Japan viewed the political turmoil in Russia as a priceless opportunity to move in on eastern Siberia and the rest of the East Chinese Railway. At the beginning of the war she grabbed German possessions in the Pacific archipelagoes and China. If the Russian Far East could be won, Japan would then be in a position to dominate both Asia and the Pacific Ocean.
With President Wilson's consent to limited intervention, Japan took advantage of the situation to pour 72,000 troops into the [M 014 / Amur-Ussuri] region and an additional 12,000 into Manchuria. They also reportedly paid the ruthless general Gregory Semenov $152,000 a month to cruise up and down the Transbaikal Line in a fleet of armored railway cars. From these roving bases, Semenov's men (who grew to a peak of 60,000) murdered, ravaged and looted on the pretense that they were suppressing Bolshevism. Requisitioning parties would round up citizens of a village and accuse them of collaboration with Red guerrillas. If money and supplies were not instantly forthcoming, these people were executed.
After the [G 01 / Allies] withdrew from Russia, the Japanese remained for two more years on the pretext of protecting their special interests until conditions stabilized. To maintain dominance over North China and the Russian Far East, they retired from Transbaikalia in the summer of 1920 to Manchuria and the Maritime Province. It was not until the Washington Naval Disarmament Conference of 1921-1922 that American pressure forced Japan to leave both the Siberian mainland and northern China. Her troops sailed from Vladivostok on October 25, 1922.
