On August 9, 1945, the Soviet Union, fulfilling its agreements with its allies in the anti-Hitler coalition in World War II, entered the war against Japan. This war matured throughout the Great Patriotic War and was inevitable, in particular, because only one victory over Germany did not provide a complete guarantee of the security of the USSR. Its Far Eastern borders continued to be threatened by the almost million-strong Kwantung group of the Japanese army. All this and a number of other circumstances allow us to state that the Soviet-Japanese War, representing an independent part of the Second World War, was at the same time a logical continuation of the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet people for their independence, security and sovereignty of the USSR.
The surrender of Nazi Germany in May 1945 marked the end of the war in Europe. But on Far East and the Pacific Ocean, Japan continued to fight against the USA, Great Britain and other allies of the USSR in the Asia-Pacific region. According to the allies, despite the US having atomic weapons, the war in the East could have dragged on for another year and a half to two years and would have claimed the lives of at least 1.5 million soldiers and officers of their armies, as well as 10 million Japanese.
The Soviet Union could not consider its security ensured in the Far East, where the Soviet government during 1941 - 1945. was forced to keep about 30% of the combat strength of its troops and naval forces while the fire of war burned there and Japan continued to pursue its aggressive policy. In this situation, on April 5, 1945, the USSR announced the denunciation of the Neutrality Pact with Japan, i.e., its intention to terminate it unilaterally with all the ensuing consequences. However, the Japanese government did not heed this serious warning and continued to support Germany until the end of the war in Europe, and then rejected the Potsdam Declaration of the Allies, published on July 26, 1945, which contained a demand for the unconditional surrender of Japan. On August 8, 1945, the Soviet government announced that the USSR would enter the war with Japan the next day.
Entry of Soviet troops into Harbin. September 1945
Plans and strengths of the parties
The political goal of the Soviet Union's military campaign in the Far East was to eliminate the last hotbed of World War II as quickly as possible, eliminate the constant threat of an attack by Japanese invaders on the USSR, together with the allies, expel them from countries occupied by Japan, and help restore world peace. The speedy end of the war saved humanity, including the Japanese people, from further millions of victims and suffering, and contributed to the development of the national liberation movement in Asian countries.
The military-strategic goal of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union in the war against Japan was the defeat of the Kwantung group of troops and the liberation of Northeast China (Manchuria) and North Korea from the Japanese invaders. Operations to liberate Southern Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, which were transferred to Japan as a result of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, as well as the occupation of the northern part of the Japanese island of Hokkaido, were made dependent on the completion of this main task.
To conduct the Far Eastern campaign, three fronts were involved - Transbaikal (commanded by Marshal of the Soviet Union R. Ya. Malinovsky), 1st Far Eastern (commanded by Marshal of the Soviet Union K.A. Meretskov) and 2nd Far Eastern (commanded by Army General M.A. Purkaev), the Pacific Fleet (commander Admiral I.S. Yumashev), the Amur Military Flotilla (commander Rear Admiral N.V. Antonov), three air defense armies, as well as units of the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Army (commander-in-chief Marshal X Choibalsan). Soviet and Mongolian troops and naval forces numbered more than 1.7 million people, about 30 thousand guns and mortars (without anti-aircraft artillery), 5.25 thousand tanks and self-propelled artillery units, 5.2 thousand aircraft, 93 main warships classes. The leadership of the troops was carried out by the Main Command of Soviet Forces in the Far East, specially created by the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command (Commander-in-Chief Marshal of the Soviet Union A.M. Vasilevsky).
The Kwantung group of Japanese forces included the 1st and 3rd fronts, the 4th separate and 2nd air armies and the Sungari river flotilla. On August 10, the 17th Front and the 5th Air Army stationed in Korea were quickly subordinated to it. The total number of enemy troops concentrated near the Soviet borders exceeded 1 million people. They were armed with 1,215 tanks, 6,640 guns, 1,907 aircraft, and over 30 warships and boats. In addition, on the territory of Manchuria and Korea there was a significant number of Japanese gendarmerie, police, railway and other units, as well as troops from Manchukuo and Inner Mongolia. On the border with the USSR and the Mongolia, the Japanese had 17 fortified areas with a total length of over 800 km, in which there were 4.5 thousand long-term fire installations.
