 The National Broadcasting Company and its affiliated stations present The Pacific Story. This is the story of the Pacific and the millions of people who live around this greatest sea. The drama of the people whose destiny is at stake in the Pacific War. This is the documentary story of the war in the Pacific and its meaning to us and to the generations to come. Tonight's Pacific Story comes to you from San Francisco and Hollywood as another public service with drama of the past and present. And commentary by Dr. H. H. Fisher, professor of history at Stanford University and authority on Russia. The Red Banner Far Eastern Armies. From the Monhand, on the frontier between Manchuria and outer Mongolia, outbreaks have been flaring all along the Siberian border. The year before this, I've seen the bloody fighting at Chiang Ku Feng, not far below Vladivostok. Now, the very presence of Zhukov on the outer Mongolian frontier meant that the Russians were expecting more trouble with the Japanese. Zhukov was then Soviet Vice-Commissar of Defense. I headed for No-Monhand, 750 miles inland from the Sea of Japan. The enemy is massing large armored units for the attack, Comrade General. I know the Japanese 6th Army well. The reconnaissance reports the enemy is bringing up strong air support, Comrade General. Anything else? I marveled at his coolness. This is the way he always behaves. A Russian reporter and I looked on. Keep me informed. I will be on my quarter. He walked out. The next few days, I saw the Soviet armor. More tanks and armored cars than I'd ever seen at one time. The airplanes, it keeps out of sight. Ah, the Japanese are starting with their artillery. Yes, and here come their planes. Those are Soviet planes. I've never seen that type. Neither has anyone else. Look at the path up there. A couple of hundred way to Zhukov's strikes with his tanks. The Japanese swept in with full power. Zhukov's tanks came out in swarms like great roaring monsters. The Russians and the Japanese at the Mahon, on the frontier between Manchuria and Aramangolia, has already reached a pitch never before seen on the continent of Asia, and perhaps never before seen on Earth. General Georgi Konstantinovich Zhukov is meeting the large-scale Japanese drivers of Aramangolia with a mighty force of tanks and planes. The Japanese have driven into Aramangolia and General Zhukov is with them. Looks to me as if the Japanese 6th Army is driving right through Zhukov's lines. Zhukov knows what he is doing, Mr. Lewis. Konstantinovich has surrounded the 6th Japanese Army and is now in the process of cutting it to pieces. Using hard-hitting, swift-moving tanks, Zhukov dove the Japanese out of Manchuria back into Manchuria, and then with a great encircling movement surrounded it. Tanks and infantry and airplanes were used in this far-eastern battle, in a way with the effect that Japanese... More than a thousand airplanes and 800 tanks took part in the battle, and the Japanese force was destroyed. What do you figure the Japanese losses were, Mikhail? They've admitted losing 18,000 killed. So perhaps there were many more? 18,000. The Japanese will never forget Zhukov, or the far-eastern army. They were attacked by the Mongols of Aramangoria. This was the Japanese excuse for the battle. The Japanese excuse is ridiculous and absurd. This was the Russian reply. Japan had better realize that the USSR has now grown in strength, and we will no longer tolerate such provocations. The battle at No Manhand took place in August 1939, while the attention of the world was focused on the impending war in Europe. Few people realized its importance, but the Russians did. It was the culmination of more than 2,300 border clashes, in which many of the top soldiers of the Red Army learned how to fight the Japanese. Zhukov, Appensenko, Glukhar, Voronov, and many others. Today, Soviet Russia has more than a million well-trained, well-fed, battle-tested men in the Far East. In addition, she has in Soviet Asia all that is needed to wage a war. She has heavy industries, last furnaces, mines, steel mills, factories, air bases, training fields, airplane plants, cadets' schools, naval bases, shipbuilding yards, submarines, torpedo boats, gun boats, destroyers, and a planned agriculture, producing enough food to supply all of Soviet Asia and a full army in the field without help from European Russia. And yet this army, one of the most powerful in the world, is only a quarter of a century old. That is Vasily Glukhar, right there. I saw the mysterious Glukhar in Vladivostok in 1920. He was one of the stoutest fighters in the revolution. He was a leader of partisans. He smashed the white Russians in the orals. He has been sent out here to throw the Japanese out of Siberia? The Japanese have been here unlawfully for more than 2 years. I'd like to know how he's going to do it. So would we. I talked with Glukhar many times. He was a brilliant soldier and a clever and cunning diplomat. Soviet Russia must have a strong military force here in the Far East. Well, soon we saw it taking form. Glukhar is organizing the partisans and the guerrillas and the communist forces into a far eastern army. After almost three years of bitter fighting, the white forces were thrown out and the Japanese troops were forced to withdraw. For its own defense, Soviet Asia must become a fortress area. No one saw this more clearly than Glukhar. Soviet Asia must first think in military terms. Glukhar studied the terrain of Soviet Asia from the orals to the Pacific. He came to know all its varying conditions and its problems. Glukhar has one eye on Japan. It was during these days that I met the Russian reporter Mikhail Kancha. Look for an independent Soviet military force out here, Louis. Complete independent army? Not only