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rWotD Episode 2790: Kuril Ainu language Welcome to Random Wiki of the Day, your journey through Wikipedia’s vast and varied content, one random article at a time.The random article for Monday, 23 December 2024 is Kuril Ainu language.Kuril Ainu is an extinct and poorly attested Ainu language of the Kuril Islands. The main inhabited islands were Kunashir, Iturup and Urup in the south, and Shumshu in the north. Other islands either had small populations (such as Paramushir) or were visited for fishing or hunting. There may have been a small mixed Kuril–Itelmen population at the southern tip of the Kamchatka Peninsula.The Ainu of the Kurils appear to have been a relatively recent expansion from Hokkaidō, displacing an indigenous Okhotsk culture, which may have been related to the modern Itelmens. When the Kuril Islands passed to Japanese control in 1875, many of the northern Kuril Ainu evacuated to Ust-Bolsheretsky District in Kamchatka, where about 100 still live. In the decades after the islands passed to Soviet control in 1945, most of the remaining southern Kuril Ainu evacuated to Hokkaidō, where they have since been assimilated.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:07 UTC on Monday, 23 December 2024.For the full current version of the article, see Kuril Ainu language on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm standard Aditi.

This is the second of two episodes talking about the people in the north of the Japanese archipelago:  The Emishi and the Mishihase.  Last episode we covered things from an archaeological overview, looking at the traces of the Epi-Jomon, Satsumon, and Okhotsk Sea cultures.  This episode focuses more on what was actually written in the Nihon Shoki, including a journey to introduce Emishi to the Tang Emperor himself! For more information, check out our podcast blog at: https://sengokudaimyo.com/podcast/episode-117   Rough Transcript Welcome to Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.  My name is Joshua and this is episode 117: The People of the North, Part 2 Abe no Hirafu gazed out at the sea, waiting for his opponents to appear.  He had traveled with a fleet to the far north, into a land that was unlike anything that most of his men had ever seen.  They were far away from the rice fields of their home villages.  Up here, the people made their way by hunting and fishing, and the land was much more wild.  Besides the people, the land was also home to giant bears, much larger than anything back in the Home Provinces.  Giant beasts with paws the size of a man's head.  They were truly incredible, but they were not his target this time. As he watched the waves, he saw his prey emerge.  They rowed their ships around the cape, coming out from the defensive position they had previously established.  Where Hirafu's men flew banners made of silk, his opponents had created flags made of feathers, which they hoisted high in their boats.  They were small in number, but they knew this land and these waters.  They were comfortable traveling in the cold and unforgiving seas, and they no doubt had reinforcements.  Hirafu may have had the upper hand, but he knew he couldn't get too cocky. It was probably too much to hope for that the size of his fleet alone would cause them to submit.  If they could be bought off, then perhaps that was best, but Hirafu knew that was probably unlikely.  This was going to be a fight, and Hirafu and his men were ready for it. Before we jump into the episode proper, a quick thank you to Hakucho for donating to support Sengoku Daimyo.  We always appreciate any support, and there is information at the end of each episode on how to help out if you would like to join them. Last episode we introduced the Emishi and the Mishihase and talked about them and their connections to the Yamato and Japanese state, as well as to the modern Ainu people.  We went over a lot of the archaeological findings, and talked about how the Jomon period, uninterrupted in northern Honshu and Hokkaido, eventually gave way to the Epi-Jomon and Satsumon cultures, while the Ohokotsk Sea Culture is observed from around the 5th to 9th centuries, and we talked about how these existed in the lands we know as being connected to the Emishi and the Mishihase people mentioned in the Chronicles. This episode we are going to rely a lot more on the narrative found in the Nihon Shoki, but I wanted to make sure that we had that discussion about the archaeology, first, so that people would have a background.  If you haven't already done so, I highly recommend going back and giving Part 1 a listen. So let's back up a bit, and let's set the scene on the peninsula and the archipelago, and see what led up to this moment. In 654, the sovereign of Yamato, Karu, aka Kotoku Tennou, had passed away in his palace in Naniwa.  His sister, Takara Hime, and other members of the royal family had gathered once more in Naniwa when they caught word of his illness, but their visit was brief.  Karu passed away on the 1st day of the 10th month, and a little over two months later he was buried.  After that, rather than taking up residence again in Naniwa, the court moved back to the old capital of Asuka, where Takara Hime re-ascended the throne.  It was now the year 655, almost a decade since Crown Prince Naka no Oe had orchestrated the murderous coup that had seen the powerful scions of the Soga family cut down in front of Takara Hime and others, causing her to abdicate.  And now, well, perhaps Naka no Oe was comfortable controlling things from behind the scenes, because Takara Hime was once again the one in power—or at least the one sitting on the throne.  And there's a LOT that would go on during this reign according to the chronicles. On the peninsula at this point, the Tang-Goguryeo war was in full swing, with the Tang dynasty regularly harassing Goguryeo.  Goguryeo was at least nominally allied with Baekje, whose ruling family also claimed descent from a shared Buyeo ancestor, and Baekje was, of course, a long time ally of Yamato.  Meanwhile, Silla had thrown their lot in with the Tang dynasty, though as alliances went it was not exactly an alliance of equals – and most alliances came and went as the political winds changed throughout the peninsula. Over time, we'll see some resolution coming to the situation on the peninsula.  But overall, one of the biggest trends is that during Takara Hime's second reign, Yamato was reaching out to a much wider world than it had in the past.  This included connections to the south—to those on the Ryukyu islands, and possibly beyond.  And there were continued efforts to reach out to the Tang empire, with varying degrees of success.  Those that did go would sit and learn at the feet of some of the most famous scholars in the world, including the Buddhist priest, scholar, and traveler, Xuanzang, someone I cannot wait to get into in a future episode, as he really demonstrates just how connected the world had become at this time in a way that is often hard for us to comprehend, today. But there is also plenty happening in the archipelago, and even just in Asuka.  In fact, regardless of what the Chronicles say, there are a lot of ancient monuments and archaeological finds in the Asuka region that aren't directly mentioned in any historical record, but can be generally traced to this era - reminders of this period that are literally carved in stone.  We still have plenty of questions as to just what was going on, but we're starting to see more and more lasting physical traces. Our first relevant entry in the Nihon Shoki for the topic of this episode comes from the 7th month of 655, the year that Takara Hime had taken the throne.  We are told that 99 Northern Emishi and 99 Eastern Emishi were entertained at the court of Naniwa—presumably using the government facilities built during Karu's time.  At the same time, there were 150 envoys from Baekje who were likewise feted.  Caps of honor, of two grades in each case, were bestowed on nine Emishi of Kikafu and six Emishi of Tsugaru.  This is an interesting record, and let's explore what it means for Yamato's view of itself and its own authority.  First, the Baekje and the Emishi are being streated similarly—they both appear to be groups that are from *outside* Yamato conducting some kind of diplomacy with the court.  That said, it is quite clear from the way that the Chronicles deal with them that Yamato viewed each group as distinctly different.  Baekje was Yamato's continental ally, and their primary means through which they could access the continent and all that it had to offer.  They had helped bring Buddhism to the archipelago, and were clearly seen as a civilized country.  The Emishi, on the other hand, were Yamato's own “barbarians”.  They were outside and Yamato clearly saw them as less civilized.  In many ways Yamato viewed the Emishi similar to how the Tang court likely viewed Yamato.  After all, just as Tang literature talked about the differences between the quote-unquote “civilized” center of the empire and the so-called “barbaric” lands beyond their borders, Yamato could place itself in a similar position, simply by placing the Nara Basin at the “Center” and with the Emishi helping define that which was outside.  So in an odd way, this may have been uplifting for Yamato's own self-image. And just as the Tang court enticed border states into their sphere of influence with the promise of imperial titles, the Yamato court similarly was bestowing rank upon the Emishi, making themselves the granter of prestige and recognition.  By being a part of the system, you were rewarded with recognition of your status, something that likely appealed to many. As to the places referenced – Kikafu and Tsugaru – Aston isn't certain about Kikafu, but Tsugaru seems quite obvious as the northernmost tip of Honshu, in modern Aomori prefecture, where the islands of Honshu and Hokkaido are separated by none other than the Tsugaru strait. The fact that the Chroniclers differentiated between the Eastern and Northern Emishi likewise suggests that this was not a monolithic state.  Yamato saw a difference between the Emishi in one part of the archipelago versus the other. Three years later, in the 4th month of 658, Yamato sent one of the largest expeditions against the northeast.  Abe no Omi—other entries name him as Abe no Omi no Hirafu—took 180 ships up north on an expedition to the Emishi.  We are told that he met with the Emishi in the districts of Aita and Nushiro, believed to be in modern Akita prefecture.  Akita prefecture is on the western side of Tohoku, towards the very northern tip.  It is opposite Iwate prefecture on the east, and just below Aomori prefecture, which, at the time, was known as Tsugaru.  This was on the extreme end of Honshu. Both Aita and Nushiro quickly submitted to the Yamato mission.  Still, Abe drew up his ships in order of battle in the bay of Aita, where an envoy from the Emishi named Omuka came forward and made an oath.  He swore that they had no ill-intentions.  The fact that the Emishi were armed with bows and arrows was not because they were at war, but because up in that area of Tohoku, they were all hunters, and so it was their regular tool.  They swore to the gods of Aita bay that they had not raised arms against Yamato, but they were willing to submit to Yamato rule. For his part, Omuka was granted court rank, and local governors were established at Nushiro and Tsugaru—likely meaning they recognized local chieftains and made them responsible for representing the others.  Finally, they summoned the Emishi of Watari no Shima to the shores of Arima, and a great feast was provided.  After that, they all returned home. The  term “Watari no Shima” seems to almost undoubtedly refer to the island of Hokkaido.  “Watari” means to cross, so referring to the “Emishi of Watari no Shima” likely referred to the Emishi on Hokkaido vice those in the Tohoku region. The entire entry seems a bit suspect.  Abe no Hirafu takes an armed party up north and then they all… just sit down and have tea together?  There seems to be a lot of missing context.  Of course, from Yamato's perspective, they were the civilized center.  Does that mean that any violence they committed was simply swept under the rug of history?  Or did they truly meet with such quick submission that only a show of force was necessary? There is one other entry for 658, relative to all of this. It isn't given a specific date, so it is unclear when, exactly it occurred, but it may shed some light.  That entry states that Abe no Hikida no Omi no Hirafu, warden of the land of Koshi, went on an expedition not against the Emishi, but against the Mishihase, or Su-shen.  He is said to have brought back from this trip two live “white bears”, or “shiguma”. So was his expedition really against the Emishi, or was his actual goal to fight the Mishihase, which means he didn't just stop at the end of Honshu, but he continued on to Hokkaido—Watari no Shima—and up at least to Central Hokkaido, where he would have met with the people of the Okhotsk Sea culture—likely the Mishihase of the Chronicle?  Or was he sailing against both? This also leads to numerous other theories as to just what was going on.  While Yamato was pushing on the Emishi from the south, were these Mishihase likewise encroaching on the Emishi in the north?  Were they pushing them south or absorbing those in the farthest north?  There seems to have clearly been a difference and some conflict between them, as evidenced by later entries, which we'll cover in a bit. Quickly, though, I do want to touch on the idea that they brought back two “white bears”.  “Shiguma” appears to refer to a “white bear”, and at its most simplistic understanding, this would seem to refer to a polar bear, but that seems quite a stretch.  Today, polar bears largely live in the arctic regions, out on the permanent sea ice, where they are able to hunt.  They are considered an aquatic animal, living mainly in the ocean, though they will come ashore to hunt, on occasion.  Still, they are mostly adapted to life on the sea ice. While the climate of the 700s was different, I don't know that the sea ice extended that far south.  It is possible that polar bears had been captured much further north, and then sold to people further south, through the extensive trade networks that ran up through Kamchatka, Siberia, and even across the Aleutian chain, but as far as I can tell, polar bears would not have been living in Hokkaido or even in the Kuril or Sakhalin islands at that time. It is much more likely that the “Shiguma” was one of the Hokkaido brown bears.   They may have been albino, but more likely it was simply an easy designation to distinguish them from the bears of the rest of the archipelago—the Asian black bear.  These are clearly black bears, though their fur can appear lighter in some instances.  Meanwhile, although brown bears can be a very dark brown, their fur can vary to almost a blond, and if you look at many photos you can see how they might be considered “white”, especially compared to the black bear that was the norm in Yamato.  I suspect that this is actually the species that Hirafu brought back, and which would be referenced in later entries, where “shiguma” furs appear to be have been quite plentiful, suggesting it wasn't just a rare mutation. In addition, I can't help but note that the presence of bears, here, seems to also further connect with modern traditions of the Ainu of Hokkaido.  Most notably in their reverence for bears, including the traditional Iyomante ceremony.  There is also evidence of the importance of bears in what we see of the Okhotsk Sea Culture.  It is hard to tell if there is more from this interaction, but it still raises some questions. But I digress.  While there are still a lot of gaps, we can see that the Emishi were being brought into the fold, as it were, while the Mishihase were apparently the threat that Yamato would be fighting.  In fact, I can't help but wonder if the threat posed by the Mishihase didn't help encourage the Emishi to ally themselves with Yamato in an attempt to protect themselves. Whatever happened, the relationship with the Emishi, from that point, seems to place them as subjects of Yamato.  We are told that three months later, over 200 Emishi visited the Yamato court, bringing presents for the sovereign.  These were not just the Emishi of the far reaches of Tohoku, but seems to have included Emishi from several different regions.  