could they have gotten guns and ammunition of this caliber out here to Petropavlovsk? Certainly not around the Cape of Good Hope. No, sir. And the garrison and the ammunition and provisions and all the rest. They have brought it out across Siberia. Are you hurt, sir? Are you hurt? No, no. Give the order to break off. We will have to withdraw. Yes, sir. Cease firing. Cease firing. Russia had served notice of her interests in the Pacific. If Petropavlovsk had fallen, the story might have been different. Written for the time was repulsed. But there was still the matter of the boundary dispute with China, where Aviov built fortified posts on the north bank of the Amur River. Chinese troops are gathering across the river, sir. They will not strike. They seem a strong force. China is having too much trouble with the Taiping rebels within and with England and France from without to cause trouble with us. Yes, sir. Here on the north bank of the Amur, we have taken our stand and here we will stay. The Amur must be the frontier. We must never again permit ourselves to be denied the use of the Amur. See you at the end. Yes, sir. This Chinese courier has a message for Count Moravio. Bring him in. You will come in with me. Yes, sir. General Moravio, this Chinese courier brings you a message. Prince Nishan, the Commander-in-Chief of the Chinese forces on the Amur, sends his compliments and this request. Let me have it. Is there a reply, sir? Yes. Inform Prince Nishan that they will confer with him as he requests at Aigun. Yes, sir. The Prince will be most pleased. They met at Aigun on the banks of the Amur. The Chinese Commander-in-Chief and his staff and Count Moravio and his staff. In the interest of closer friendly relations, we agree first that the entire north bank of the Amur River shall be Russian territory and second, that navigation on the Amur shall be confined entirely to Chinese and Russian vessels. This was the Treaty of Aigun. It settled the boundary dispute between Manchuria and Siberia. It opened to the Russia, Russia the trade of all of Northern Manchuria and it vastly strengthened Russia's influence in the Far East. Russia had scored another victory, but as she moved toward the Pacific, now she met another antagonist. Japan has for years had commercial relations with the Ainu people of Sakhalin. Russia has no right to penetrate this island. Sakhalin is not a Japanese island. Japan has prior rights. A Russian expedition crossed the Straits of Tartary from the mainland of Siberia to the island of Sakhalin years ago. We know of this expedition. The expedition explored the island and brought back complete reports. On the basis of these reports, Russia has engaged in trade with the people of Sakhalin. It would be a mistake for Russia to neglect Japan's rights on Sakhalin. The Russians pushed into Sakhalin. The Japanese stirred up the native Ainu against them. The Russians fought the Ainu and fought the Japanese. Sakhalin, only five miles off the mainland of Siberia, would mean protection for nearly 900 miles of Russia's maritime province. And it would mean access to the open Pacific. The Russians issued a pronouncement. The island of Sakhalin being a prolongation of the basin of the Amur River, incontestably belongs to Russia. The Japanese ignored this. More Russians came to the northern part of the island. More Japanese to the southern part. And at the same time, the same thing was happening in the Kuril Islands, the chain of islands 600 miles long, reaching from the southern tip of Kamchatka to Hokkido, the northernmost island of Japan. If the Japanese gained these islands, it meant that the entire area of the Sea of Akotsk would be hemmed in. The conflict increased. Russia proposes that Sakhalin be exchanged for the Kuril Islands. The entire island of Sakhalin going to Russia and the entire chain of Kuril islands going to Japan. It was settled for the time. The Russians took over Sakhalin. The Japanese took over the Kurils. But now the die was cast. Russia's and the Amur River's struggle for power was coming to a head. Japan was also in conflict with China. The world was astounded in 1894 when Little Japan, only a few decades removed from feudalism, attacked giant-sparling China and soundly defeated it. As a prize of the war, Japan took the southernmost tip of Manchuria. The area known is the Liaodong Peninsula. The area was called the Liao Deng Peninsula. The area was called the Liao Deng Peninsula. The area was called the Liao Deng Peninsula. The area was called the Liao Deng Peninsula. The area known is the Liao Deng Peninsula. By this maneuver, the Japanese have not only won a strong foothold on the mainland of Asia, but they have locked us in. If we permit the Japanese to occupy this territory, we will have no possibility of a warm water outlet to defeat. The Japanese have taken this area from China. You must not permit them to take it. You must not permit them to take it. Are we in a position to stop them? Neither Germany nor France wish any more than we do to see Japan in southern Manchuria. Uh-huh. I understand. I understand. The Russians pulled the strings. They lined up France and Germany, both of which had ambitions in the Pacific, against Japan. Baron Hayashi, in our considered opinion, the possession of the Liaodong Peninsula by Japan was not the king. To make sure that the Japanese knew what they meant, the Russians sent the biggest squadron of warships to the Far East that had ever been assembled in Chinese waters. They swallowed their