one, probably several. And probably each will have its own air force. And in addition, there will be the Pacific fleet. As time went on, I saw the development of this unique military force. I traveled back and forth across Soviet Asia from the industrial centers of the orals to the military establishments in the hinterland of the Pacific shore. And yet, all of this was just preliminary. I remember it was on August 7th, 1929 that an official order came out, crystallizing the whole thing. By order of the Revolutionary War Council of the USSR, the Special Far Eastern Army will be established in Soviet Asia. Do you know why this order was issued at this time, Louis? Could it be related to what's been happening in Manchuria? The Chinese Eastern Railway has been seized by Manchuria. And the railroad is a weapon of war. The Special Far Eastern Army had officially come into being. And it was obvious that this was only the beginning. By the time the Japanese took Manchuria in the fall and winter of 1931, the Russians had a well-organized army on the border. The face of Soviet Asia was changed. Russia had thought to develop its great wilderness with a minimum of manpower. But a great army, an independent army, implied industries to supply it. Agriculture defeated. It implied men to work the industries and farms, men to build the communications, the highways, the railroads. In 1931, Soviet Russia planned eight new industrial bases. And six of these were to be in Siberia. We have coal here at Kuznetsk, and iron at Magnitogorsk. We ship some of our coal to Magnitogorsk, and Magnitogorsk ships some of its iron to us. So we smelled iron at both places. Here we are putting to work the great water power of the Angara tributary to the NSE river for the generation of electric power. This power will supply a great part of the industries at the Lake Bakkal district, and even those far to the east. The military men were cagey about the organization of the army in Soviet Asia. Yes, Siberia has been divided into a number of military districts. No one knew exactly how many. I can tell you this much. There is a military council in each military district. It transpired that there were three members in each of these councils. One of them was a ranking military officer. So by the time the border incidents began to flare up, the Soviets were ready to deal with them, wherever they were. Here, look through these field glasses, Louis. Panchev was covering the fighting along the Manchurian border as I was. Can you see? Power of this artillery is tremendous. Not only the power, also the accuracy. Yes, they're pulverizing the tops of those rocky hills. Can you see how they're marking off the pill boxes? Yes. Yes, they're smashing them to pieces. Oh, look. Look, there's Voronov. Nikolay Nikolayevich Voronov, the great artillery expert, walked up to observe the effects of his bombardment. That man, Louis, is one of the greatest artillery men of this day. I watched Voronov as he scanned the hills with his field glasses. He's commander of the artillery of the Red Army. This was the man who was to become Marshal of Artillery and who was to smash the Nazis at Stalingrad and, of course, at Gomell and so many other places. He stood there, a blonde, giant of a man. It was in the Far East against the Japanese that he tried out his theories of using artillery and pulver. While Japanese tactics can stand against this cannonade in Louis, Voronov reported back to Moscow after this action. And not long after this, an official announcement was made. In the recognition of its victories on the borders of Soviet Asia, the Far Eastern Army has awarded the title of the Red Banner. Effective advance, the Red Banner Far Eastern Army will be divided into two armies, the first and the second. Even we who were in Soviet Asia had little idea of the size and the disposition of the Far Eastern forces. But little by little we learned. You see, the Red Banner First Army and the Red Banner Second Army together are called the Far Eastern Front. And Army General Joseph Appensenko is the overall commander. Appensenko in 1943 was to be killed before Kursk. The headquarters of the Far Eastern Front are at Harbarovsk. Harbarovsk is on the Manchurian border about 200 miles from the Sea of Japan. But we were to learn that in addition to the two Red Banner armies in the Far Eastern Front, there was another command farther inland. It is called the Transbekhal Front, and its headquarters are at Chita. The Transbekhal Front, like the Far Eastern Front, has its own air force. As the tension grew along the border, the development of the Soviet Far Eastern forces quickened. I talked to some of the young Russians who had come out to Soviet Asia to join the Red Banner armies. I will settle down here when my army service is over. You were a farmer before you joined the army? Yes. The government has moved my family and my stock out here. I should think it would be very hard for you to make a new start out here. The government is already helping my family with credits and subsidies. Then you will have a farm to go to when your service is over. Yes, and those of us who are not farmers will settle here and work in the industry. That will go a long way toward settling this country. Of course, we will be in reserve in case we should be needed. And from time to time, we will go back for more training. You see, the object in coming out here is to be ready. Soviet Russia knew what she faced. She had signed a non-aggression pact with China. She extended credit to China, sent ammunition, military advisers, engineers. She helped China build highways for the transport of supplies. Stalin made his position clear. We stand for the support of nations that are the victims of aggression and are fighting for the independence of