We are also told that the entertainment and largess provided by the court was even greater than any time before, no doubt presenting the carrot in contrast to Abe no Hirafu's stick. One of the carrots handed out was court rank,  We are told that two Emishi of the enigmatic Kikafu region each received one grade of rank while Saniguma, the Senior governor of Nushiro, was granted two steps in rank, making him Lower Shou-otsu in the rank system of the time, and he was given the superintendence of the population register—likely meaning he had a charge similar to the other governors dispatched to take a census and let the court know just how many people there were in the region.  His junior governor, Ubasa, received the rank of Kembu, the lowest rank in the system. Meanwhile, Mamu, the Senior governor of Tsugaru was granted the rank of Upper Dai-otsu and Awohiru, the Junior governor of Tsugaru, was granted the rank of Lower Shou-out. At the same time, two ranks were granted on the Miyatsuko of the Tsukisara Barrier and one rank was granted to Inadzumi Ohotomo no Kimi, Miyatsuko of the Nutari Barrier.  These last two appear to have been members of Yamato rather than Emishi, but clearly all related to the issue of the borders and beyond. And so we are given three different locations.  We are not told the names of the Emishi from Kikafu, but we are given the names of the senior and junior governors—likely local chieftains co-opted into the Yamato polity—of Nushiro and Tsugaru.  Together with the name “Omuka” we have some of our earliest attestations to possible Emishi names—though whether these were names, titles, or something else I could not say.  We have Saniguma, Ubasa, Mamu, and Awohiru.  None of these are given with family names, which seems to track with the fact that formal “family” names appear to have been an innovation of the Kofun culture, rather than an indigenous phenomenon. I would also note that I am not sure if these ranks came with any kind of stipend: after all, much of that region wasn't exactly suited to rice-land, so where would the stipend come from?  That said, there were certainly more practical gifts that were laid out for them as well.  The governors of Nushiro and the governors of Tsugaru were each given 20 cuttle-fish flags—likely a banner similar to the koi nobori, or carp banners, in use today—as well as two drums, two sets of bows and arrows, and two suits of armor.  This seems to be one for the Senior and one for the Junior governor.  In addition, Saniguma was commanded to “investigate” the Emishi population as well as what Aston translates as the “captive” population—by which I suspect they mean those living in bondage within the Emishi communities.   It is interesting to me that even though the senior governor of Tsugaru was given a higher rank, this last duty was only given to the governor of Nushiro. And there you have it.  With all of that the Emishi were at least nominally subject to the Yamato court.  They were still, however, cultural outsiders.  It is quite likely that they spoke a different language, and given the number of placenames in Tohoku that seem to correspond with the modern Ainu language, it is quite likely that a language at least related to modern Ainu was spoken in the Emishi controlled areas. A similar pattern to the year 658 took place in the entries for the following year.  Once again, Abe no Hirafu went north with 180 ships on what we are told, at least in Aston's translation, was an expedition against the Emishi.  He assembled a selection of the Emishi of Akita and Nushiro, totaling 241 people, with 31 of their captives, as well as 112 Emishi of Tsugaru with 4 of their captives, and 20 Emishi of Ifurisahe.  Once he had them all at his mercy he then… feasted them and gave them presents.  Is this really what an expedition *against* the Emishi looked like?  It almost sounds more like a diplomatic mission. We are told that after feasting and giving the assembled Emishi presents, Abe no Hirafu made an offering to the local gods of a boat and silk of various colors. He then proceeded to a place called “Shishiriko”, where two Emishi from a place called Tohiu, named Ikashima and Uhona, came forward and told him that Yamato should create an outpost at Shiribeshi, on the west coast of Hokkaido, which would be the seat of local Yamato government.  This sounds not entirely dissimilar from the idea of the Dazai in Kyushu.  Abe no Hirafu agreed and established a district governor there. Relevant to this, between the 7th and 8th centuries, we see clusters of pit dwellings in Hokkaido largely in the areas corresponding to the modern sub-prefectures of Sorachi, Ishikari, and Iburi, with many of them clustered near modern Sapporo, and a very small number near Rumoi, further north along the western coast. Once more it is another account, not the main narrative of the Nihon Shoki, where we might see what was really going on.  That entry claims that Abe no Hirafu went north to fight with the Mishihase and, on his return, he brought back some 49 captives.  So was this what all of this was really about?  Was he going up there to fight the Emishi, or was he perhaps fighting with the Emishi against the Mishihase? When Abe no Hirafu finally returned, it seems that the provincial governors of Michinoku—pretty much the whole of Touhoku—and Koshi, which was also a land known for being home to Emishi, were granted two grades of rank.  Their subordinates, the district governors and administrators, each received one grade of rank. We are also told that on the 17th day of the 3rd month of 659, that a copy of Mt. Meru was constructed on the riverbank east of Amakashi no Oka and that Emishi of Michonoku and Koshi were both entertained there.  Little more is given, and, again, it isn't clear if this is before or after Hirafu's expedition of that year. Mt. Meru—read as Shumisen, today—is the mountain at the center of the world, according to some Buddhist traditions.  Building a copy would have been a statement, creating a copy of the mountain and bringing the center of the universe to you.  This was probably a feature in a garden—at least that is how it was conceived of during the reign of Kashikiya Hime.  This second one may have been made with a pile of stones, and there have even been found some features in Asuka that some think could be remnants of this ancient model of the universe, but they aren't without controversy. In any case, that same year that the Emishi were brought to Asuka to view this Buddhist monument, in 659, a mission was sent to the Tang court.  We'll talk about the mission at some other time, but for now I want to focus on the fact that they brought with them an Emishi man and a woman to show the Tang emperor.  Regrettably, we don't know their names, and we don't know their status in Emishi society.  Were these captives, possibly enslaved?  Or were these volunteers, who had gone willingly with the envoys to see the lands beyond their home.  They likely had heard of the Tang empire from Yamato, and so it wouldn't be so surprising if they decided to go see it for themselves. Where it is of particular interest to us right now is that we have an apparent eyewitness account of the description given to the Tang Emperor about the Emishi by the Yamato envoys.  Be aware that the envoys were not necessarily experts in Emishi culture, and may not have met any other than their travel companions, but the description, given by none other than Yuki no Hakatoko, who was apparently there, at the Tang court, when it happened, gives us invaluable insight into how Yamato viewed the Emishi. The entire thing is a bit of a question and answer session as the Tang Emperor, Tang Gaozong, inquired about the Emishi and who they were.  In response to his questions, the envoys assured him that Yamato and the Emishi were at peace with each other.  They further noted that there were three different groups of Emishi.  Those farthest from Yamato were the Tsugaru Emishi.  Next, slightly closer to Yamato, were the Ara-Emishi.  “Ara” in this case means “soft”, and was probably a reference to the fact that those Emishi closer to Yamato were seen as more compliant.  Finally ,there are the “Nigi-Emishi”, living right on the borders.  “Nigi” in this case seems to refer to them being the “Gentle” or even “Civilized” Emishi.  I suspect that those living closest to Yamato were also the ones doing things like farming, and possibly building burial mounds.  They may have even mixed with some of the border communities, and may have included Wa communities that were outside of Yamato's influence.  After all, it isn't entirely obvious that “Emishi” referred to a single ethnic identity. In providing further answers to the emperor's questioning, we are told that the Emishi, at least according to the Yamato envoys, didn't farm, but instead they sustained themselves through hunting and fishing.  Furthermore, we are told that they didn't live in houses, but instead they dwelt under trees and in the recesses of the mountains.  This one is a little more questionable, after all, we have evidence of pit houses and villages all the way up to Aomori and back to Jomon times.  However, it is quite possible that Yamato was often encountering hunting parties, which very likely may have been using makeshift shelters or utilizing natural features like caves when they were out traveling.  Some of this, though, may have been built around ideas and concepts of how quote-unquote “barbaric” people lived, focusing on the exceptional, exotic, and sensationalist instances rather than on the more mundane day-to-day details.  Finally, the emperor himself commented on the “unusual appearance” of the Emishi.  We know that the Japanese terms for the Emishi refer to them as hairy barbarians, and if they were anything like modern Ainu, they were likely a good deal more hirsute than their Yamato neighbors.  This was no doubt a stereotype, as, again, Emishi may have also included some members of the Wa in their numbers, but they also appear to have included groups of people that were quite physically distinct.  Some DNA evidence also bears this out, and even today many people with deep ancestral ties to the Tohoku region demonstrate closer ties to ancient Jomon populations than to the succeeding Yayoi population that came over from the continent with their rice farming techniques. And so that gives us mostly what we know about the Emishi, except that they seem to have left out the Emishi of Watari no Shima—the Emishi of Hokkaido.  They would have been beyond the Tsugaru Emishi, unless they were considered similar, and painted with the same brush. And speaking of Watari no Shima, we have one more entry before we bring things to a close, and that is from the third month of the year 660.  Once more, Abe no Omi, who must have been getting his frequent sailor miles in by this point—or at least one hopes he had been invited to the Captain's circle at least.  Anyway, Abe no Omi was sent on yet another expedition, this time with 200 ships, and this time quite specifically against the Mishihase.  He made a stop in Michinoku on the way up where he brought some of the Emishi on his own boat—possibly as translators and guides.  They then continued northern until they reached a large river—Aston suggests that it was possibly the Ishikari river, north of modern Sapporo.  There they found a thousand Emishi of Watari no Shima encamped. Upon seeing the Yamato forces, two men came out from the camp to let Hirafu and his men know that the Mishihase had arrived in their own fleet, threatening to kill all of them.  And so they asked permission to cross the river over to Hirafu and join him.  Specifically we are told they asked to “serve the government” suggesting that they were willing to suborn themselves if Hirafu would assist with driving off the Mishihase. Hirafu had the two spokespersons come aboard his ship and then show him where the enemy was concealed.  They showed him where, telling him that the Mishihase had some 20 ships. Hirafu sent for the Mishihase to come and face him, but they refused.  And so instead he tried a different tactic.  He piled up colored silk cloth, weapons, iron, etc., in sight of the Mishihase, hoping that their curiosity and greed would get the better of them.  Sure enough, they drew up in their boats, which were decorated with feathers tied on poles like a flag.  Their vessels were powered with oars, and they brought them to the shallows.  From there, they sent two older men out to inspect the pile.  The men came out, and when they saw what was there, they exchanged their clothes for some from the pile and took some of the silk cloth and then returned to their ship.  After some time, they came back out, took off the exchanged garments and laid them down with the silk.  With that, they then boarded their ship and departed. Aston suggests that this behavior mimics an aspect of something called an “unseen trade” which he claims had been common in the region of Hokkaido until recently.  I hadn't found anything specifically about that, but it does make a kind of sense, especially if groups are possibly hostile and perhaps don't speak the same language. So does that mean that, for all of his military might, Hirafu was basically just buying off the Mishihase? In any case, it seems they did not take it.  They left the garments and the silk, which seems to have indicated that they had no deal, and they departed.  Hirafu pursued the Mishihase, and tried to get them to come out again—presumably looking for a stand up fight between his 200 ships and the MIshihase's 20, but instead the Mishihase headed to the island of Herobe, in another part of Watari no Shima.  After a while of being holed up, the Mishihase did sue for peace, but by that point, Abe no Hirafu was having none of it.  So they took themselves to their palisades and there they tried to hold out against Abe no Hirafu's forces.  Noto no Omi no Mamukatsu was slain in the fighting, as we can only suspect that others were as well, but over time the Yamato forces began to wear them down. Finally, when it seemed there was no way they could win or escape, the MIshihase took the drastic step of killing their own women and children, perhaps fearing what the Yamato soldiers would do to them if they were caught. And with that, it was over.  There are only a few mentions of the Mishihase, or even the Emishi, in the rest of the Nihon Shoki.  Granted, as we will eventually see, the people of Yamato were no doubt pre-occupied with what was going on to the west, where the Baekje-Tang war would be soon coming to a close.  Abe no Hirafu would be called on, once more, in that famous conflict, but we are going to save that for another day. For now, I think we can end things here.  Or just about.  I would be remiss if I didn't mention that there is a theory that many of these expeditions were actually the same thing, but recorded slightly differently in different ways, with some confusion about the actual dates.  Even if that was the case, it doesn't necessarily discount the overall information provided, and that information seems to at least somewhat conform to what we know about the archaeological record, as far as I can tell.  Granted, this is still the story as told by outsiders.  Since the people labeled “Emishi” didn't leave us with any records of this time, themselves, we don't exactly have their side of things, which is something we should keep in mind. This isn't the last time the Emishi will pop up in Japanese history.  Even if they were being granted rank, the Emishi remained a group apart.  Succeeding generations of Japanese would settle in the Tohoku region, eventually absorbing or pushing out the Emishi, or Ezo, while on Hokkaido, the people we know as the Ainu, who were likely an amalgamation of both Okhotsk Sea people and Epi-Jomon and Satsumon cultures, would eventually become dominant across the island of Hokkaido—at least until the 19th century. But that is for much later episodes.  For now, we'll continue to stick with our small, but active corner of the 7th century.  There is still a lot more to explore in this reign.  Next episode will be our annual New Year's recap, and then we will continue on with more from this episode in the following year. Until then thank you for listening and for all of your support. If you like what we are doing, please tell your friends and feel free to rate us wherever you listen to podcasts.  If you feel the need to do more, and want to help us keep this going, we have information about how you can donate on Patreon or through our KoFi site, ko-fi.com/sengokudaimyo, or find the links over at our main website,  SengokuDaimyo.com/Podcast, where we will have some more discussion on topics from this episode. Also, feel free to reach out to our Sengoku Daimyo Facebook page.  You can also email us at the.sengoku.daimyo@gmail.com.  Thank you, also, to Ellen for their work editing the podcast. And that's all for now.  Thank you again, and I'll see you next episode on Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.

