The entry of the USSR into the war with Japan was a completely foreseen step - it is quite possible if Hitler Germany had not unleashed hostilities in Europe, this war would have happened much earlier. Separate armed clashes on the borders of Manzhou-Guo and Mongolia have periodically occurred since the mid-1930s. Some of them were so provocative in nature that they could well have served as a pretext for declaring war. But worried about the military threat from the fascist coalition countries, Stalin, not wanting to divide the hostilities into two so distant fronts, signed a non-aggression pact with the Japanese leadership in April 1941.
At the Yalta Conference, Stalin made a clear promise to the Allies that the war with Japan would begin two, or a maximum of three months after the surrender of Germany. And it should be noted that he kept this promise with phenomenal punctuality - on May 8, Germany laid down her arms, and at midnight on August 8, the Soviet Union began military operations, unilaterally withdrawing from the non-aggression pact signed earlier.
It was hard to imagine that the war with Japan in 1945 would end as it had forty years ago. Now, without exaggeration, the Japanese army was opposed by the strongest army in the world, which had unprecedented experience in conducting military operations in the most difficult conditions and with a much more trained enemy. Most of the Japanese army was recruits who did not have even the most minimal skills for conducting successful military operations. In many parts and formations there were no machine guns; there was not enough artillery and missiles.
In addition, the armament of the Soviet army was many times greater than the outdated aircraft and tanks of the Japanese. Well, of no small importance was the fact that many of the fighters specifically asked for the Far East, remembering the grandfathers and fathers who died there once. All 40 years that have passed since the infamous Portsmouth world have not erased the pain of defeat, and for the Russian soldiers the capture of Port Arthur was no less significant than the capture of Berlin. This would be the final restoration of the honor of the Russian weapons scolded by the Japanese; the war with Japan became a war against the ghosts of the past.
As expected, hostilities on the Far Eastern Front did not drag out - already on September 12 in the waters of Tokyo Bay, on board the battleship Missouri, an act was signed on unconditional surrender of Japan. The war, which lasted a little over a month, was over, and all the goals of the Soviet Union were realized.
The war with Japan: the main results.
The main and unconditional result of our victory was the return of what was lost by the Russian Empire in 1905.
- South Sakhalin, forty years owned by Japan, returned to the Soviet Union.
- The long-suffering Port Arthur, a legendary city, once again, albeit temporarily, belonged to us. Russian soldiers got a rare opportunity to get to the old cemetery and find their relatives here, about whom they only heard that they died fighting the Japanese. Surprisingly, many of them really succeeded, and as trophies they were able to take home a handful of land from the graves of their ancestors and a photograph taken next to the grave monument. It was a unique moment when two armies met - Russian and Soviet.
- Kwantung and Dalniy also temporarily passed into the use of the USSR.
- The main group of the Kuril Islands, which passed to Japan in 1875, together with the southern part of the archipelago, again passed to the use of Russia.
And the most significant political result of the victory of the USSR was the fall of the last country of the Hitler coalition. Fascism was completely destroyed and the Soviet Union once again reaffirmed its title as a victorious country.