The Japanese command expected that “against Soviet troops superior in strength and training,” Japanese troops in Manchuria would hold out for a year. At the first stage (about three months), it planned to provide stubborn resistance to the enemy in the border fortified areas, and then on the mountain ranges blocking the routes from Mongolia and from the USSR border to the central regions of Manchuria, where the main forces of the Japanese were concentrated. In the event of a breakthrough of this line, it was planned to occupy the defense on the line of the Tumen-Changchun-Dalian railway and launch a decisive counteroffensive.
Progress of hostilities
From the first hours of August 9, 1945, strike groups of the Soviet fronts attacked Japanese troops from land, air and sea. The fighting took place on a front with a total length of more than 5 thousand km. A powerful air strike was carried out on enemy command posts, headquarters and communications centers. As a result of this blow, communication between the headquarters and formations of the Japanese troops and their control in the very first hours of the war were disrupted, which made it easier for the Soviet troops to solve the tasks assigned to them.
The Pacific Fleet entered the open sea, cut off the sea communications used by the troops of the Kwantung Group to communicate with Japan, and with aviation and torpedo boats launched powerful attacks on Japanese naval bases in North Korea.
With the assistance of the Amur Flotilla and the Air Force Soviet troops crossed the Amur and Ussuri rivers on a wide front and, having broken the fierce resistance of the Japanese in the fortified border areas in stubborn battles, began to develop a successful offensive into the depths of Manchuria. The armored and mechanized formations of the Trans-Baikal Front, which included divisions that had gone through the war with Nazi Germany, and cavalry formations of Mongolia, advanced especially rapidly. Lightning-fast actions by all branches of the military, air force and navy thwarted Japanese plans to use bacteriological weapons.
Already in the first five or six days of the offensive, Soviet and Mongolian troops defeated the fanatically resisting enemy in 16 fortified areas and advanced 450 km. On August 12, formations of the 6th Guards Tank Army under Colonel General A.G. Kravchenko overcame the “impregnable” Greater Khingan and wedged deep into the rear of the Kwantung group of forces, forestalling the exit of its main forces to this mountain range.
The troops of the 1st Far Eastern Front were advancing in the coastal direction. They were supported from the sea by the Pacific Fleet, which, with the help of landing troops, captured the Japanese bases and ports of Yuki, Racine, Seishin, Odejin, Gyonzan in Korea and the Port Arthur fortress, depriving the enemy of the opportunity to evacuate their troops by sea.
The main forces of the Amur flotilla operated in the Sungari and Sakhalin directions, ensuring the crossing of troops of the 15th and 2nd Red Banner Armies of the 2nd Far Eastern Front across the water lines, artillery support for their offensive and landing of troops.
The offensive developed so rapidly that the enemy was unable to hold back the onslaught of Soviet troops. Within ten days, Red Army troops, with the active support of aviation and navy, were able to dismember and actually defeat the strategic grouping of Japanese troops in Manchuria and North Korea. Since August 19, the Japanese began to surrender almost everywhere. In order to prevent the enemy from evacuating or destroying material assets, from August 18 to 27, airborne assault forces were landed in Harbin, Mukden, Changchun, Girin, Lushun, Dalian, Pyongyang, Hamhung and other cities, and army mobile forward detachments were actively operating.
On August 11, the Soviet command launched the Yuzhno-Sakhalin offensive operation. The operation was entrusted to the troops of the 56th Rifle Corps of the 16th Army of the 2nd Far Eastern Front and the Northern Pacific Flotilla. Southern Sakhalin was defended by the reinforced 88th Japanese Infantry Division, which was part of the 5th Front with headquarters on the island of Hokkaido, relying on the powerful Koton fortified area. The fighting on Sakhalin began with the breakthrough of this fortified area. The offensive was carried out along the only dirt road, which connected Northern Sakhalin with Southern Sakhalin and passed between the inaccessible spurs of the mountains and the swampy valley of the Poronai River. On August 16, an amphibious assault was landed behind enemy lines in the port of Toro (Shakhtersk). On August 18, counter strikes by Soviet troops broke through the enemy's defenses. On August 20, an amphibious assault landed at the port of Maoka (Kholmsk), and on the morning of August 25 - at the port of Otomari (Korsakov). On the same day, Soviet troops entered the administrative center of Southern Sakhalin, Toyohara (Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk), where the headquarters of the 88th Infantry Division was located. The organized resistance of the Japanese garrison on South Sakhalin, numbering about 30 thousand soldiers and officers, ceased.