This is the first in a two part series on the people living to the Northeast of Yamato, in the areas of Tohoku and Hokkaido.  They are called in the Chronicles, the Emishi and the Mishihase, and these designations appear to refer to areas that include the Epi-Jomon and later Satsumon cultures as well as members of the Okhotsk Sea Culture, all archaeological designations for various people whom we know primarily through their archaeological remains.  We also discuss a bit about how all of this ties in (or doesn't) with the modern Ainu, and why we don't necessarily use that term until much later in the historical record. For more, check out our podcast blog at: https://sengokudaimyo.com/podcast/episode-116   Rough Transcript   Welcome to Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.  My name is Joshua and this is episode 116: The People of the North, Part 1   A soldier stood watch on the Nutari Barrier.  It was only a few years old—built to define and defend the boundaries between the lands under Yamato rule and the untamed wilds, beyond.  Looking behind him, the soldier could see the smoke from the nearby settlement, also newly constructed, which would supply him and his fellow guards with food and clothing while they took their turn at the border. Looking outwards, the soldier wondered what life beyond the barrier was like.  He had seen people crossing through, mostly with various trade goods.  For the most part, they didn't seem all that different, but he had heard stories: stories of wild men and women who lived in caves and slept under the trees.  They were hunters who knew the woods and could easily slip through areas that didn't even have roads. As one traveled further north, things grew only more wild and untamed—or so the stories said.   Giant bears with paws as large as a human head roamed the land—he'd seen a skin once and it was massive.  The people of the north fought with them and, or so he'd heard, even kept them as pets. Further, well beyond the pale, there were people who lived on the sea.  They traveled between islands in the frozen north, and hunted the beasts of the ocean.  They were few, but they were mighty people. A chill went through the soldier's spine.  He'd only ever heard stories of most of these outsiders, and even then it was hard to tell what was truth and what was merely exaggeration.  He had never actually gone out to see it himself, though he'd met some who claimed they had. It gave him some sense of worth that he was out here, defending the settled, civilized lands of his people from the wild, ungoverned tribes beyond the border.  That said, he hoped with all his heart that things remained peaceful.  Yes, it would certainly be better that way for all involved.   We are just starting out the second reign of Takara Hime, which started in the year 655.  For her first reign, the Chroniclers would give her the title of Kougyoku Tennou, but when she retook the throne they named her Saimei.  As we talked about in the last couple of episodes, there was a lot going on at this point, not just on the archipelago, but in the rest of Asia as well.   We'll summarize that briefly just to set the stage for the beginning of Takara Hime's reign, but this episode we're going to primarily focus on the expansion of Yamato authority throughout the rest of the archipelago, or at least the rest of Honshu.  In this context, we'll be talking extensively about the people that the Chronicles call the Emishi, since this section of the Chronicles contains numerous entries that give us our clearest look, to date, at who they were, at least from a Yamato perspective.  We'll also be looking at another group in the north, known to us as the Mishihase, for whom we have even less information. As this whole episode got a bit long, we are going to be doing this in two parts.  This episode, I'd like to introduce you to some of the terms, discuss some of the problems and considerations around these topics, and touch on what we know based largely on the archaeological record.  In the second episode we'll focus on the narrative as it appears in the Nihon Shoki, which hopefully will be something that makes more sense once we have that archaeological context.  While there are certainly some things that appear to coincide between the two narratives, there are a lot of differences.  Archaeology can help us understand the material culture, and give us some insights into the lifeways of a particular group of people, but it doesn't let us know what they said, and rarely gives us information about a particular event. Before we dive into this, I think it would be useful to touch on terms that we are going to be using this episode, and next.  I mention this because while we are dealing with the past, our story of the past is very much affecting the lives of people in the present.  Most specifically, the lives of the Ainu people of Hokkaido, and how their history and experience intertwines with the concept of the “Emishi” that we see in the Chronicles.  So let's explore these terms, and see where it takes us. First, I should probably make a note about the difference between “Wa” and “Yamato”, at least as I'm using it in this episode.  When I use “Wa” I'll be referring to the ethnic group, while “Yamato” refers to the state.  For the most part, as we are focused on the historical state forming in central Honshu, we'll talk about Yamato, or the State of Yamato. That is a political entity that is majority Wa in its make-up, but that doesn't mean that there weren't Wa people outside of the Yamato state, nor that Yamato was made up of only people who identified, ethnically as Wa.  As we've seen, the Yamato state also included immigrants who identified as people of Baekje, Silla, Goguryeo, and even Emishi. Next, the Emishi.  The term “Emishi” is an exonym used by Yamato to describe those who are outside of Yamato's borders and controls, especially up in Tohoku.  By “exonym”, I mean that it's a term imposed from outside – in this case, by Yamato – on the group of people known as the Emishi, because we really don't know what they called themselves. Moreover, the term “Emishi” is complex, and doesn't necessarily describe a single, monolithic ethnic group or culture – more a group of possible ethnicities, that occupied a particular “slot” relative to Yamato cultural identity, namely that of outsiders.  The Chronicles refer to several different geographic regions as “Emishi”, situated relative to the core of the Yamato polity -- but the archeological evidence is much more nuanced.  A prime example are the studies carried out on the “Emishi” mummies of the Oshu Fujiwara, a 12th century ruling elite who lived in Hiraizumi and who were considered “Emishi” by the court in Heian-kyo—modern Kyoto.  In studying the mummies, it was determined that they were closely related to the Wa people of Japan and the Kinki region.  This finding is important and I'll come back to it in a bit, but the takeaway is that “Emishi” doesn't automatically mean physical or cultural differences like we might assume.  There were likely ethnic Wa Emishi, along with Emishi who were more closely connected with the indigenous people—descendants of the Jomon and possible ancestors to the later Ainu people. Finally, the Ainu.  It's extremely likely that some of the people that the Chroniclers called “Emishi” may have been the ancestors of the Ainu people of today.  But the correspondence is definitely not one-to-one, as some historians used to think.  And since this is a sensitive topic with ongoing patterns of inequity and silenced voices, it's important to lay some groundwork before going further. For my part, I would like to do my best to introduce the people and the history as we know it with as little bias as I can manage, but please realize that there are certainly controversies around this area and open wounds that have not yet healed. The modern Ainu are the indigenous inhabitants of Hokkaido, Sakhalin, and Kuril islands.  They also once inhabited the very northern part of Tohoku.  In their own language, Ainu Itak, these islands are part of Ainu Mosir, the Lands of the Ainu, and “Ainu” itself is simply a word for “humans” or “people”.  While there are many cultural and linguistic ties to the Japanese—they have been neighbors for centuries—they are culturally distinct, and their language, Ainu Itak, is considered a linguistic isolate, with no known relatives outside of the Ainu homelands. The relationship between the Ainu and the Wa people—the general term for ethnic Japanese—has been one of tension and conflict born of colonization.  In the 19th century in particular, the nation of Japan claimed Hokkaido and began to settle it.  The wide open spaces were great for new industries, such as cattle ranching, which could supply dairy and beef, two things that had come into vogue with other aspects of Western culture.  I won't get into the entire history of it, but the Japanese government used tactics similar to those used in the United States against indigenous populations, often forcing people to speak Japanese instead of their native language in a paternalistic attempt to quote-unquote “civilize” the Ainu people.  Only relatively recently have the Ainu been accorded some protections in Japanese law. For our part, the study of Ainu history has long been one conducted by outsiders looking in, which of course has come with all sorts of baggage.  For instance, as I alluded to above, there has long been a tendency to equate the Ainu with the Emishi, which along with everything else cast the Ainu as somewhat less culturally evolved.  Much of this study was also taking place during a time when Marxist concepts of societal evolution were in vogue.  Add to that the generally patronizing and Colonialist concepts that were rampant in Western anthropology at the time—things like the stereotype of the “noble savage” and even the concept of “primitive” societies—and there were definitely some problematic concepts that continue to echo through into modern discussions.  Another complexity in understanding Ainu culture and history has been that the Ainu people do tend to be physically distinct from many other Japanese, which has been linked to outdated ideas about physical types and ethnicity.  Many Ainu people show more tendency towards body and facial hair than mainland Japanese, with bushy beards being common among men, and blue eyes aren't uncommon – which, combined with overall light skin, led to early identification of Ainu people as being of “Caucasian stock” according to outdated racial classifications.  The theory was that they traveled from the west across Asia in the distant past and somehow settled in the islands north of Japan.  This ties into how much of the archaeological fervor of the 19th and 20th centuries in Japan was wrapped around ethno-nationalist ideals and looking to find the origins of the Japanese people, often using concepts of eugenics to seek out physical and cultural differences between the Japanese and “other” people, such as the Ainu, to help better define who are—and who are not—Japanese.  For example, remember those Oshu Fujiwara mummies and how they were from a group described by the Chronicles as “Emishi” but ended up being more physically similar to modern Wa than modern Ainu?  Some scholars took this finding to mean that all of the Emishi were Wa people, effectively denying any ancestral claims or links that Ainu people may have had to Honshu, other than those historically attested to from about the 15th century onwards.  In similar ways, for each instance of some new “finding”, there have often been those who would use it as a further reason to discriminate against the Ainu. There is a lot of important archaeological work that has been done in Tohoku and elsewhere to help shed more light on the people living in areas that the Chronicles associate with the Emishi and beyond.  But while archaeological digs in places like Honshu and Kyushu were often done with great public support, archaeological work in places like Hokkaido often involved investigating burials of potential ancestors without consent, and even today there is some contention over how various artifacts were acquired.  As with too many places in the world, the data was not always gathered under what we may consider, today, the strictest of ethical standards.  So as important as the archeological perspective is – at least we are going off of physical items that we find rather than on the narrative imposed on the region by those in Yamato – it's important to keep that context in mind. Even recent attempts to better contextualize Ainu history at places like the Upopoy National Museum in Shiraoi, while apparently doing their best to provide that context, are still hampered by the weight of previous missteps in the relationship between the Ainu and the government.  Activists have noted that even Upopoy, the first such national museum devoted to the Ainu themselves, is still built on colonialist policies and artifacts and human remains acquired without all of the necessary consent and consultation with local Ainu.  Upopoy, for its part, appears to have reached out to those willing to work with them, and for all that there may be some controversy, it certainly has a lot of information for those interested in it. So, given these caveats, what does the archeological record tell us about the wide range of people and areas called “Emishi” by the Chronicles, including both those areas closer to the Yamato heartland, and the areas we know today as Ainu Mosir? To understand the patterns of settlement and cultural trends that we see up north – in Tohoku and Hokkaido --let's go back to the end of the Jomon period and the very start of the Yayoi.  