pride for now and did not take the Liaodong Peninsula. The Russians then played their next card. They went to the Chinese. We were, of course, happy to help China regain the Liaodong Peninsula. The Chinese listened apprehensively. And we were happy to raise the 400 million francs to help China pay her debt to Japan. The Chinese listened. Now we must ask China's help. We ask that China permit us to build a railroad across Manchuria to Vladivostok. Russia was pushing her Trans-Siberian Railroad across the wilderness to the sea. To cut across Manchuria would save them some 350 miles. The Chinese agreed. This map here will show you. The railroad will enter Manchuria up here at Manchuli, here in northwestern Manchuria. And it will cut diagonally across Manchuria down to here. And at this point, cross the frontier and proceed to Vladivostok. This short cut across Manchuria was to be the Chinese Eastern Railroad. It was to be, in the years to come, the center of bitter wrangling and controversy. In effect, it gave the Russians an opening wedge into northern Manchuria. While it was building, the Tsar suddenly made an announcement. I have decided to occupy Port Arthur and Daliang Wan on the Laodong Peninsula. Your Imperial Majesty, if we are to develop our commercial interests in Manchuria, we must retain China's friendship. Besides, we have just regained the Laodong Peninsula from China from Jatun. Our transports and warships are already on the way. So, Russia moved into Daliang Wan and Port Arthur. The Chinese were astounded. Why have you done this? We need to protect Port Arthur and Daliang Wan against Germany. With the Germans in Kaozhou, these strategic points will need protection. It then developed that the Russians were interested in more than the two ports of Dairon and Port Arthur. From China, they secured a 25-year lease to the entire Laodong Peninsula. The Chinese have been trying to take over the Laodong Peninsula. But the Russians have not been able to do so. The Russians have been trying to take over the Laodong Peninsula. Russia lined up France and Germany against us and prevented us from taking the Laodong Peninsula. Now, they have moved in and taken it themselves. War between Russia and Japan was now inevitable. Correspondence sensing big news in the making went to the Laodong Peninsula. So, you've changed the name of Daliang Wan to Dalni. It is a Russian name. Tremendous improvements here. When we took over this place, it was no more than a small fishing village. Now, you see, we have transformed it into a fine harbor. And look at the city. Ten streets radiating out from the central circle. Yes. And what about railroad connections? You know, of course, that the Chinese eastern has been completed across northern Manchuria. Yes. Now, we are building a branch southward from the Chinese eastern down to here. Connecting with Port Arthur? Yes. That will give us a warm water outlet to the sea. Well, we'll have to take a run over to sea Port Arthur. That will not be permitted. Because the Chinese have been allowed to go to the sea? It will not be permitted. Because it is being fortified? It is not open to visitors. We were also fortifying Dalni here. And isn't that contrary to your agreement with China? Wasn't Dalni supposed to be an open port? It was. But thousands of Russian troops garrisoned it. The British objected. Britain is not opposed to the lease by Russia of an ice-free port connected by rail to the Trans-Siberian Railroad. But questions of an entirely different kind are opened if Russia develops a military port in the neighborhood of Peking. Russia gave in. Opened Dalni to the world, but not Port Arthur. The tension grew between Russia and Japan. Suddenly, it broke. While negotiations between Russia and Japan were still in progress, Japan today, without declaring war, unexpectedly attacked the Russian naval squadron in the Port Arthur area. The assault came so suddenly that the Russians were caught completely unprepared. Three of Russia's first-class warships were disabled. The Japanese navy is now in a position of great advantage. The attack was made under the cover of a blanket of... ...the transferred fleas of the Laodong Peninsula to Japan. Russia agrees to cede the southern section of the Manchurian Railroad to Japan. Russia agrees to cede the southern half of the island of Sakhalin to Japan. Russia was crushed. She had lost her foothold on the Laodong Peninsula. She had lost the ports of Dalni and Port Arthur. She had lost the section of railroad that connected with her Chinese eastern and linked the ports with the interior. Again, she was landlocked. Again, she was without a warm water outlet to the ocean. The Japanese took over the Laodong Peninsula. Hereafter, the port of Dalni will be known as Dairam. Well, you haven't lost any time in building it up. We will make Dairam the most important seaport on the mainland of Asia. You've got everything you need here. Good natural port and a railroad coming right down to the waterfront. And the main port of the Dairam. The main port of the Dairam. And the railroad coming right down to the waterfront. We will make the South Manchuria Railroad the most important railroad on the mainland of Asia. Then Japan has big things in mind for the Laodong Peninsula. It could be thought of in that way. As the Russians had tried to develop the Laodong Peninsula as a gateway, an outlet to the ocean, the Japanese developed it as a door into the continent of Asia. Through its ports and up through its railroads, the