UKRAINIAN NATIONAL MOVEMENT IN MANCHURIA (based on Ivan Svit’s works)
Keywords:
Green Ukraine (Green Wedge), relationship between the Japanese and Ukrainians in Manchuria, Ivan Svit, Horie Kazumasa, “Manchurian Herald”Abstract
In the Manchurian diplomatic journal “The Political Situation in East Asia”, we find a fairly detailed analysis of the situation in China, the Soviet Union, and the European countries, as well as an overview and analysis of these countries’ ties with Nazi Germany. In the fifth volume of the publication, one of the sections was entitled “Review of Ukrainian National Movements”. From the aforementioned facts, it is clear that the section provided reliable information about Ukraine and its diaspora, as well as gave an objective assessment of the situation in which the Ukrainian community found itself in Manchuria. The author has analyzed this work.
With the beginning of the Sino-Japanese war, there were changes not only in the political course of Japan, but also in the bureaucracy of Manchuria. Most Japanese officials had left Manchuria. In 1937, the publication of the Ukrainian newspaper “Manchurian Herald” was stopped. For a long time, the Japanese authorities had greatly supported the editorial board of the “Manchurian Herald”, but suddenly changed their protectorate to censorship, and eventually banned the publication of the Ukrainian newspaper. Against the background of the then turbulent political situation worldwide, the Ukrainian community had lost a rather important channel of information dissemination. Consequently, there were fewer mentions and testimonies of Ukrainian national movements in Manchuria.
The author describes the life of the famous Ukrainian journalist, historian, and public and political figure in the Far East Ivan Svit. His relations and contacts with the Japanese colleagues Kitagawa Shikazo and Horie Kazumasa were analyzed.
On the basis of the processed source materials and literature, the peculiarities of the Ukrainian national movement in Manchuria, its successes, achievements, main failures, and the reasons of the decline are comprehensively covered. The author explains the role of the exile government of the Ukrainian People’s Republic in Ukrainian-Japanese relations.
