Here’s one that I could never figure out:
It’s the end of WWII. The war in Europe is over. Now it’s the Allies vs. Japan.
The US drops a bomb on Hiroshima on August 6. At that point, it’s pretty obvious to everyone that it’s over; the Japanese have to just admit it. They drop another bomb on August 9. By the 14th, the Japanese government caves.
However, on August 8, the Soviet Union declares war on Japan. What’s the deal with that? Was it simply to get in on whatever spoils the victors would get? Why declare war on Japan at that late date, and after the US has dropped a bomb that makes it apparent to everyone that the war is over?
Zev Steinhardt
Basically, yes that’s why. And if Gen. McArthur hadn’t told them in no uncertain terms ‘If you try to land a single russian soldier on Japan I will have them immediately arrested’ we would today have (along with Korea) North and South Japan.
The Soviets/Russians did get the Kurils and southern Sakhalin.
Also, at the Yalta Conference it was agreed that “in return for the Soviet Union’s entering the war against Japan within “two or three months” after Germany’s surrender, the U.S.S.R. would regain the territory lost to Japan in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05, and the status quo in pro-Soviet Outer Mongolia would be maintained” (from the Encyclopedia Britannica). I imagine Stalin mainly agreed to this in order to get the aforementioned spoils, so Hail Ants’ point is valid as far as that goes. As to why the Allies wanted Stalin to get involved in the Pacific war; I suppose in February 1945 (when Yalta was held), the West was still sufficiently worried about taking heavy casualties in invading Japan (if probably not worried about the ultimate outcome of the war at that point) that they wanted as much support as they could get.
I can’t BELIEVE I’m defending Stalin… egad.
Anyway, as it turned out, the dropping of the atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki forced the Japanese to surrender, and an invasion of the Japanese mainland was not necessary. So, the Russians did get land from the Japanese without providing any useful assistance to the US.
The fact remains, when Stalin agreed at Yalta to join the war effort against Japan, he had no way of knowing how little the Russians would be required to contribute. Based on the intensity of the Japanese defense of Iwo Jima and Okinawa, all of the Allies had good reason to believe an invasion of Japan would be costly indeed. Some latter-day apologists for Japan insist that the Japanese were ready to surrender, but nobody really believed that at the time. The Japanese had fought to the death at every step along the way, and there was no reason to think they’d be less passionate or bloodthirsty in defending their very own homeland.
So, it was NOT a small thing for Stalin to agree to enter the war against Japan. Many generals believed the Allies would suffer hundreds of thousands of casulaties in an invasion. After losing close to 20 million people in the war against Germany, don’t sneer at Stalin’s readiness to send more men to die in battle against a country that had never really posed much of a threat to him.
Perhapse the most important result of the Russian war against Japan was the occupation of Manchuria. Manchuko (Japanese occupied Manchuria) had been heavily industrialized by the Japanese. The Russians plundered the territory, particularly seizing the industrial machinery. They also protected and armed the Chinese Communist guerrillas. The Kuomintang lost Manchuria largly due to this, which was a major contribution to their eventual loss of the mainland.
So, by declaring war on Japan on 8/8/1945, Russia satisfied their Yalta obligation, (re)gained the Kurils, Sakhalin Island, and assorted other islands*, plundered the industrial heartland of China, and helped their Chinese comrads set up for the takeover of all of China. Stalin was assuradly a monster, but he was an excellent practioner of realpolitk.
*I say regained because these islands have changed hands several times, and both Russia and Japan make historical claims to being the original owners.
Yeah, I don’t want to sound like I’m defending Stalin either, but the Yalta treaty gave the Soviets three months to enter the Pacific Theater for a reason. The USSR had almost all of its armed forces along the Eastern Front, and it’s a long way from Berlin to Japan. The Soviet Union suffered terribly during the war, and transporting men and equipment over to their Pacific coast was going to involve a tremendous drain on their resources even with three months to get the job done. So yeah, Stalin waited until the last minute… but there was a good reason he’d been given that much time.
It’s possible that the timing of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs was influenced in part by wanting to keep the Soviets from getting too involved in the fight against Japan. If they’d fought for months or years, Stalin may well have demanded a share similar to what he got in Europe. Since Japan surrendered within days of the beginning of Soviet involvement, Stalin didn’t raise a fuss with getting what the US was prepared to let him grab.
The Language Mechanic wrote:
It’s a popular theory that’s often floated, particularly with James Byrne as the incipient Cold Warrior pushing the policy. The problem is, it ignores the facts and chronology of events.
In the summer of 1945, the bulk of the Imperial Japanese Army was still intact and fighting in China. Since Nationalist China had been mostly defeated in 1944, all the chief US military leaders felt that it was imperative that the USSR engage in the Japanese in Manchuria and China as the USSR was the only power capable of doing so. In fact, Marshall, Stimson, King and Eaker told Truman so in June 1945, just prior to Potsdam and urged Truman to finalize agreements and arrangements with the USSR to enter the war against Japan.
Andrew Warinner