Japanese pumped blood and money into Manchuria. Japanese influence with its roots in the Laodong Peninsula spread upward, branched like an evil plant throughout all Manchuria, and blossomed out in a hundred places. The Russians on the north bank of the Amur looked on. Let us realize that the Japanese have no thought of extending their power only to the Amur. They have locked us in. But they have done more than that. They have secured a base from which they can, when the time suits them, take all of Manchuria. And even that is only part of their plan. The Russian misgivings took form in 1918. Seventy thousand troops they have sent here into Vladivostok. Yes, pretext of keeping order. How can we get them out? We cannot now. Our revolution is only a year old. They will stay here indefinitely if we do not get them out. They will not only stay here in the vicinity of Vladivostok, they will also try to occupy the whole maritime area of Siberia. They will try to take Kamchatka and the Commander Islands and the Chukot headlands. Then they will push inland, possibly as far as the Ural. We must get them out or Soviet Asia will be lost. We will get them out. Give them up! It took four years to get the Japanese out of Siberia. By 1922 it was plain that a new conflict was brewing between Japan and Russia. Russia was still weak and Japan was not ready. Not for war against Russia. But she was strong enough for the intermediary step. The Russians looked on from the north bank of the Amur. The incident started at two places in Mugden. And now they have taken all of Manchuria. Yes. Now there is only the Amur River between us and them. We can see the Japanese sentries across the river. Yes. These boxes come strictly from many outlets to the sea through Manchuria. Yes. Do you think they will attack us? As soon as they dispose of China. The events to come were taking form. In 1935, the Russians sold the Chinese Eastern Railroad to the Japanese. This marked an important change in Russian policy. It means the Russians are pulling out of Manchuria and building up their power back of their sealed borders in Siberia. They are digging in along the Amur. And in the hinterlands they are getting ready for what their shore lies ahead. Reports filtered out of Siberia of a new railroad. The Baikal-Amoa Magistral said to run parallel to the Trans-Siberians some hundreds of miles north. Inform the authorities out here in the Far East see the BAM, as this railroad is called, as an ace in the hole. If the Japanese should attack across the Amur and cut the Trans-Siberian, the Soviets would still have the BAM running all the way to the Pacific. And reports filtered out of another railroad, this one running along the coast of the Sea of Akutsk, from the Trans-Siberian Railroad northward to the Kamchatka Peninsula. If it is true that they are building this railroad, it means that the Soviets are going to develop their own ice-free port at Petropavlovsk, on the east coast of Kamchatka. The building of such a railroad shows their dire need for a warm water year-round port. The terrain over which this railroad would have to be built is almost impossible. It was a race for time. The Russians knew when Japan attacked China that they were next. Fighting for the 2000-mile frontier. By 1938, there had been more than 2300 separate bloody skirmishes, the bloodiest of which was in the Lake Hassan area near Vladivostok. The Japanese are trying to isolate Vladivostok. They will smash them. And the Russians did. But the next year, the Japanese made an even greater attack at Kalkine Gold. The Russians were not afraid of the Japanese. They are trying to break into Soviet territory and cut the Trans-Siberians and cut off the Far East from Russia. They will smash them. And they did. And back at the border, the Soviets worked day and night for the showdown which would decide whether Russia would lose the Far East to Japan, or would break out of our isolation and become a power in the Pacific. Today, the Japanese are defeated. Russia has won. After more than a century of struggle, a political bickering and carnivory and intrigue, a bloody fighting and waffling suffering, the Russians stand on the Kuril Islands, on all of the island of Sakhalin, and in the ports of Dairin and Port Arthur. Beating the Japanese, Dairin and Port Arthur. We will fortify the Kuril Islands into a screen of steel. We will develop the northeastern Pacific coast. We shall take whatever steps necessary to assure freedom of the Pacific Ocean to the Soviet motherland. Russia has at last reached the sea. You have been listening to The Pacific Story, presented by the National Broadcasting Company and its affiliated independent stations, as a public service to clarify events in the Pacific and to make understandable the cross-currents of life in the Pacific Basin. For a reprint of this Pacific Story program, send ten cents in stamps or coin to University of California Press, Berkeley, California. May I repeat? For a reprint of this Pacific Story program, send ten cents in stamps or coin to University of California Press, Berkeley, California. The Pacific Story is written and directed by Arnold Marquis. The original musical score was composed and conducted by Thomas Paluso, your narrator, Gain Whitman. Programs in this series of particular interest to servicemen and women are broadcast overseas through the worldwide facilities of the Armed Forces Radio Service. This program came to you from Hollywood. This is the National Broadcasting Company.