As wet rice paddy cultivation (and accompanying pottery styles and other material goods) began to make its way into the archipelago, up through about the Kinki region—the original land of Yamato, or Yamateg—it was brought by a people that seem quite strongly connected to other people in east Asia, and these people largely replaced the indigenous Jomon era populations in western Japan.  However, the new material culture traveled faster and farther than the new people themselves, and it appears that in eastern Honshu, at least, much of the new farming technology, pottery, and other lifeways of the Yayoi culture were adopted by people that appear to share a great deal in common, physically, with the previous Jomon populations, suggesting that local populations were, themselves, adopting the new technology and being absorbed into the Yayoi culture.  This expansion of Yayoi culture and rice farming initially exploded all the way up to the very northern edge of Tohoku, but over time it started to decline in the northernmost regions.  Whether due to a change in the climate or simply the fact that the colder, snowier regions in Tohoku were not as hospitable to farming, we see that rice cultivation fell into disuse, and people seem to have once again picked up the lifeways of their ancestors in the region, returning to a more hunter-gatherer style of subsistence.  Indeed, in northern Tohoku and Hokkaido we see the continued evolution of Jomon culture in a phase that is generally known as the Epi-Jomon, or, in Japanese, the Zoku-Jomon period, which generally lasted through the end of the 7th century.  This Epi-Jomon or Zoku-Jomon cultural region lay far outside the “official” Yamato borders according to the Chroniclers in an area considered to be part of “Michinoku” – literally past the end of the road – so it's understandably commonly associated with the Emishi.  But once again, it's not that simple, because we do see Yayoi and Kofun culture extending up into this region.  In fact, there are even keyhole shaped kofun up in Tohoku, the largest of these being Raijinyama kofun, thought to have been built between the late 4th and early 5th centuries.  It sits south of modern Sendai, and there are numerous other tombs there as well, suggesting it was well connected to Yamato and the kofun culture of central Honshu. Another complication is that we have regions officially designated Emishi that were much closer in – on the borders of Yamato itself.  Based on simply the written record, it would seem that “Emishi” resided as close to Yamato as the lands of Koshi and the land of Hitachi, at the very least.  The Emishi in Koshi are mentioned several times in the Chronicles, and both the Nihon Shoki and works like the Hitachi Fudoki mention Emishi or people who are at least outside of the Yamato cultural sphere.  This area bordering Yamato seems to have been the most affected by kofun and even Yamato culture, and also would have likely come into the most direct conflict with Yamato itself.  It is also the area most likely to include those who, for one reason or another, decided to yet themselves outside the growing reach of the Yamato state, a pattern that would continue for centuries to come.  On top of that, there is something else going on in northern Hokkaido, where, starting around the 5th century, we see different archeological assemblages from the south, indicating further cultural distinctiveness from the Tohoku and southern Hokkaido inhabitants.  These are mostly found on the coast in the northern part of Hokkaido, and match closely with the culture we see first in the Sakhalin island, and later the Kurils, along the edges of the Okhotsk Sea.  Hence the name we've given to this unknown culture:  The Okhotsk Sea Culture, or just the Okhotsk culture. From what we can glean, the people of the Okhotsk culture subsisted largely off the hunting of marine mammals, such as seals, sea lions, sea cows, and whales.  In contrast, the Epi-Jomon people appear to have subsisted more on inland hunting strategies, along with coastal fishing, which is represented in their settlement patterns, among other things.  This latter description likewise tracks with descriptions of the Emishi as subsisting largely off of hunted game. It is unclear what exactly happened to the Okhotsk Sea Culture, but they appear to be one of the ancestral groups of the modern Nivkh people, on the northern part of Sakhalin and the lower Amur River and coastal regions, though the Okhotsk Sea Culture also seems to have had a large influence on the development of the people known today as the Ainu.  Modern DNA testing of Ainu demonstrate connections both with the earlier Jomon people of Japan—a connection that is much stronger than in most Japanese—but also with people from the Okhotsk Sea region.  Still, how and in what ways those people came together is not clear. The connection to the Jomon and Epi-Jomon people appears to be strengthened by the fact that throughout Tohoku there are placenames that appear to be more closely related to the Ainu language than to Japanese.  For example, in Ainu itak, terms like “nai” and “pet” refer to rivers and streams, and we find a lot of placenames ending with “nai”, “be”, or “betsu”.  These are often written with kanji that would be understandable to Japanese speakers, but the prevalence and location of these names often make people think that they are likely related to Ainu itak, in some way—possibly a proto-Ainuic language or dialect that is now lost. While I can't discount the fact that some this could be due to false etymologies, we can add to it the fact that the term “Emishi” was eventually changed to “Ezo”, which itself came to be used primarily for Hokkaido and the people there, including the people we know of today as the Ainu.  However, it isn't clear that the term Emishi, or even “Ezo”, was consistently applied to only one group, and its usage may have changed over time, simply being used in each period to refer to the people of the Tohoku and Hokkaido regions outside of the control of the Japanese court. Another aspect of the archaeological record is the change in the Epi-Jomon culture to what we know as the Satsumon culture around the time of our narrative.  Satsumon, like Jomon, is derived from the distinctive pottery styles found.  “Jomon” means “cord-marked”, referring to the use of pressed cords and similar decoration on the pottery, and starting in the 7th century we see a new style using wood to scrape designs, instead.  Thus the term “Satsumon”.  It first pops up in Honshu, but by the 9th century it had spread to Hokkaido and eventually even spread to areas associated with the Okhotsk Sea Culture.  It would last until roughly the 13th century, when it was replaced by a culture that is more clearly related to the modern Ainu people. But the Satsumon culture wasn't just new types of pottery.  We see more ironwork appearing in the Satsumon culture, as well as the cultivation of millet and other types of agriculture.  Tohoku and Hokkaido were still a bit cold for the ancient forms of wet rice agriculture that were prevalent in more southern regions, and millet and other crops likely fit more easily into the lifeways of the people in these areas. Likewise, by the 8th century, we also see a new type of stove appearing in Satsumon villages.  This “kamado” seems clearly related to the type of stove that came over to Honshu from the Korean peninsula around the 5th century, reaching Hokkaido by the 8th, and eventually finding purchase on Sakhalin by the 11th, demonstrating a slow yet continuous adoption. Some of these changes might be explained by greater contact with Wa people and the trade networks that extended through Honshu and over to the mainland, but there were also trade routes through Sakhalin island over to the Amur River delta and beyond that should not be overlooked, even if they weren't as prevalent in the written histories of the time. I previously mentioned that in the next episode, we'll dive into more of what the Chronicles have to say about the Emishi, but to give a preview, the Chronicles have already mentioned the Emishi several times as trading and treating with the Yamato state.  Back in the era before the Isshi Incident, Naka no Oe's coup in 645, Soga no Emishi himself had dealings with the Emishi of the land of Koshi, which we covered in episode 107.  Then, in the previous reign, Emishi had attended court, but the court had also erected barriers and barrier towns in Nutari and Ihabune in 647 and 648 to protect the border areas from purported raids by the Emishi.  Hence the episode opener, imagining what it might be like for a soldier at one of these barrier towns.  But, there is also another people that we've already talked about, mentioned in the Chronicles:  The Sushen people, also glossed as either the Mishihase or Ashihase people.  In the Nihon Shoki, they first appeared in an entry in the reign of Kimmei Tennou, when a group of them came ashore on Sado island, which we discussed back in episode 86.  In this period, however, the  appear to be referencing a people who were living in the north of Hokkaido, and who were putting pressure on the people to their south, much as Yamato was putting pressure on the people to their northeast. The Sinitic characters, or kanji, used to name them in the Nihon Shoki uses a term from mainland writings for the Sushen people.  This name is first given to people mentioned in early Warring States documents, such as the Classic of Mountains and Seas, as living on the Shandong peninsula.  Eventually, however, as empires expanded, the term was used to refer to people along the Amur river region and the coast, in modern China and Russia—the eastern areas of what we know as “Manchuria”.  These were probably not the same people originally referred to as living in Shandong, and instead seems to apply to the Yilou people, and likely also is cognate with the later term “Jurchen”. In the ancient Sinic documents, the Sushen are described as hunter-gatherers who live in the open, using caves and other such natural features for temporary shelter.  They hunted with bows and arrows, which were tipped with stone arrowheads.  To the settled cultures of the Yellow River basin, they were considered a primitive and barbaric people. As for the people mentioned in the Nihon Shoki, it is quite likely that the term “Sushen” was used differently.  Rather than referring to Jurchen people, or someone from mainland northeast Asia, it is thought that the characters were used because of the similar role played by the people of northern Hokkaido and Sakhalin island—and possibly because of connection with the Amur river region, including the area referred to in older documents as “Su-shen”.  Still, the people referred to in the Nihon Shoki were probably what we know as the Okhotsk Sea culture, especially based on what we know from later descriptions.  From Yamato's point of view, they were likewise living in the extreme northeast and they were a hunter-gatherer society that used stone arrowheads in their hunting.  The fact that it is glossed as either Mishihase or Ashihase by later commentators suggests that this was the name by which the Yamato knew these people, and the kanji were just borrowed for their meaning of a people in the northeast. And so in the 7th century we have both the Emishi and the Mishihase, at least in the northeast.  There are also the Hayato, another group of people in the southern reaches of Tsukushi.  We are told that they and the Emishi both attended the court in 655 in great numbers.   Discussion of who the Hayato were is probably best left for another episode.  Suffice it to say that they appear to be culturally distinct from the groups in the northeast, at least at this point. And that's where we are going to pause things for now.  The archaeological record gives us some idea of the people inhabiting the areas of Tohoku and up to Hokkaido, but it only tells part of the story—and it is a story that we are continuing to uncover.  Even today people are working on archaeological sites that just may turn up new information that will change how we see things. Next episode, we'll dive into the narrative of the Nihon Shoki and take a look at the actions of individuals—especially the actions of Abe no Hirafu, a key player in what was to happen in the north. Until then thank you for listening and for all of your support. If you like what we are doing, please tell your friends and feel free to rate us wherever you listen to podcasts.  If you feel the need to do more, and want to help us keep this going, we have information about how you can donate on Patreon or through our KoFi site, ko-fi.com/sengokudaimyo, or find the links over at our main website,  SengokuDaimyo.com/Podcast, where we will have some more discussion on topics from this episode. Also, feel free to reach out to our Sengoku Daimyo Facebook page.  You can also email us at the.sengoku.daimyo@gmail.com.  Thank you, also, to Ellen for their work editing the podcast. And that's all for now.  Thank you again, and I'll see you next episode on Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.