Japanese prisoners of war under the supervision of a Soviet soldier. August 1945
On August 18, Soviet troops began an operation to liberate the Kuril Islands, where the 5th Japanese Front had over 50 thousand soldiers and officers, and at the same time preparing a major landing operation on Hokkaido, the need for which, however, soon disappeared. To carry out the Kuril landing operation, troops of the Kamchatka Defense Region (KOR) and ships of the Pacific Fleet were involved. The operation began with the landing of troops on the most fortified anti-landing island, Shumshu; the fighting for him became fierce and ended on August 23 with his release. By the beginning of September, the troops of the KOR and the Petropavlovsk naval base occupied the entire northern ridge of islands, including the island of Urup, and the forces of the Northern Pacific Flotilla occupied the remaining islands to the south.
The crushing blow to the Japanese Kwantung group of forces led to the largest defeat of the Japanese Armed Forces in World War II and to the most severe losses for them, exceeding 720 thousand soldiers and officers, including 84 thousand killed and wounded and more than 640 thousand prisoners . Achieved in short term the major victory was not easy: the Armed Forces of the USSR lost 36,456 people killed, wounded and missing in the war with Japan, including 12,031 dead.
Japan, having lost the largest military-industrial base on the Asian subcontinent and the most powerful group ground forces, was unable to continue the armed struggle. This greatly shortened the end of World War II and the number of its victims. The defeat of the Japanese troops in Manchuria and Korea, as well as in South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands by the USSR Armed Forces, deprived Japan of all the bridgeheads and bases that it had been creating for many years in preparation for aggression against the USSR. The security of the Soviet Union in the East was ensured.
The Soviet-Japanese War lasted less than four weeks, but in its scope, skill of operations and results it ranks among the outstanding campaigns of the Second World War. By Decree of the Presidium Supreme Council USSR dated September 2, 1945. September 3 was declared Victory Day over Japan.
The Second World War, which lasted 6 years and 1 day, ended. 61 states took part in it, in which about 80% of the world's population lived at that time. She took away more than 60 million human lives. The heaviest losses were suffered by the Soviet Union, which sacrificed 26.6 million human lives on the altar of a common victory over Nazism and militarism. The fires of World War II also killed 10 million Chinese, 9.4 million Germans, 6 million Jews, 4 million Poles, 2.5 million Japanese, 1.7 million Yugoslavs, 600 thousand French, 405 thousand Americans, millions of people of other nationalities .
On June 26, 1945, the United Nations was created, designed to become a guarantor of peace and security on our planet.
This may seem strange, but for Russia today, World War II is not yet completely over. The country does not have a peace treaty with one of the countries of the aggressive bloc. The reason is territorial issues.
This country is the Japanese Empire, the territory is the Southern Kuril Islands (they are now on everyone’s lips). But is it really that they were not so divided by two great countries that they got involved in a world massacre for the sake of these sea rocks?
No, of course. The Soviet-Japanese War (it is correct to say so, since in 1945 Russia did not act as a separate subject of international politics, acting exclusively as the main, but still only an integral part of the USSR) had deep reasons that did not appear in 1945. And no one then thought that the “Kuril issue” would drag on for so long. The reader will be briefly told about the Russo-Japanese War of 1945 in the article.
The reasons for the militarization of the Japanese Empire at the beginning of the twentieth century are clear - rapid industrial development, coupled with territorial and resource limitations. The country needed food, coal, and metal. The neighbors had all this. But they didn’t want to share just like that, and at that time no one considered war to be an unacceptable way to resolve international issues.
The first attempt was made back in 1904-1905. Russia then shamefully lost to a tiny, but disciplined and united island state, having lost Port Arthur (everyone has heard about it) and the southern part of Sakhalin in the Portsmouth Peace. And even then, such small losses became possible only thanks to the diplomatic talents of the future Prime Minister S. Yu. Witte (although he was nicknamed “Count Polosakhalinsky” for this, the fact remains a fact).
