The enemy of my enemy is my friend: Ukrainian-Japanese cooperation in Manchuria against the Soviet Union (1932-1945)

Speaker: Dr Olga Khomenko (Nissan Institute, University of Oxford)

JRC Meiji Jingu Autumn Lecture 2023

The Japan Research Centre Meiji Jingu Autumn Lecture is sponsored through the generosity of the Meiji Jingu-Intercultural Research Institute.

Abstract

This talk examines forgotten pages of collaboration between Ukrainians and Japanese in Manchuria under Japanese occupation (1932-1945). It focuses on the example of the life and intellectual works of Ivan Svit, a Ukrainian journalist and historian. After the Russian revolution he was forced to migrate from Ukraine first to the Far East and then to Harbin. 

In Vladivostok as a journalist, he covered the awakening of Ukrainian national movement working toward establishing an independent political entity in the Far East tying to the Ukrainian Republic in Kyiv. During the Siberian intervention Svit and other Ukrainians first encountered Japanese people. Later after 1932 in Manchuria Ivan Svit reestablished his connection with Japanese and was able to receive support for publishing Ukrainian media. 

Ukrainians - a stateless minority, previously under the strong ideology of Russian monarchism and then under the Japanese ideology of the "peaceful co-existence of five different nations" in Manchuria.  With the advent of the Japanese occupation, between 1932-1937, Ukrainian diaspora hoped to create an independent Ukrainian political entity outside of Ukraine, in the Far East, where up to 1mln Ukrainians already lived as a result of settlers’ colonization of the region in late XIX- early XX centuries. Ukrainians national movement awakening of 1917-1922 didn’t succeed in it. 

Ukrainians looked for support and considered the Japanese as a friend and partner, because of the common enemy - Soviet State. Japan, meanwhile, was trying to change the geopolitical situation in the region, considering breaking the Soviet Union from within. Ukraine, as well as the Caucasus were potential forces which could start this process. 

Between 1932-1937 Ivan Svit published a newspaper called "The Manchurian Herald," representing the interests of all minorities, Ukrainians, Tatars, Pols, Georgians. Between 1937-1944, Ivan Svit also documented a history of Ukrainian diaspora and wrote “Short History of the Ukrainian Movement in the Far East/Asia (1938), published a unique map of the Ukrainian presence in the Far East - a Map of Green Ukraine (1937) and helped to publish the first Ukrainian Japanese dictionary (1944).

Alternative partnership between Ukrainians and Japanese had a short life because of different goals and vision of the future, but it did exist and proved that Ukrainian factor played a significant role in the world of geopolitics since the beginning of XX century.

About the speaker

Dr. Olga Khomenko is a historian of Japan and CARA/British Academy Fellow at Nissan Institute, University of Oxford. Dr. Olga Khomenko holds a PhD in Area Studies, specifically on the history of Japan, from the University of Tokyo. From 2018 to 2020, she was a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Harvard University, USA. Her research interests include transnational history, history of business and consumption and the history of Ukraine-Japan relations, with a focus on Ukrainians in the Far East and Manchuria under Japanese occupation. Olga's book on Ukrainian diaspora in Manchuria  call The Far Eastern Odyssey of Ivan Svit [original Title Далекосхідна одіссея Івана Світа] was published in 2021, by Laurus in Kyiv. 

Her recent book of essey on the war of Ukraine call  "The Faraway sky of Kyiv. Ukrainians in the war' (original title 「キーウの遠い空。戦争の中のウクライナ人」 was published in July 2023 by Chuo Koron Shinsho in Tokyo. She is also author of books of essey call "Ukrainians who crossed the borders [original Title 国境を超えたウクライナ人]   (2022),  "From Ukraine with love" (original Title「ウクライナから愛を込めて」(2014), as well as co-translator into Japanese of "Anthology of Modern Ukrainian Literature"(original Title 「現代ウクライナ文学短編集」)(2005) , all published by Gunzosha in Tokyo.

Registration

This event free, open to the public, and held both in person and online. If you would like to attend, please register using one of the links above.

• Organiser: SOAS Japan Research Centre
• Contact email: centres@soas.ac.uk