their country. As replied, you think that these hundreds of born men besides knowing that Japan considers Russia our most important and Japan considers Russia our most important enemy in Asia, Stalin knows that the Japanese by these border clashes are trying to involve Russia in so much trouble that she will stop helping China. But this will not deter Russia, rather it will accelerate the building up of Soviet strength here in the Far East. Konchev was right. Stalin indirectly issued a warning to Japan in his report to the Communist Party Congress in 1939. We stand for peaceful, close and friendly relations with all the neighboring countries which have common frontiers with the USSR. We shall adhere to this position as long as these countries maintain like relations with the Soviet Union and as long as they do not trespass on the frontiers of the Soviet state. To underscore this statement, Stalin sent Zhukov to the Far East and also sent back Voronov. Both Zhukov and Voronov were present when the Japanese 6th Army attacked Noh-Mohan. And while Zhukov's tanks roared, Voronov's cannon thundered. Behind the front, the new Soviet Asia hummed with industry. By this time, the Great Trans-Siberian Railway was double-tracked. New railroads and highways were built. And over them were moving supplies by the millions of tons. Where's this train going? It has headed westward, does it not? War correspondents flocked into Soviet Asia. Night and day, all I've seen since I've been here are trains rolling westward. Hitler has attacked Russia. What about this stuff of European Russia sending everything out here to build up Siberia? That stage is bad. Where do they come from? Night and day, the trains rumbled, trains bringing whole industries from European Russia and the same trains taking men in the materials of war to European Russia. By fall 1941, war correspondents were sending vivid reports to the outside world of what they had seen in Soviet Asia. Powerful planes towing as many as 10 gliders are operating over what was once the wilderness of Siberia. The gliders are cut off one by one according to plan and sometimes all of them cut loose and come down like a flock of doves. Russia has at least 40 superbly trained and superbly equipped infantry divisions in the vicinity of Cheetah, the Trans-Baikal area, some 1200 miles inland from the Sea of Japan. The Russians also have concentrated in Soviet Asia a powerful armored force and perhaps some 3,500 war planes. The frontier between Siberia and Manchuria bristles with more than 4,000 Soviet blood vessels. Vladivostok has been fortified to the teeth. Not only is the city ringed around with fortifications and airfields but the harbor teems with submarines. Three years ago the Red Navy had more submarines than any other nation on earth and counting the construction since then, the Soviets have many more today. While the Soviets faced the Nazi drive in the west they faced the Japanese threat in the east. We saw division after division of Siberian troops heading westward but saw no Red Banner troops move. The Red Banner troops are earmarked for the Japanese. That was Konchap's opinion and so far as we could tell it was well found. The Red Banner army was poised for any possible Japanese move and across the border the Japanese moved up to a mighty concentration of arms. We could see the Japanese across the border and they could see us. From this point, 5 forts are in sight. This was the written account of a captured Japanese. To the east there are many telegraph poles along the military highway. Stardine's military road is well built. It is covered with asphalt and has many bridges over the swamps. This afternoon I saw 48 military trucks beating over the highway. The barracks for the troops are over 400 meters from the river. They are half hidden in the snow. To the right there are one barracks for officers and to the left five for the men. A strong garrison is stationed here. Further to the left there is a military storehouse and still farther a small house with a red wolf and gray wars. Over this are two radio antennas and above the door is the emblem of the Soviet army. They noted where the centuries were stationed. The troops are always on their right. They appear and disappear. From time to time they are gone. It is possible to determine how far they walk. They had charted the posts of the sentry. We have run to distinguish between the sound of exploding dynamite and heavy gunfire. The ground is frozen, they pray, but the Russians work from dawn to dark in the construction of their fortifications. The frontier was overrun with spies from both sides. The Russians knew that the Japanese had at least 700,000 troops on the border. We have more. Konchev was usually right. The Japanese are waiting to see what happens before Moscow. We watched the reports come in from the western front. Nazi Panzer divisions are driving into the outskirts of Moscow. But fighting them with a fury perhaps never before equaled are the troops of Siberian Far East. If Moscow falls, we can expect anything here. But the Nazis were smashed at Moscow. Zhukov and Voronov are there. Zhukov and Voronov and the others are in the air battle theories in the Far East. And they were at Stalingrad. Forty Siberian divisions, rugged troops from Soviet Asia, have played a dominant role in the fierce fighting in this sector. The tide has been turned at Stalingrad. But the Red Banner armies, with their own independent air forces, were still intact and still facing the Japanese along the frontier and still waiting. Today, Soviet strength in the Far East is stronger than at any time in history. Its strategic positions are better. And one of these days, Zhukov and Voronov and the Siberian troops who distinguished themselves against the Nazis