Lecture 33: 1939 Khalkhin Gol—Sowing the Seeds of WWII
province where it originated, and it operated semi-autonomously,
although its commanders were expected to follow general Japanese
policy.x The immediate cause of the Battle of Khalkhin Gol was the
ambiguous borders between the Japanese puppet state of
Manchukuo and the Russian puppet state of Mongolia. In particular,
the Japanese maintained that for a stretch of about 30 miles, the
Halha River—called the Khalkhin Gol by the Mongolians—
demarcated the boundary. The Russians instead claimed that the
border ran about 10 miles to the north.The Battle
x In March 1939, Major Masanobu Tsuji of the Kwantung army
staff drafted a new set of guidelines for how to respond to minor
border clashes. Major Tsuji was a fanatical Japanese militarist and
nationalist who viewed foreigners as racial inferiors and believed
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set of instructions decreed, “If any Soviets cross the frontiers,
annihilate them without delay,” and “Where boundary lines are not
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establish boundaries.”x On May 11,^ 1939, a 20-man patrol of the People’s Republic of
Mongolia was spotted moving through the disputed zone between
the Halha River and the village of Nomonhan. A group of 40
Manchukuan cavalrymen drove them away after a brief skirmish.
Both sides then reported the incident. The Japanese sent more than
50 aircraft to search for the enemy.x Meanwhile, the Russians also responded, ordering a battalion
of infantry to the scene, accompanied by some light tanks and
artillery. When the Japanese detected this force, they decided to
implement Tsuji’s directive to annihilate the enemy and dispatched
more than 2,000 men, supported by artillery and tankettes, to
locate and crush them.