Nếu có một nước nào phải theo dõi sát sao và với đầy nỗi lo lắng một trục Nga – Trung ngày càng được củng cố, thì đó chính là Nhật Bản. Bị giới hạn về địa lý và chịu sức ép từ gánh nặng lịch sử, Nhật Bản có nguy cơ đối mặt cùng lúc với hai đối thủ cường quốc hạt nhân, thậm chí có thể là ba, nếu bao gồm cả mối đe dọa Bắc Triều Tiên trong vùng Đông Á. Nỗi lo này đã được thể hiện rõ trong Sách Trắng quốc phòng thường niên « Quốc phòng Nhật Bản 2024 », được công bố ngày 12/07/2024, cho rằng Nhật Bản « đang phải đối mặt với một môi trường an ninh nghiêm trọng và phức tạp nhất kể từ khi kết thúc Đệ Nhị Thế Chiến ».Lần đầu tiên Tokyo cảnh báo trực tiếp về « khả năng một tình huống nghiêm trọng tương tự như cuộc xâm lược Ukraina của Nga xảy ra ở khu vực Ấn Độ - Thái Bình Dương trong tương lai, đặc biệt là ở vùng Đông Á », ám chỉ đến những hoạt động quân sự của Trung Quốc xung quanh đảo Đài Loan.Đài Loan và mối lo an ninh cho Nhật BảnTheo nhận định của Yoshinaga Kenji, cựu sĩ quan tình báo của Cơ quan Điều tra An ninh và Lực lượng Phòng vệ Biển Nhật Bản, với trang The Diplomat, « phần đầu của Sách Trắng quốc phòng năm nay, mô tả tình hình an ninh xung quanh Nhật Bản, là phần căng thẳng nhất trong lịch sử Sách Trắng, khi xét đến cuộc chiến xâm lược kéo dài của Nga tại Ukraina, áp lực quân sự ngày càng lớn của Trung Quốc đối với Đài Loan và việc Bắc Triều Tiên triển khai vũ khí hạt nhân chiến thuật ».Lập trường đối ngoại cứng rắn cùng với đà trỗi dậy mạnh mẽ năng lực quân sự của Bắc Kinh đặt Tokyo trước một thách thức chiến lược lớn chưa từng có. Bộ trưởng Quốc Phòng Nhật Bản Kihara Minoru mở đầu Sách Trắng với đánh giá « không quốc gia nào có thể tự bảo vệ an ninh của mình ». Ông nhấn mạnh đến sự cần thiết tăng cường hợp tác với các quốc gia có cùng chí hướng mà Tokyo chia sẻ các giá trị phổ quát và lợi ích chiến lược.Nhật Bản bày tỏ « quan ngại nghiêm trọng » về các hoạt động quân sự của Trung Quốc trên toàn khu vực xung quanh Nhật Bản, từ biển Hoa Đông – đặc biệt xung quanh quần đảo Senkaku đang tranh chấp chủ quyền với Trung Quốc – cho đến biển Nhật Bản, Tây Thái Bình Dương, nhất là xung quanh Đài Loan, trước nguy cơ « xảy ra căng thẳng quân sự giữa Trung Quốc và Đài Loan, do những hoạt động quân sự ngày càng tăng từ phía Bắc Kinh ».Về điểm này, nhà nghiên cứu địa chính trị Valérie Niquet, chuyên gia về Trung Quốc thuộc Quỹ Nghiên cứu Chiến lược FRS, trong một chương trình tranh luận trên đài phát thanh France Culture (18/05/2024), đưa ra một số phân tích :« Đài Loan có một vị thế quan trọng cả về mặt ý thức hệ, cho thấy một mô hình dân chủ vẫn có thể tồn tại trong thế giới Trung Hoa, điều mà Tập Cận Bình hoàn toàn phủ nhận, và cả về mặt chiến lược, vì Đài Loan là chốt chặn lối ra Thái Bình Dương và do vậy không thể để cho Đài Loan rơi vào tay Bắc Kinh. Đó là chưa nói đến người dân.Câu hỏi lớn được đặt ra ở đây là mối quan hệ chiến lược quốc phòng giữa Nhật Bản với Hoa Kỳ. Các căn cứ chính của Mỹ ở châu Á đều nằm ở Nhật Bản và chủ yếu ở quần đảo Okinawa, nằm ở tuyến đầu đối diện với Đài Loan, (với 53.000 lính Mỹ).Hòn đảo cuối cùng, Yonaguni, nằm gần nhất với đảo cực tây của Nhật Bản, chỉ cách bờ biển Đài Loan khoảng 100 km, nên thực sự Nhật Bản ở trên tuyến đầu. Hơn nữa, khi Trung Quốc tập trận để gây áp lực với Đài Loan, vào lúc bà Nancy Pelosi thăm Đài Loan cách đây không lâu, 5 hay 6 quả tên lửa, tôi quên mất con số chính xác, đã rơi vào vùng đặc quyền kinh tế ở Biển Nhật Bản. Đây rõ ràng còn là lời cảnh báo đối với Nhật Bản, gây áp lực buộc nước này không được đi quá xa. »Nga - Trung hợp tác quân sự : « Cơn ác mộng » cho Nhật BảnNhưng điều làm Tokyo đặc biệt lo lắng là khả năng Bắc Kinh và Matxcơva siết chặt hơn nữa quan hệ hợp tác quân sự. Tokyo xem những cuộc tập ném bom chung và tuần tra hải quân chung thường xuyên giữa hai cường quốc này là « nhằm mục đích phô trương sức mạnh chống Nhật Bản ».Đây không phải là lần đầu tiên Nhật Bản cho thấy nỗi bất an về quan hệ hợp tác Nga - Trung. Trang South China Morning Post ngày 27/11/2023 trích dẫn một báo cáo an ninh của Viện Nghiên cứu Quốc Phòng (NIDS), một tổ chức tư vấn trực thuộc bộ Quốc Phòng Nhật Bản, cho thấy một trong những nỗi lo sợ lớn nhất của Tokyo là hai cường quốc này thực sự trở thành đồng minh quân sự.Dưới thời thủ tướng Shinzo Abe (2012-2020), Nhật Bản đã nỗ lực thiết lập một chính sách đối ngoại hòa dịu với Nga. Cố thủ tướng Abe đã có gần 30 cuộc gặp với tổng thống Vladimir Putin nhằm gầy dựng một mối quan hệ tin cậy, một mặt là để giải quyết các tranh chấp chủ quyền trên quần đảo Kuril, dưới sự kiểm soát của Nga từ năm 1945.Vùng « Lãnh thổ phương bắc » này, theo cách gọi của Nhật Bản, có một vị trí chiến lược, nằm ở phía bắc đảo Hokkaido và là chốt chặn cửa biển Okhotsk. Nhưng nỗ lực này của ông Abe chẳng mang lại kết quả : Nga không những không nhượng một tấc đất lãnh thổ nào mà còn tăng cường sự hiện diện quân sự trên quần đảo, bố trí 3500 binh lính và nhất là lắp đặt các hệ thống tên lửa địa đối không S-300 vào cuối năm 2020.Mặt khác, theo phân tích của nhà địa chính trị học Céline Pajon, Viện Quan hệ Quốc tế Pháp (IFRI) trên báo Libération ngày 25/03/2022, ông Abe còn nhắm đến mục tiêu chiến lược xa hơn. Khi tìm cách xích lại gần Putin, thủ tướng Nhật Bản hy vọng tránh để Nga rơi vào quỹ đạo Trung Quốc, hay chí ít là ngăn chặn việc hình thành một mặt trận Nga - Trung chống Nhật Bản trong các vấn đề lãnh thổ và lịch sử.Một lần nữa ông Abe lại gặp thất bại. Matxcơva lệ thuộc ngày càng nhiều vào Bắc Kinh về kinh tế và hai bên có những cam kết hợp tác quân sự chưa từng có. Quân đội Nga và Trung Quốc tiến hành nhiều cuộc tập trận quy mô lớn tại vùng Viễn Đông, tổ chức các cuộc tuần tra chung xung quanh Nhật Bản, khiến Tokyo phải lo lắng.Trước nguy cơ phải đối mặt với cùng lúc hai cường quốc hạt nhân Nga – Trung trong các vấn đề tranh chấp lãnh thổ, và thậm chí có thể có bên thứ ba là Bắc Triều Tiên, tháng 12/2022, chính phủ của thủ tướng Fumio Kishida công bố ba tài liệu chiến lược quan trọng : Chiến lược An ninh Quốc gia (NSS), Chiến lược Phòng thủ Quốc gia (NDS) và Chương trình Tăng cường Phòng thủ (DBP).Theo nhiều nhà quan sát tại Pháp, cuộc chiến xâm lược Ukraina do Nga phát động đã có những tác động đáng kể đến việc vạch ra chiến lược an ninh cho Nhật Bản. Tài liệu NSS đánh giá Trung Quốc như là một « thách thức chiến lược chưa từng có » và xem Bắc Triều Tiên là một « mối đe dọa nghiêm trọng hơn và sắp xảy ra ». Nhưng, nước Nga, không giống như trong phiên bản NSS năm 2013, cùng sự phối hợp chiến lược của Matxcơva với Bắc Kinh, giờ được xác định là « mối quan tâm sâu sắc về an ninh ».AUKUS: Giải pháp để thoát gọng kềm Nga – Trung ?Nhật Bản còn thông báo tăng đáng kể ngân sách quốc phòng với mục tiêu từ đây đến năm 2027 đạt mức chi tiêu quân sự 2% GDP như các nước thành viên Liên minh Quân sự Bắc Đại Tây Dương NATO. Đáng chú ý là lần đầu tiên Nhật Bản cho biết tham vọng sở hữu năng lực phản công, để nước này thực hiện các cuộc tấn công trả đũa nhằm vào lãnh thổ đối thủ.Giáo sư Tsuyoshi Goroku, ngành Quan hệ Quốc tế và Kinh tế, trường đại học Nishogakusha, trong cuộc trả lời phỏng vấn dành riêng cho Quỹ Nghiên cứu Chiến lược (FRS) của Pháp hồi tháng 3/2024, lưu ý bước tiến lịch sử này, « không phải là một sự đảo ngược đột ngột các nguyên tắc chính sách quốc phòng truyền thống của đất nước. Đúng hơn đó là một sự thừa nhận của Tokyo về môi trường an ninh ngày càng xấu đi của Nhật Bản. Điều này là kết quả của một loạt những thay đổi tăng dần trong suốt hai thập niên qua. Tuy nhiên, việc Nga vô cớ xâm lược Ukraina là một lời cảnh báo cho Nhật Bản, củng cố những đánh giá ảm đạm và thúc đẩy hơn nữa những thay đổi này ».Vị giáo sư Nhật Bản thừa nhận đất nước ông đã hưởng được một nền an ninh và sự thịnh vượng trong khuôn khổ trật tự quốc tế dựa trên các luật lệ. Nhưng việc Nga và Trung Quốc có tham vọng thay đổi trật tự đó khiến Nhật Bản cảm thấy bất an. Trong suốt hai năm qua, thủ tướng Fumio Kishida nhiều lần cảnh báo « Ukraina hôm nay rất có thể sẽ là Đông Á ngày mai » và « an ninh của châu Âu và vùng Ấn Độ - Thái Bình Dương là không thể tách rời ».Và cảm giác bất an này dường như được đông đảo công luận Nhật Bản chia sẻ. Giáo sư Tsuyoshi Goroku giải thích :« Sau cuộc xâm lược của Nga, một số cuộc thăm dò dư luận cho thấy công chúng Nhật Bản ngày càng lo sợ an ninh của Nhật Bản đang bị đe dọa. Ngoài ra, một cuộc khảo sát do tờ Nikkei thực hiện vào tháng 3 năm 2022 cho thấy 77% số người được hỏi "lo ngại" nếu cộng đồng quốc tế không ngăn chặn được cuộc xâm lược của Nga và việc thay đổi biên giới, điều này sẽ dẫn đến việc Trung Quốc sử dụng vũ lực chống Đài Loan. Liệu cuộc xâm lược của Nga và thành công có thể của cuộc chiến này có khuyến khích Trung Quốc sử dụng vũ lực hay không, đó vẫn còn là vấn đề tranh luận, nhưng công chúng Nhật Bản đã thể hiện rõ những lo ngại này. »Trong hai ngày 16 - 17/05/2024, tổng thống Nga Vladimir Putin đã đến thăm Bắc Kinh gặp chủ tịch Trung Quốc Tập Cận Bình, cuộc gặp lần thứ 43 kể từ khi ông Tập Cận Bình lên cầm quyền năm 2012. Trong chuyến thăm này, tổng thống Nga đã đến thăm Harbin, nơi có Viện Công nghệ Quân sự Trung Quốc. Một chuyến thăm mang tính biểu tượng cao, một tín hiệu mạnh mẽ gởi đến Nhật Bản và các nước phương Tây : Nga và Trung Quốc đang thắt chặt quan hệ hợp tác, kể cả về công nghiệp vũ khí.Trong bối cảnh này, Nhật Bản quan ngại về các hoạt động quân sự của Nga và sự phối hợp chiến lược của Nga với Trung Quốc trong vùng Ấn Độ - Thái Bình Dương. Chiến tranh Ukraina kéo dài, Bắc Triều Tiên có thể sẽ can dự với việc cung cấp tên lửa và đạn dược cho Nga. Mối quan hệ hợp tác quân sự Matxcơva – Bình Nhưỡng càng làm cho môi trường an ninh Nhật Bản thêm phần u ám.Đối diện với những mối đe dọa an ninh chưa từng có này, thủ tướng Fumio Kishida đã gia tăng các hoạt động ngoại giao, thiết lập các mối quan hệ chiến lược với nhiều nước từ châu Á đến châu Âu, từ việc mở rộng quan hệ đối tác với NATO, cho đến việc để ngỏ khả năng tham gia liên minh quân sự AUKUS, hiện quy tụ ba nước Anh, Mỹ và Úc. Về điểm này, nhà địa chính trị học Valerie Niquet nhận định :« Ưu điểm lớn của AUKUS so với các đối tác khác: đây là một liên minh Anglo-Saxon và do vậy sẽ không làm Washington tức giận, vì Úc và Anh là những đồng minh rất thân thiết của Mỹ và Nhật Bản đã ký kết những thỏa thuận hợp tác trao đổi, chẳng hạn như tạo điều kiện thuận lợi cho các cuộc tập trận chung với cả Úc và Anh.Hơn nữa, chúng ta không thể quên một thực tế là việc tham gia một phần vào liên minh AUKUS, không liên quan đến khía cạnh hạt nhân, mà có lẽ là trụ cột đầu tiên như người ta nói về hợp tác công nghệ đối với Nhật Bản, cũng có yếu tố uy tín theo nghĩa Nhật Bản trở lại với trường quốc tế với tư cách là một tác nhân chính, cả trong lĩnh vực công nghiệp quân sự, điều vẫn chưa có trên phương diện xuất khẩu vũ khí ».