will be coming back to Soviet Asia. The Red Army in Soviet Asia stands ready in the Far East. To tell the significance of this power in the Pacific, the National Broadcasting Company presents Dr. H. H. Fisher, professor of history at Stanford University and authority on Russia. The next voice you hear will be that of Dr. Fisher. We take you now to San Francisco. No army is stronger than the country that nourishes it. The Red Banner armies are a part of the armed mind of the Soviet Union. But they are nourished by the region they were created to defend. The Soviet Far East. In the years to come, we're going to hear a lot about this country the Russians discovered 300 years ago and have rediscovered in our generation. It's a big country and not yet developed, stretching from Lake Baikal to the Arctic in the north and the Pacific in the east. You might compare it with Alaska and Canada, west of Lake Superior. It's about the same in size, population and industry, but all the large towns and most of the farms and practically all the transportation are in a narrow valley 50 to 100 miles wide between the Amur River and the mountain wildernesses. Nearly four of its four and a half million people live along the Trans-Siberian Railroad or between it and the river at parallels. North of the valley is the huge expanse of the Yakut Autonomous Soviet Republic as large as all of European Russia, dotted with the sparse settlements of a native Turkic people who number only 400,000 and who, like our American Indians, have been forced to move from their ancient homes to these less hospitable lands. The Tsars treated the Far East as a strategic outpost which they colonized chiefly with Cossacks and soldiers to guard the frontiers and keep an eye for forced labor in the mines. The Soviet government has had even more cause than the Tsars to take account of the strategic value of the Far East region, but that's only one reason for its importance. A more significant reason is the transformation of this frontier fortress on the Amur into a modern community. Exploration and prospecting have shown that the Soviet Far East possesses practically every raw material needed in the most up-to-date modern industry. These raw materials, however, are not to be taken away to feed the factories of European Russia but are being used in the new industries built up in the Far East itself. Along with this industrial transformation of the region, the Soviet government is attempting a cultural transformation. At the bottom, this means that practically every child of school age throughout the area can and does go to school. It means libraries and theaters and community centers. At the higher level, it means that where there was one institution of college level in 1913, there are now 26. Sometimes culture has gone ahead of convenience. Erkutsk, for example, with a quarter of a million people five years ago had no sewage or transportation or water systems, but it had nine higher educational institutions with over 5,000 students. Here's another reason why this transformation is important. About 500 miles from Vladivostok, in the almost practice forest of the Tyga, is a little settlement of 600 people. They are the Oroshans, which means deer breeders, and they are the smallest of the nearly 200 nationalities in the Soviet Union. To this settlement 10 years ago came Nikolai Sidorov, a Russian schoolteacher. Sidorov had to begin at the beginning. No one of the 600 in the settlement could read or write. All of them lived in grass-covered huts and nomad tents, the same primitive habitations that these hundreds and fishermen had lived in for countless generations. But in 10 years, this tribal camp became an organized community of wooden buildings, with a schoolhouse, a hospital, a steam bath, a club, and a post office. Illiteracy is no more, and the 600 deer breeders have become full-fledged citizens of the Soviet Union, in whose defense they have served in the Red Banner armies of the Far East and in the Siberian divisions on the European front. This tiny nationality of 600 souls is not very important in a country of nearly 200 millions. The newly acquired facilities and conveniences of the community would seem very poor to many American villages of the same size. Yet this transformation of an Asiatic tribe of hunters from a status of dependency to a status of equality in less than a generation is significant. It is significant as an example of Soviet policy towards Asiatic peoples, a policy that makes wide appeal because it appears to bring to these peoples the benefits of Western science and knowledge, primarily for the well-being of the peoples themselves, rather than for the profit of their benefactors. All together, these policies mean that in this northeast corner of Asia, in this remote land of ice and snow, and of hunters, fishermen, and pioneers, a new community is coming into being. As modern in its technology as Japan, but more enlightened and humane in its aims and more enduring, because it rests on the principle to which we Americans pay homage, the vital principle of equality. Thank you, Dr. H. H. Fisher. You have been listening to the Pacific Story, presented by the National Broadcasting Company and its affiliated independent stations as a public service to clarify events in the Pacific and to make understandable across currents of light in the Pacific Basin. For a reprint of this Pacific Story program, send ten cents in stamps or coin to University of California Press, Berkeley, California. The story is written and directed by Arnold Marklis. The original musical score was composed and conducted by Thomas Paluso. The principal voice was that of John Wall. This program came to you from San Francisco and Hollywood. This is the National Broadcasting Company.