Summary:

Olavi K. Fält, The challenge of Russia, the Soviet Union, the Soviet Union: the friendly relations of Finland and Japan in 1904 – 1957.

Friendship in international relations is a very complex phenomenon. In this article I take the relations of Finland and Japan in 1904–1957 as an example of international political friendship. The starting point is the war between Russia and Japan and the end point is the re-establishment of diplomatic relations between the countries in 1957 after a 13-year pause. I divide the long period in such a way that I first examine factors that affected the relations during the war between Russia and Japan, then the 1930s and the WWII period, and finally factors that led to re-establishment of diplomatic relations.

Overall, when one examines the friendly relations of Finland and Japan during the whole period, it can be seen how their common neighbor, Russia/the Soviet Union, was a factor with a major impact on their relations. The cooperation between Colonel Akashi Motojiro, who represented Japan’s intelligence service during the war between Russia and Japan, and Konni (Konrad) Zilliacus, who represented Finnish activist circles, against the Russian government formed the basis for friendly relations and later symbolized them. Although the friendship between Finland, who gained her independence in 1917, and Japan, which was based on the war between Russia and Japan, remained warm as such throughout the 1930s and WWII until 1944, the whole time the associated expectations and hopes were dependent on both countries’ relations with the Soviet Union and the West. Finland hoped for some sort of support against the Soviet Union, which again did not fit in with Japan’s policy toward the Soviet Union. Only in the early 1930s would there have been some kind of actual possibility for such support. On the other hand, relations with the West, which were important to Finland, limited her support for Japan. From Finland’s standpoint, re-establishment of diplomatic relations again depended entirely on the arrangement of relations between the Soviet Union and Japan. Only after that was it possible for Finland to arrange her own relations with Japan. Thus, their friendly relations were always warm as such, but each country’s interests and positions in the turbulences of power politics defined their form and reality at different times.