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Could you please provide some detail about this advancing Red Army juggernaut that so frightened the Japanese leadership?
Because all contemporary accounts are that the only thing the Soviets accomplished vs Japan was to accept the surrender of the starving, cut-off and poorly equipped Kwantung army stranded in China in the last few days of the war.
Hardly a decisive contribution. Really nothing more than a mopping up campaign against an outnumbered and spent Japanese force.
Any great historian can tell you that it was not the bombs that put submission into the Japanese but it was the soviets. Plenty of information is on this. Also do you know that Churchill insisted on the US to drop the bombs on Japan so that it can also down Russian advance into Japan.? The Soviet juggernaut would have reached Tokyo by early as September and late as October. The US military is in Okinawa which is 300 miles away from Japan. A very far distance for an invasion.
It happened because as soon as the history of the war was being written, the Soviets were clearly our Cold War adversaries, and it was general practice to ignore their contributions where possible. In Europe, this really wasn't possible. In the Pacific, it was. There's a reason Roosevelt and Churchill extracted from Stalin at Yalta an agreement that the USSR would join the war against Japan within three months of the end of the way in Europe.
And it wasn't about who defeated Japan militarily. The question is whether or not, and to what degree, the Soviet invasion contributed to Japan's August political decision to throw in the towel. That historical question does not rest on when the Soviets joined the fray.
It's really just a matter of discussing history without getting bogged down in ideological biases.
Respectfully disagree.
The USSR entered the war against Japan 2 days after the first atomic bomb was dropped. The Japanese surrendered 6 days later.
In contrast, China had been fighting them since 1937. The rest of the Allies since 1941.
6 days vs. 8 years and 4 years.
The difference is obvious and has nothing to do with ideological biases- although how one could not be biased against Stalinism escapes me.
Mushroom clouds, widespread devastation, and radiation is a lot more coercive than an army across the Sea of Japan. If the Japanese were planning to fight the Allies on their homeland tooth and nail, I doubt the addition of yet another was going to sway them much.
The USSR entered the war against Japan 2 days after the first atomic bomb was dropped. The Japanese surrendered 6 days later.
In contrast, China had been fighting them since 1937. The rest of the Allies since 1941.
6 days vs. 8 years and 4 years.
The difference is obvious and has nothing to do with ideological biases- although how one could not be biased against Stalinism escapes me.
Mushroom clouds, widespread devastation, and radiation is a lot more coercive than an army across the Sea of Japan. If the Japanese were planning to fight the Allies on their homeland tooth and nail, I doubt the addition of yet another was going to sway them much.
Bulk of the Japanese military was in South Japan. North Japan was wide open for Soviet invasion. The Russians could have easily taken hokkaido Island and make it to honshu Island and take Tokyo.
Bulk of the Japanese military was in South Japan. North Japan was wide open for Soviet invasion. The Russians could have easily taken hokkaido Island and make it to honshu Island and take Tokyo.
Well then why didn't they?
Then we could cite the USSR for actually doing something rather than throwing "What Ifs?" around and treating them as historical facts.
Any great historian can tell you that it was not the bombs that put submission into the Japanese but it was the soviets. Plenty of information is on this. Also do you know that Churchill insisted on the US to drop the bombs on Japan so that it can also down Russian advance into Japan.? The Soviet juggernaut would have reached Tokyo by early as September and late as October. The US military is in Okinawa which is 300 miles away from Japan. A very far distance for an invasion.
The Soviets may have played some small part in Japan's considerations to surrender. But they played almost no role whatsoever in the Pacific war. They were totally consumed and largely exhausted with their war vs Germany. Add to that their complete lack of any kind of amphibious lift capacity and your scenario becomes unrealistic. The forces they shifted to the east in the last week of the war simply mopped up the starving, cut-off Kwantung army, which mostly surrendered or deserted. So they faced nothing in terms of combat in comparison to what Us forces did fighting across the Pacific.
It happened because as soon as the history of the war was being written, the Soviets were clearly our Cold War adversaries, and it was general practice to ignore their contributions where possible. In Europe, this really wasn't possible. In the Pacific, it was. There's a reason Roosevelt and Churchill extracted from Stalin at Yalta an agreement that the USSR would join the war against Japan within three months of the end of the way in Europe.
And it wasn't about who defeated Japan militarily. The question is whether or not, and to what degree, the Soviet invasion contributed to Japan's August political decision to throw in the towel. That historical question does not rest on when the Soviets joined the fray.
It's really just a matter of discussing history without getting bogged down in ideological biases.
I disagree with your reading of the situation. I would say it was not a threat of Soviet invasion per se that tipped the Japanese decision, but the fact that the Soviet threat of invasion meant the Soviets were not going to assist in avoiding unconditional surrender to avoid a US invasion.
IMO it was a historical mistake to invite USSR into the final days of war against Japan.
If USSR had not been involved, there would have not been the emergence of North Korea. And the rise of Communist China might have been avoided, or at least delayed for many years. A Communist Vietnam would also be impossible.
After the dropping of two atomic bombs, the surrender of Japan was only a matter of time. Given the absolute obedience of Japanese soldiers to their Emperor, they would have dropped their guns sooner or later.
In the other Japanese occupied areas where there were no Allied forces like Southeast Asia or Taiwan or Hong Kong, the Japanese occupational forces dropped down their weapons voluntarily without hassles.
The invitation of Red Army into the war has drastically reduced the first Island Chain in the Pacific. Otherwise it would be stretching from the Southern Sakhalin down to the Philippines.
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