Last time we spoke about the legendary battle of Tsushima. Admiral Rozhdestvenski traveled across the globe to bring the Baltic fleet to the Pacific to give a climactic fight to Admiral Togo's combined fleet. Yet during the journey, Port Arthur fell leaving the only destination to be Vladivostok and they would have to take a perilous journey through the Tsushima strait to get to her. Rozhdestvenski's grand journey meant his ships were ill maintained and the crews had no time for training. The Japanese meanwhile had trained vigorously and brought new technological advantages into the mix that would significantly tip the scale. The Russian baltic fleet was absolutely annihilated at a minimal lose for the IJN. The battle of Tsushima became one of the most famous naval battles in history and its decisive nature would become indoctrinated in the IJN until the end of WW2.    #84 The Russo-Japanese War part 11: The Portsmouth Treaty    Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. I have to start this podcast by repeating a funny little bit from this week. One of my bosses over at Kings and Generals suddenly messages me on discord and says “hey what's going on with the China Podcast, are we doing a series on the Russo-Japanese War now?” And to this I laughed, because he had a good point, I am sure there are a lot of you who were wondering….well why are we spending so much time on this, if the Fall and Rise of China podcast is ..well about China. The Russo-Japanese War would have a profound effect on China and global history. Something many forget, this entire war occurred within China, a nation not officially taking part in the conflict! Having a war break out between two other empires within your borders was an absolutely humiliating situation. China had just lost a war against the Russians in Manchuria. When the war broke out, China declared neutrality and asked both sides to not violate her territory, which both did without a care in the world. The Chinese did help the Japanese, especially the Honghuzi. Now the 1st Sino-Japanese War had left quite a foul taste in the mouth of the Chinese, but during the Russo-Japanese War some Pan-Asianim did develop. The Chinese public gradually began supporting the Japanese, there were quite a lot of youth in China demanding the Qing government allow them to enlist and help fight off the Russians. Countless Chinese helped with labor, working in a vast spy network and sold both sides provisions. When the Russians lost the battle of Tsushima and Mukden, there were many influential and future influential figures that celebrated this. Notably Mahatma Gandhi, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Jawaharlal Nehru and Sun Yat-Sen were deeply influenced by the Japanese victory. Why were they so influenced, because it was the first time a non-white nation had defeated a white one, and not just that, one of the great powers. The Russian Empire was in the public's mind, defeated handily by a small asiatic nation, it was a david and goliath story come true. Ironically, the Yellow Peril which Kaiser Wilhelm had utilized to usher in the war was turned up to 100 when the Japanese won.Now all that is fine and dandy, but there was another dramatic effect this war would hold over Japan and China. We technically have not spoken about “the end” of the Russo-Japanese War, there is actually another battle and the peace negotiations to discuss. It is here things will occur that will actually lay the groundwork for WW2. So now we are heading back into the story. The Japanese had won at Mukden and now at Tsushima, so that was that, they had won the war right? The Russians had taken up a new defensive position in northern Manchuria and were still being reinforced, 2 corps were enroute. In the war of attrition, the Russians would eventually win, despite having no naval ability, they would simply overwhelm the Japanese with numbers. Both nations faced bankruptcy, but the Russians were able to take larger loans from France and Germany, thus the situation was from a financial point of view more perilous for Japan. 53% of Japan's annual revenue had been devoted to the war effort. For Russia, the humiliation and financial ruin was accompanied by a full blown revolution. Thus both nations really needed the war to end and fast. Now comes in my favorite US president, Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt was one of the few at the offset of the war to place his bet on a Japanese victory. He also attempted to resolve the disputes between the two empires before the war broke out, often citing the Kaiser's Yellow Peril propaganda as being a main culprit to the hostilities. Roosevelt wrote to the British diplomat, Cecil Spring Rice that he believed Wilhelm should bear partial responsibility for the war "as he has done all he could to bring it about". Roosevelt is a fascinating figure. He was of course a product of his time, a 19th century man, he had views of white superiority, but demonstrated a certain tolerance towards nonwhites. This extended itself a lot towards the Japanese, there was a lot about the Japanese he admired. After the battle of Tsushima Roosevelt wrote “even the battle of Trafalgar could not match this. I grew so excited that I myself became almost like a Japanese, and I could not attend to official duties.” Roosevelt famously practiced judo with Japanese opponents and avidly read Nitobe Inazo's “Bushido”. Roosevelt was sent many books from his friend at Harvard, Kaneko Kentaro and wrote in appreciation “Perhaps I was most impressed by this little volume on Bushido. …It seems to me, my dear Baron, that Japan has much to teach to the nations of the Occident, just as she has something to learn from them. I have long felt that Japan's entrance into the circle of the great civilized powers was of good omen for all of the world.Certainly I myself, hope that I have learned not a little from what I have read of the fine Samurai spirit, and from the way in which that spirit has been and is being transformed to meet the needs of modern life.” In some ways perhaps you could call Roosevelt a Japanophile, but I would stress, like any white elites of the 19th century, he still had ingrained in him a sense that whites, notably white anglo saxons were the most civilized in the world.  It should come to no surprise, Roosevelt who publicly spoke well of the Japanese during the war, found the Japanese coming to him to help mediate the peace. Now as much as Roosevelt had openly favored the Japanese during the conflict, now there was a looming issue on the American president's mind. The Japanese were aggressively expanding in Asia and the Pacific, this was not something Roosevelt liked very much. After the fall of Port Arthur, Roosevelt wrote “if Japan tries to gain from her victory in the Russo-Japanese War more than she ought to have, she will array against her all the great powers, and however determined she may be she cannot successfully face an allied world”. Roosevelt was greatly troubled by the potential threat Japan posed against America's own increasing strength and influence in the asia-pacific. He would dispatch one General Arthur MacArthur, for you Pacific War week by week podcast listeners, yes I managed to bring MacArthur into this one. Arthur MacArthur was sent on a tour of the far east in 1905 and he was of course accompanied by his wife and a young Lt Douglas MacArthur who would go on to write ‘The purpose of our observations was to measure the strength of the Japanese Army and its method of warfare … But I had the uneasy feeling that the haughty, feudalistic samurai who were their leaders, were, through their victories, planting the seed of eventual Japanese conquest of the Orient.' No worries I am not going to turn this into a MacArthur rant. Roosevelt's agreed to act as a mediator before the battle of Tsushima. After the Tsushima victory, the Japanese expected they would receive large benefits from peace talks. They had good reason to believe so, Russia had lost on the land and sea, revolution was burning within the empire. Anarchists attacked the Tsar's uncle and brother in law, Grand Duke Serge Alexandroitich, the governor general of Moscow. Riots and anti-war demonstrations were widespread, violence was found in major Russian cities. From the Russian point of view, the Japanese had committed all her available manpower in the field, thus only mediation could save Japan from incoming disaster. In many ways it was a kind of race, who would run out of men first? Japan because she literally had a much smaller population, or would the Russian people simply overthrow the Tsar regime? Both regimes also were verging bankruptcy, whose dollar would run out first? Russia had not lost any of “her” territory, something Roosevelt was quick to point out to the Japanese. Thus Roosevelt was sort of winking at the Japanese that they should secure Russian territory so they had more bargaining power at the peace table, so the Japanese went to work. Japan and Russian had signed a treaty in 1875, the Treaty of Saint Petersburg that saw Japan ceding part of Sakhalin island to Russia in exchange for the Kuril islands. Now by the time of the Russo-Japanese war the population of Sakhalin was roughly 30,000 including 4000 Ainu. The island held a large prison and was used as a place for those Russia sought to exile. Overall it was not a very significant territory to the Russians. Its climate as you can imagine, was quite harsh, even by Russian standards. The Russians had a garrison of 7280 men on the island, the majority were conscripted farmers, hunters and prisoners with little in terms of training or equipment. They were led by General Mikhail Nikolaevich Lyapunov, who had been appointed military governor of Sakhalin in 1898. He had joined the military academy at the age of 16, but quickly found a talent in law, so he became a lawyer, while continuing his military career on the side. Thus the man was not particularly experienced in terms of war.  After the battle of Tsushima, the Japanese quickly wrangled together a force of 14,000 men for the brand new 13th IJA division led by General Haraguchi Kensai. Admiral Kataoka Shichiro assembled a naval force at Aomori Bay of 8 armored cruisers, 9 destroyers, 4 coastal defense ships and 12 torpedo boats to transport the division for an invasion of Sakhalin. The naval force departed on July 5th and landed in Aniwa Bay and near the port of Korsakov. They faced little opposition, a second group landed closer to Korsakov where they destroyed a battery of field artillery and defeated a small Russian force. The Japanese quickly advanced against Korsakov the next day, but the garrison of 2000 Russians led by Colonel Josef Arciszweski there had burned it to the ground. On July 8th the IJN force cleared Chitose Bay and on the 10th occupied Kindo Cape. Meanwhile the 13th division advanced north, taking the village of Vladimirovka. Colonel Arciszweski had dug to resist the Japanese, but his force was quickly outflanked and they withdrew into mountains within the interior of the island. By July 16th, Arciszweski surrendered his forces. Around 200 Russians were captured, the Japanese had suffered 18 deaths and 58 wounded. On the 17th 1905 General Lyapunov, through a representative, sent a message to General Kensai "Your Excellency! The lack of medicines and dressings and, as a result, the lack of the possibility of rendering assistance to the wounded, forced me to propose to Your Excellency to cease hostilities for purely humane reasons." General Haraguchi responded by demanding that General Lyapunov surrender all weapons and all movable and immovable state property that were intact, as well as the surrender of all maps, documents, papers related to the military department and administration. On the 19th General Lyapunov at his headquarters in the village of Onor gave the order: "The lack of food and firearms, as well as entrenching tools, the lack of sanitary facilities, the enormous numerical superiority of the Japanese army and the absence of a prepared path of retreat put us in such a situation when which further resistance would be useless bloodshed. In view of this, having received an offer from the commander of the Japanese army, which landed on the island, to surrender, I convened a military council, at which, to discuss the general situation...". On the 24th the Japanese landed in northern Sakhalin near Alexandrovsk-Sakhalinsky. The Russians had 5000 troops under the direct control of General Lyapunov. Lyapunov chose to flee the city with his forces and later surrendered seeing the Japanese capture 3200 men, 79 officers and General Lyapunov. He was the only Russian governor to surrender during the war. The Japanese would also capture another 1260 soldiers around Onor with a large stockpile of weapons, ammunition and food. After all was said and done, the battle for Sakhalin saw the Russians suffer 181 deaths, thousands taken prisoner. With that done with, the Japanese now had officially seized Russian territory. Alongside this the Japanese re-signed the Anglo-Japanese alliance for another 10 years and entered talks with the US regarding their positions over Korea and the Philippines. The Taft-Katsura agreement between William Howard Taft and Count Katsura Taro saw the US agree Japan should seek a protectorate over Korea, and Japan agreed the Philippines should be left under the good governance of the US. It should be noted this was all “a agreement” nothing was signed. In many ways it was a betrayal of Korea by the US, as the Americans and Koreans had signed an amity and commerce treaty in 1882, which the Koreans assumed was a mutual defense treaty. Regardless, the Japanese were securing their poker hand before heading into the negotiations. The peace negotiations were held at Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The Russian peace team was led by Sergius Witte who quickly stressed Russia had not been beaten and the war was very much still on. He also began privately complaining to all that it was his view the Japanese sought to gain as much loot from an agreement as possible. He was 100% correct in that assumption. Witte also made it clear, the Tsar's position in regards to Korea had not changed and that Russia would never pay a rouble in war indemnities. The Japanese were lead by Baron Komura, a harvard graduate. He came into the negotiations immediately demanding Korea was in the sphere of Japanese influence, that the Russians should depart Manchuria, the cession of Sakhalin, the granting of new fishing rights along the Russian coast, the spoils of war to be agreed upon and of course a fat sum of war indemnities. The teams had arrived on August 8th of 1905, and would stay at the Hotel Wentworth in New Castle. The actual negotiations took place at the General Stores Building, furnished with Mahogany furniture from the Cabinet Room of the White House. The conference was arranged so the most difficult parts would come last, namely, indemnities and Sakhalin. There were 12 sessions held between August 9th to the 30th. During the first 8 sessions, both sides reached an agreement on 8 points.  There should be an immediate ceasefire. The Russians would recognize  Japanese claims over Korea. The Russian forces would evacuate Manchuria.  Russia would cede its leases over Port Arthur and Dalien, the South Manchuria Railway and some mining concession, and Russia would retain the Chinese Eastern Railway in northern Manchuria. The next 4 points were much trickery.  On August the 15th the two vexed subjects were brought forth, Sakhalin and indemnity payments. It seemed the American public opinion over these issues had swung to the Russians. Witte, briefed by the Tsar stated there would be no payments for the return of Sakhalin and no indemnities, and stressed the Russians remained resolved to continue fighting. The Russians were very aware of Japan's financial distress and concluded that a demand for indemnity would be their most pressing concern. During the talks Roosevelt would later write ‘This (the indemnity) would never have been entertained by him, and he had calculated that the Peace Conference would break down on this point, and the struggle be continued until Japan could raise no more money.'On the issue Roosevelt intervened and advised the Japanese that if she did not abandon her claims for an indemnity, the world would come to believe the war had been fought for financial gain. Roosevelt on the 18th proposed dividing Sakhalin. Witte countered this on the 23rrd proposing Japan keep Sakhalin and drop her claims of indemnities. Komura rejected this proposal prompting Witte to warn him he was instructed to cease negotiations and resume the war. This ultimatum was met by 4 new Russian divisions arriving to Manchuria and Witte made a public display of literally showing everyone himself packing his bags preparing to leave. The Russians were convinced the Japanese could not afford to resume the war and were making a grand display to the Americans and Japanese that Russia would never agree to paying a single rouble. Komura was not in a good position and caved into the demands. The Japanese agreed in exchange for the southern half of Sakhalin they would drop their claims for indemnities. On September 5th, the treaty was signed, and ratified on the 10th of October in Japan, and the 14th for Russia. A random little side note, during the war Montenegro had declared war on Japan, but everyone kind of forgot about this and no mention of Montenegro was made in the treaty so technically Japan and Montenegro were at war until 2006 when Japan officially ended the war. Witte wrote to the New York Times about the treaty “The judgement of all observers here, whether pro-Japanese or pro-Russian, is that the victory is as astonishing a thing as ever was seen in diplomatic history. A nation hopelessly beaten in every battle of the war, one army captured and the other overwhelmingly routed, with a navy swept from the seas, dictated her own terms to the victory”. His rather bombastic claims were well warranted as the treaty signing had a profound effect on Japan. The Japanese public exploded. The over taxation for the war effort, the loss of so many sons and fathers had prompted the Japanese public to believe they were owed a lot. From the point of view of the Japanese public, the only news they received was endless victories over the lands and seas, they had no idea of the financial plight of their nation. When they heard the terms of the treaty, riots exploded. The most famous riots occurred in Hibiya Park in central Tokyo where activities and protesters assembled some 30,000 people strong. They marched upon the Imperial Palace grounds and rampaged the city for over 2 days. They especially targeted government buildings, the police, Russian property, but notably that of the US. From the publics view, Roosevelt and America had backstabbed them. Russian and American missionary churches were vandalized, martial law was erected. Over 350 buildings were damaged, 17 people were killed, 450 policemen, 48 firemen and civilians were injured. Prime Minister Katsura Taro's cabinet collapsed. While Roosevelt earned a nobel peace prize for his efforts, Japan's extremely positive view of America had dramatically soured. Its hard to picture it given the history of WW1 and WW2, but until this point America was kind of seen as a good big brother to Japan all things considered. The Japanese felt cheated of their rightful claims as victors of the war. Take this into consideration. During the 1st sino-Japanese War, Japan was denied her spoils by the triple intervention of France, Germany and Russia. During the Boxer Rebellion, the Russians used the situation to encroach into Manchuria, which Japan saw as a direct threat. Japan from her perspective won the Russo-Japanese War and now the US was stealing her spoils from her. From the Japanese perspective she deserved recognition as a great power and furthermore recognition as being racially equal. I wont delve to deeply into it, but after WW1, Japan would receive another similar and egregious wound when President Woodrow Wilson denied Japan's request to be recognized as racially equal to the other great powers. That would become the last straw, that drove Japan away from the west and towards WW2. But this is not a Japanese podcast haha, I apologize if I sometimes go in that direction its what I specialized in.  The Russo-Japanese War saw the Japanese suffer 58,000 to 86,000 deaths, for the Russians it was between 43,000 and 120,000. Of the casualties, the Japanese had lost perhaps 59,000 from combat, 27,000 from disease. For the Russians 34-53,000 died from combat and 9-19,000 from disease with another 75,000 captured. And let us not forget the Chinese who would see 20,000 civilian deaths and a financial loss of over 69 million taels. While the Japanese treated the tens of thousands of Russian prisoners extremely well considering what POW treatment would look like during WW1 and WW2, the treatment of Chinese was abysmal. The war between Russia and Japan occurred on Chinese soil, but China was powerless to prevent it and suffered human and financial loss. This added to the Chinese public's sense of humiliation. Alongside this, the treaty of Portsmouth basically started an annexation process of Korea to Japan, but it also handed a ton of privileges and extraterritorial rule over to Japan. Now Japan had her feet firmly set in Manchuria, weakening Qing rule. If you were part of the elites in the Qing dynasty and your responsibility was to improve the empire, it seems investigating how Japan beat Russia should be on top of your list of “to do's”.  Indeed, as we spoke a lot about during the 1st sino japanese war, Japan and China took different paths to modernization in the face of western imperialism. Japan did not defeat Russia solely because of the modernization of her army, Japan had thoroughly organized and prepared her populace for modern politics, military, economic, social and culture….while China struggled behind. China needed to emulate certain aspects, like Japan had to strengthen herself. When Japan and Russia signed the treaty of Portsmouth they were exchanging benefits and many of these were not theirs to take or give, but rather Chinas! Imagine you were a subject of the Qing dynasty living in Manchuria where your home may have been destroyed, perhaps you lost loved ones to the conflict, what did your government do? Nothing. It was a watershed moment for the common people of China, their government did absolutely nothing in the face of all of it. The intellectual class of China was enraged and invigorated by it all. There was this tremendous sense they as a people needed to improve in terms of politics, military, societal, economic, education and culture, China needed to actually modernize. The Qing dynasty was being seen by many as decrepit, too old and stuck in its ways.   In the historical context China was entering the “late Qing reforms” or “new policies” period. This actually began in 1901, but I believed it was very important to get the Russo-Japanese War story into the mix before I dabbled into this very complex part of modern Chinese history. The Qing dynasty is soon coming to its end. Stating all of that I thought it would be a cool time to do a bit of housekeeping. You Mr or Mrs listener, I'd love to hear from you. As you likely know I write and narrate the two podcast Pacific War week by week and the Fall and Rise of China Podcast's for Kings and Generals. However, I also happen to be a Youtuber, and Podcaster on the side. I have the Pacific War Channel where you can find content about the history of Asia from the 1830's until the end of the Pacific war in 1945, in many ways its like this podcast. I also awkwardly have a podcast platform called “the pacific war channel”, and as you can imagine its a bit directionless since …well lets be honest its redundant given these two podcasts I do. I have been trying to think about how to change that podcast around and I would love to hear from you guys. Best way to give feedback, toss comments on my Youtube channel, or join my Pacific War Channel discord, found on my Youtube channel page. I have a few idea's myself, perhaps doing a more general history focused podcast where I tell stories just like the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, but my god in much short series haha, let's say in 3 parters and such. Or I could do an entire other podcast series on The Rise and Fall of Japan, see what I did there with the titles? Yeah that ones been in the back on my mind for awhile. I could also take on a co-pilot for the podcasts so its not only single narration, similar to Tom Holland's “the rest is history”. There's a ton of directions I can go in, but one thing is for sure, the “Pacific War Channel Podcast” needs a new direction, probably a new name as well.  Also and I know its annoying, but a big thank you to all of you who check out the Pacific War channel on Youtube and my Patreon where I make monthly patreon exclusive podcasts. I would love to go full time one day, but alas the Youtube game is a hard one. If you get the chance please check out my Youtube channel, I am now as we speak unleashing a multiple part series on the Japanese invasion of Manchuria 1931-1932, something barely anyone covers. Most historians give it about a few paragraphs, but it was quite a complicated event. I am trying to tackle the 15 year war between Japan and China from 1931-1945 in a chronological order, event by event and such. Stating all of that I love all you guys, and here comes the same outro I do every single time haha. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. One Empire has Risen like a bright Sun as another, tumbles down like a large bear. Asia henceforth will completely change, now the Japanese dominate the landscape. Yet what of China? How will the common Chinese take to this latest round of humiliation? The Qing dynasty is hanging by a thread and that thread is about to be cut. 

