My Twenty-Five Years In China by John B. Powell

Author:John B. Powell [Powell, John B.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Military, United States, Europe, General, Germany, Asia, Japan
ISBN: 9781786257062
Google: l0FwCwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
Published: 2015-11-06T05:07:36+00:00

Vladivostok has a delightful spring, summer, and autumn climate, but the same cannot be said of winter, which is cold, blustery, and changeable. A balmy, invigorating morning might be followed by a cold, raw afternoon that made a fur-lined over-coat a necessity. The officials at Vladivostok had elaborate plans for developing Vladivostok as a summer resort, similar to the famous resorts on the Caspian and Black seas, but war preparations doubtless intervened.

While in Vladivostok I listened to many accounts of ambitious development projects, one of which nearly caused complications with the Japanese. It also had its humorous elements.

This project was for the construction of a causeway or dam connecting northern Sakhalin Island with the mainland, just north of the mouth of the Amur River. The engineer claimed that the cold weather which prevailed along the coast of the Maritime Province of Siberia was due to a cold ocean current from the Sea of Okhotsk which flowed southward along the coast of the Maritime Province. He argued that this frigid current was responsible for the disagreeable climate which prevails along the southern Siberian coast, and that by damming the narrow strait between Sakhalin Island and the coast, the cold current would be diverted away from Siberia and would flow down along the east side of Japan. The effect of this, according to his analysis, would be to produce a warmer climate along the Siberian coast and at the same time to transform the Japanese islands, particularly the northern islands of Hokkaido and Honshu, into arctic territories which the Japanese population would find unendurable.

News of this novel Russian solution of the Japanese problem, which would congeal them Wholesale, naturally reached Japan and created a tremendous commotion. It was only one of many such rumors which were constantly coming out of Siberia and circulating among the Japanese in exaggerated form. I often wondered if this was not an astute form of Russian psychological warfare.

Also, there was no questioning the fact that the Japanese were using these alleged threats from Siberia to stimulate their own war psychology and divert the minds of the Japanese people away from the critical economic situation then prevailing throughout most of Japan.

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