Japan during World War I July 1916, Japan and Russia signed a treaty whereby each pledged not to make a separate peace with Germany, and agreed to consultation and common action should the territory or interests of each in China be threatened by an outside third party. Although Russia had a claim to Chinese territory by the Kyakhta and other treaties, Japan discouraged Russia from annexing Heilongjiang and began to slowly push the other powers out, such as the Germans in the Twenty-One Demands (1915). The delineating line between Russian (north) and Japanese (south) spheres of influences in China was the Chinese Eastern Railway. On
Military equipment of Sweden during World War II the Royal Navy lived through an enormous enhancement, ending up as the second-strongest naval power of the Baltic Sea after the Soviet Union. Number of destroyers pre-war: 13 Number of destroyers in 1939: 14 Number of destroyers in 1940: 19 Number of destroyers in 1941: 20 Number of destroyers in 1942: 23 Number of destroyers in 1943: 27 Number of destroyers in 1944: 28 Number of destroyers in 1945: 28 Sweden's air force at the beginning of World War II was relatively small and lacked modern radar systems, engines, or weaponry. This changed during the build-up in the 1940s, though,