Geçtiğimiz hafta Devlet Başkanı Vladimir Putin'in de katılımıyla gerçekleştirilen St Petersburg'da Rus Donanması Günü sonrasında imzaladığı Yeni Rus Deniz Doktrini ne getirir ne götürür, etkileri neler olur, bu ne anlama geliyor, bu hususu inceleyelim. Putin'in St Petersburg'da imzaladığı 55 sayfalık Yeni Deniz Doktrini'ni kaleme alan isim Rus Donanması Başkomutanı Nikolay Evmenov'dir. Putin, burada yaptığı konuşmada, Rusya'nın ulusal çıkarlarının sınırları ile bölgelerini belirlediklerini kaydederek "Bunların arasında öncelikle Arktik sularımız, Karadeniz, Ohotsk Denizi ve Bering Denizi'nin suları, Baltık ve Kuril boğazları bulunuyor. Bunları sıkı şekilde ve tüm araçlarla koruyacağız," dedi.

Nhờ những nền tảng kinh tế vững chắc, tỷ lệ tăng trưởng của Nhật Bản sẽ cao hơn mong đợi trong năm 2022 nhưng do dịch Covid-19, nguy cơ khan hiếm linh kiện bán dẫn và mức nợ công hơn 250 % GDP vẫn rập rình đe dọa nền kinh tế thứ ba toàn cầu. Nguy hiểm hơn nữa là những căng thẳng địa chính trị khiến Tokyo liên tiếp tăng ngân sách quốc phòng bảo đảm an ninh. Chuyên gia Edouard Pflimlin, Viện Quan Hệ Quốc Tế và Chiến Lược IRIS trong bài viết «  2022, Le Japon à la croisée des Chemins – Nhật Bản trước khúc quanh quyết định» (ngày 04/01/2022) ghi nhận : ngân sách quốc phòng của Tokyo đi từ kỷ lục này đến kỷ lục khác, chính phủ liên tiếp « bổ sung ngân sách phòng thủ » và Nhật Bản đang hướng tới mục tiêu dành đến 2 % GDP cho các chương trình phòng thủ. Với một nền kinh tế kém năng động hơn do 126 triệu dân số bị lão hóa, với mức nợ công đầu người trên dưới 80.000 đô la, Nhật Bản có thể tiếp tục tăng chi tiêu quân sự đến khi nào và tới mức độ nào ? Hai ẩn số kinh tế : Covid-19 và chip điện tử Trước Giáng Sinh, chính quyền Tokyo nâng dự phóng tăng trưởng cho tài khóa 2022/2023 đang từ 2,2 % lên thành 3,2 %. Hãng tin Anh Reuters lưu ý nếu đạt được mục tiêu này, thì đây sẽ là mức tăng trưởng cao nhất tại Nhật Bản từ 2010. Cũng trước ngày Giáng Sinh, Nghị Viện đã bổ sung thêm 300 tỷ đô la cho ngân sách trong tài khóa 2021/2022 mà hơn 70 % nhằm tài trợ một kế hoạch mới hỗ trợ kinh tế khắc phục hậu quả Covid-19 : bơm thêm mãi lực cho người tiêu dùng, đài thọ các phí tổn về y tế, đài thọ các chiến dịch tiêm chủng …   vào lúc một biến thể mới đe dọa toàn cầu. Tuy nhiên việc nội các Fumio Kishida đã phải nhanh chóng bổ sung ngân sách cho thấy tăng trưởng của Nhật vẫn rất mong manh. Trong quý 3/2021 GDP Nhật Bản đã bị chựng lại. Tờ báo tài chính Forbes nói đến một năm 2022 đầy thách thức chờ đợi thủ tướng Nhật. Thuần túy về kinh tế, ẩn số lớn nhất vẫn là virus SARS-CoV-2 với những biến thể mới tiếp tục khủng bố cả thế giới. Nhật Bản tới nay vẫn đóng chặt cửa biên giới ít nhất cho đến cuối tháng 2/2022. Ngành hàng không, khách sạn, chưa biết đến khi nào mới lại có thể đón 31 triệu du khách quốc tế như trước khi Covid-19 bùng phát. Mối đe dọa thứ nhì là nguy cơ cỗ máy công nghiệp bị tê liệt vì thiếu chip điện tử cho dù Tokyo đã có một sự chuẩn bị từ trước, qua việc hợp tác với tập đoàn Đài Loan TSMC hay với các đối tác Mỹ. Hiện tượng này đã bắt đầu ảnh hưởng đến một số lĩnh vực như ngành sản xuất xe hơi : gần như hàng ngày Nissan, Tokyota…  đều phải giải quyết vấn đề tránh để nhà máy phải đóng cửa và cho nhân viên tạm nghỉ việc. Tháng 11/2021 Tokyo thông báo đầu tư thêm 6,5 tỷ đô la phát triển công nghiệp bán dẫn với mục tiêu chính là sản xuất chịp điện tử ngay trên lãnh thổ Nhật. Bên cạnh hai khó khăn nói trên thì Nhật Bản đã bắt đầu thiếu nhân lực để cỗ máy kinh tế vận hành. Số thanh niên vừa mừng lễ Seijin Shiki đánh dấu 20 tuổi, tuổi trưởng thành, năm nay giảm mất 40 % so với hồi 2019. Vào lúc mà lực lượng lao động giảm sụt thì mức nợ công tính theo đầu người lại không ngừng tăng lên. Ngoại trừ Nhật Bản, không một nền công nghiệp phát triển nào trên thế giới có mức nợ công tương đương với 256 % tổng sản lượng quốc gia. Thách thức an ninh Dù vậy trước một năm mới vừa mở ra, giới quan sát đồng loạt cho rằng, vế an ninh mới là mối ưu tư hàng đầu của nội các Fumio Kishida. Amy Danise trên báo Forbes chú trọng vào mối đe dọa Trung Quốc. Nhà nghiên cứu Pháp Edouard Pflimlin, Viện Quan Hệ Quốc Tế và Chiến Lược IRIS có tầm nhìn rộng hơn khi đề cập đến « ba mối đe dọa » nhắm vào Nhật Bản. Trả lời đài RFI tiếng Việt, chuyên gia Pflimlin trước hết phân tích về « hiểm họa quân sự » đặc biệt là Bắc Kinh và Nhật Bản cùng khẳng định chủ quyền trên quần đảo Senkaku/Điếu Ngư ở biển Hoa Đông, kế tới là hai hồ sơ nóng gồm Đài Loan và Biển Đông đều có nguy cơ « chận các cổng ra vào của Nhật Bản » : Edouard Pflimlin : « Trước hết là mức độ phát triển của quân đội Trung Quốc. Hải quân nước này càng lúc càng mạnh, với những phương tiện hùng hậu, với tàu sân bay, tàu ngầm tối tân nhất. Trung Quốc cũng đang phát triển tên lửa ở tốc độ trên 6.000 cây số/giờ, và rất khó phát hiện hay chận bắt loại tên lửa siêu thanh này. Đó là chưa kể đến hàng loạt vũ khí khác Bắc Kinh có trong tay. Tôi muốn nói đến những loại vũ khí thuộc về một thế hệ công nghệ mới như là drone, vũ khí chống vệ tinh hay công cụ cho phép khai mào một cuộc chiến cyber. Tất cả những phương tiện đó nhằm khẳng định chủ quyền của Trung Quốc trên bộ và trên biển và do vậy liên tục tạo áp lực rất lớn đối với Nhật Bản ». Sát cạnh với Trung Quốc, các chương trình phát triển quân sự và vũ khí của Bắc Triều Tiên cũng là một rủi ro cao.  Edouard Pflimlin : « Mối đe dọa thứ nhì như chúng ta đã thấy trong thời gian gần đây, là Bắc Triều Tiên. Hôm 05 tháng Giêng vừa qua, Bình Nhưỡng lại bắn thử tên lửa về phía biển Nhật Bản. Bắc Triều Tiên xác nhận đó là tên lửa có tầm bắn rất xa. Chế độ nước này duy trì áp lực triền miên trong khu vực để bảo vệ cho sự tồn tại. Năm 2021 ngành công nghiệp vũ khí của Bắc Triều Tiên đã đạt được nhiều tiến bộ qua việc bắn tên lửa đạn đạo có mang theo đầu đạn hạt nhân từ tàu ngầm, thử nghiệm thành công tên lửa siêu thanh … cho dù nạn đói hoành hành tại quốc gia Bắc Á này ». Nhìn về phía đông bắc Nhật Bản, xung khắc giữa Toyo và Matxcơva về chủ quyền quần đảo Kuril : dù không là một điểm nóng như ở phía sườn Tây, nhưng nước Nga chưa bao giờ lơ là với miền viễn Đông và Thái Bình Dương. Edouard Pflimlin : « Đe dọa thứ ba có vẻ là ít nghiêm trọng hơn nhưng lại là một thực tế xuất phát từ Nga. Hiện tại Matxcơva đang đe dọa một quốc gia độc lập ở sát cạnh sườn tây của Nga là Ukraina. Còn về mặt trận viễn đông, Nga đã tăng cường đáng kể lực lượng Hải Quân trong vùng Thái Bình Dương, tăng cường sự hiện diện trên quần đảo Kuril nơi có tranh chấp chủ quyền với Nhật Bản, và tại đây quân đội Nga đã mở rộng các căn cứ và thậm chí đã triển khai cả tên lửa đến khu vực này. Sau cùng, Nhật Bản ý thức được rằng, Nga hợp tác chặt chẽ với Trung Quốc cả về các hoạt động hải quân ». Khả năng « trường kỳ kháng chiến » ? Chính ba mối đe dọa về địa chiến lược vừa nêu đã bắt buộc Nhật Bản hai năm liên tiếp « tăng ngân sách quốc phòng ở mức kỷ lục ». Chưa bao giờ ngân sách phòng thủ của Nhật đạt gần 50 tỷ đô la cho cả năm – xấp xỉ với ngân sách quốc phòng của Pháp, nhưng chỉ bằng chưa đầy 20 % so với của Trung Quốc theo thẩm định của Viện Nghiên Cứu Hòa Bình Quốc Tế Stockholm SIPRI. Trong dự thảo ngân sách « bổ sung » đầu tiên của nhiệm kỳ, trình bày với nghị viện hôm 26/11/2021, thủ tướng Kishida đề xuất chi thêm 6,5 tỷ đô la để trang bị tên lửa, máy bay tuần tra, trực thăng và các trang thiết bị quân sự khác cho lực lượng an ninh quốc gia. Edouard Pflimlin nhấn mạnh đây là lần đầu tiên từ 1976 ngân sách phòng thủ Nhật Bản vượt ngưỡng quy định 1 % GDP. Hơn nữa Tokyo cam kết sẽ dành hẳn đến 2 % tổng sảm phẩm nội địa để đài thọ các phí tổn về quốc phòng, trong đó có việc tăng ngân sách cho các hoạt động của căn cứ quân sự Mỹ tại Okinawa. Có điều các phương tiện tài chính của Nhật dù rất lớn những cũng có giới hạn. Edouard Pflimlin: « Kinh Tế Nhật không hoàn toàn trong tình trạng thực sự thoải mái đặc biệt là với dịch Covid-19 và những tác động kèm theo. Ngoài ra, mức nợ của chính phủ thuộc vào hàng cao nhất trong số các quốc gia công nghiệp phát triển. Đó là một áp lực với kinh tế nước này và sức ép lại càng mạnh hơn khi Tokyo phải tăng ngân sách quốc phòng. Câu hỏi đặt ra là liệu rằng về dài hạn, Nhật Bản có thể duy trì nỗ lực đó một cách liên tục hay không ? » Chắc chắn một điều là những chi phí về quân sự của Nhật cũng đóng góp nhiều cho tăng trưởng kinh tế quốc gia Edouard Pflimlin : « Ngân sách này chủ yếu tập trung vào các khoản chi tiêu trong lĩnh vực nghiên cứu và phát triển – RD, vào những loại vũ khí sử dụng công nghệ mới, để trang bị chiến đấu cới đời mới như F35 của Mỹ. Ngoài ra Nhật Bản cũng có tham vọng trang bị tên lửa siêu thanh, đẩy mạnh các chiến dịch chống tấn công tin học… Tất cả nhằm mục đích tăng cường khả năng quân sự ».

Russia has brought new missiles to one of the Kuril islands. Shekhar Gupta explains what is the history of these islands- whether they belong to Russia or Japan. Are they only strategically important or there is more to the islands in Pacific Ocean that has restricted the two giant nations from signing a peace treaty since World War II. Episode 891 of CutTheClutter Additional Research by Sukriti Vats and Amogh Rohmetra

Folytatjuk beszélgetésünket Rammjäger83-mal a KatPol Blogról a japán fegyverletétellel, és a Szovjetúnió egyéb műveleteivel a térségben: Szahalin szigetének az elfoglalásával és a partraszállással a Kuril-szigeteken.A műsor elhangzott 2016. január 16.-án a Szent Korona Rádióban.

Nikola Mikovic , Freelance Journalist and Geopolitical Analyst joins Sean on the show.  Listen and subscribe to Moncrieff on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or Spotify.    Download, listen and subscribe on the Newstalk App.     You can also listen to Newstalk live on newstalk.com or on Alexa, by adding the Newstalk skill and asking: 'Alexa, play Newstalk'.  

West Coast Cookbook & Speakeasy is Now Open! 8am-9am PT/ 11am-Noon ET for our especially special Daily Specials, Smothered Benedict Wednesdays!Starting off in the Bistro Cafe, governors and doctors are in charge of combating the coronavirus pandemic, and are not listening to Donald Trump's suicide stats of people not going back to work.Then, on the rest of the menu, a full sixty percent of North Carolina voters say Burr should resign over his coronavirus stock-dumping scandal; Republicans falsely claim that voting by mail is fraud; and, the NCAA ruled leading Heisman candidate, Trevor Lawrence of Clemson, and his girlfriend, soccer star Marissa Mowry, didn't do anything wrong in trying to help coronavirus victims and their families.After the break, we move to the Chef's Table where Australia strongly objected to the formal indictment of Chinese-Australian writer Yang Hengju; and, tsunami warnings were issued after a magnitude 7.8 quake struck off Russia's Kuril islands.All that and more, on West Coast Cookbook & Speakeasy with Chef de Cuisine Justice Putnam.Bon Appétit!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~"To those of us who believe that all of life is sacred every crumb of bread and sip of wine is a Eucharist, a remembrance, a call to awareness of holiness right where we are. I want all of the holiness of the Eucharist to spill out beyond church walls, out of the hands of priests and into the regular streets and sidewalks, into the hands of regular, grubby people like you and me, onto our tables, in our kitchens and dining rooms and backyards.” -- Shauna Niequist "Bread and Wine: A Love Letter to Life Around the Table with Recipes"~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Show Notes & Links: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/3/25/1930984/-West-Coast-Cookbook-amp-Speakeasy-Daily-Special-Smothered-Benedict-Wednesdays

Full shownotes: http://80dayspocast.com/kuril | Support: http://patreon.com/80dayspodcast | In this episode of "80 Days: an exploration podcast" we’ll be talking about the Kuril Islands. This island chain is located in the Northern Pacific, and stretches between northern Japan and Kamchatka, Russia. The 56 islands extend for more than 750 miles across the ocean, and they total 10,500 square kilometers (4,000 square miles) of territory altogether, making their entire landmass roughly the same size as Lebanon or the island of Puerto Rico. The islands today have a population of roughly 20,000, and are controlled by Russia. However, the islands were previously administered by Japan  from the 18th century up until WWII, and have been subject to a land dispute ever since. Japan claims the southernmost islands as their ‘Northern Territories,’ and the conflict over them has led Moscow and Tokyo to avoid signing the peace treaty that would have formally ended the Second World War. Your hosts, as always, are Luke Kelly @thelukejkelly in Hong Kong, Mark Boyle @markboyle86 in the UK, and Joe Byrne @anbeirneach in Switzerland . (Theme music by Thomas O'Boyle @thatthomasfella)

Abe and Putin seek to end the 70-year-old territorial dispute over the Kuril archipelago, report Robin Harding and Kathrin Hille See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Įpusėjo Klimato kaitos derybos Paryžiuje. Ar pasaulio šalys pasinaudos istorine galimybe apsaugoti ateities kartas nuo gamtinės katastrofos?Rusija stiprina karinį buvimą ginčytinose Kurilų salose. Kodėl Kremlius nusprendė stiprinti savo pozicijas ir šiose prie Japonijos esančiose teritorijose?Kodėl nepaisant Indijos valdžios pastangų Kastų sistema ir toliau užkerta kelią žmonių pastangoms būti pripažintiems?

Įpusėjo Klimato kaitos derybos Paryžiuje. Ar pasaulio šalys pasinaudos istorine galimybe apsaugoti ateities kartas nuo gamtinės katastrofos?Rusija stiprina karinį buvimą ginčytinose Kurilų salose. Kodėl Kremlius nusprendė stiprinti savo pozicijas ir šiose prie Japonijos esančiose teritorijose?Kodėl nepaisant Indijos valdžios pastangų Kastų sistema ir toliau užkerta kelią žmonių pastangoms būti pripažintiems?

In part two of our podcast on the Russian incursions into the Kuril island chain and Japanese territories during the Edo period, we continue to look at the sailors, misfits, and adventurers of the Okhotsk sea region, as well as the history of land grabbing and politics that led to the current occupation of the Kuril island chain by Russia. Mentioned in this podcast: Golovnin, Vassilii Mikhailovich. Memoirs of a Captivity in Japan http://archive.org/details/memoirsofcaptivi01golouoft Lensen, George. Early Russo-Japanese Relations The Far Eastern Quarterly Vol. 10, No. 1 (Nov., 1950), pp. 2-37  www.jstor.org/stable/2049650 Tooke, William. View of the Russian Empire during the reign of Catharine the Second, and to the close of the present century (1799) http://archive.org/details/viewofrussianemp01tookuoft Wildes, Harry. Russia's Attempts to Open Japan Russian Review Vol. 5, No. 1 (Autumn, 1945) http://www.jstor.org/stable/125540 Support this podcast: Shop Amazon.com, suport the podcast: http://amzn.to/wnDX2j Samurai Archives Bookstore: http://astore.amazon.com/samurai-20 Samurai Archives Shop (T-Shirts, etc) http://www.cafepress.com/samuraiarchives Contact Us: Twitter @SamuraiArchives https://twitter.com/#!/samuraiarchives Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Samurai-Archives/104533213984 Samurai Archives podcast blog: http://www.samuraipodcast.com Samurai Archives Forum: http://www.japanhistoryforum.com

Over the next two episodes of the S-A Podcast, we look at the Russian incursions into the Kuril island chain and Japanese territories during the Edo period.  Led by a variety of characters, from cartographers and political envoys to criminals and rogue adventurers, these incursions struck fear into the citizens of Japan's capital of Edo, and slowly developed and shaped the harsh treatment of shipwrecked foreign sailors by the Shogunate. Mentioned in this podcast: Tooke, William. View of the Russian Empire during the reign of Catharine the Second, and to the close of the present century (1799) http://archive.org/details/viewofrussianemp01tookuoft Wildes, Harry. Russia's Attempts to Open Japan Russian Review Vol. 5, No. 1 (Autumn, 1945) http://www.jstor.org/stable/125540 Support this podcast: Shop Amazon.com, suport the podcast: http://amzn.to/wnDX2j Samurai Archives Bookstore: http://astore.amazon.com/samurai-20 Samurai Archives Shop (T-Shirts, etc) http://www.cafepress.com/samuraiarchives Contact Us: Twitter @SamuraiArchives https://twitter.com/#!/samuraiarchives Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Samurai-Archives/104533213984 Samurai Archives podcast blog: http://www.samuraipodcast.com Samurai Archives Forum: http://www.japanhistoryforum.com