In the 1920s, in the Land of the Rising Sun, maps called “5 circles of national interests of Japan” were printed. There different colors in the form of stylized concentric rings, territories were designated that the ruling circles of the country considered it right to conquer and annex. These circles included almost the entire Asian part of the USSR.
At the end of the 30s, Japan, which had already successfully waged wars of conquest in Korea and China, “tested the strength” of the USSR. There were conflicts in the Khalkhin Gol region and on Lake Khasan.
It turned out bad. The Far Eastern conflicts marked the beginning of the brilliant career of the future “Marshal of Victory” G.K. Zhukov, and the entire USSR sang a song about three tank crews from the banks of the Amur, which included a phrase about samurai under the pressure of steel and fire (later it was remade, but this is the original version) .
Although Japan agreed with its allies on the distribution of future spheres of influence within the framework of the Anti-Comintern Pact (also called the “Berlin-Rome-Tokyo Axis”, although it requires a rich imagination to understand what the axis looks like in the author’s understanding of such a term), it did not indicate when exactly each side must take its own.
The Japanese authorities did not consider themselves so bound by obligations, and events in the Far East showed them that the USSR was a dangerous adversary. Therefore, in 1940, a treaty on neutrality in case of war was concluded between the two countries, and in 1941, when Germany attacked the USSR, Japan chose to deal with Pacific issues.
But the USSR also did not have much respect for treaties, so within the framework of the anti-Hitler coalition, talk immediately began about its entry into the war with Japan (the USA was shocked by Pearl Harbor, and England was afraid for its colonies in South Asia). During the Tehran Conference (1943), a preliminary agreement was reached on the USSR's entry into the war in the Far East after Germany's defeat in Europe. The final decision was made during the Yalta Conference, when it was stated that the USSR would declare war on Japan no later than 3 months after the defeat of Hitler.
But the USSR was not led by philanthropists. The country's leadership had its own interest in this matter, and not only provided assistance to the allies. For their participation in the war, they were promised the return of Port Arthur, Harbin, South Sakhalin and the Kuril Ridge (transferred to Japan by treaty by the tsarist government).
There was another good reason for the Soviet-Japanese War. By the time the war ended in Europe, it was already clear that the Anti-Hitler coalition was fragile, so that the allies would soon turn into enemies. At the same time, “Comrade Mao’s” Red Army fought fearlessly in China. The relationship between him and Stalin is a complex issue, but there was no time for ambition here, since we were talking about the possibility of enormously expanding the communist-controlled space at the expense of China. Little was required for this - to defeat the almost million-strong Kwantung Japanese Army stationed in Manchuria.
The United States had no desire to fight the Japanese face to face. Although technical and numerical superiority allowed them to win at a low cost (for example, the landing on Okinawa in the spring of 1945), the spoiled Yankees were very frightened by military samurai morality. The Japanese equally calmly chopped off the heads of captured American officers with swords and committed hara-kiri for themselves. There were almost 200 thousand dead Japanese in Okinawa, and a few prisoners - officers ripped open their bellies, privates and local residents drowned themselves, but no one wanted to surrender to the mercy of the winner. And the famous kamikazes were defeated, rather, by moral influence - they did not achieve their goals very often.
Therefore, the United States took a different route - nuclear blackmail. There was not a single military presence in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Atomic bombs destroyed 380 thousand (in total) civilian population. The atomic “bogeyman” was also supposed to restrain Soviet ambitions.
Realizing that Japan would inevitably capitulate, many Western leaders already regretted getting the USSR involved in the Japanese issue.
But in the USSR at that time blackmailers were categorically disliked. The country denounced the neutrality pact and declared war on Japan exactly on time - August 8, 1945 (exactly 3 months after the defeat of Germany). It was already known not only about successful atomic tests, but also about the fate of Hiroshima.
Before that, serious preparatory work. Since 1940, the Far Eastern Front existed, but it did not conduct military operations. After the defeat of Hitler, the USSR carried out a unique maneuver - 39 brigades and divisions (tank and 3 combined arms armies) were transferred from Europe along the only Trans-Siberian railway during May-July, which amounted to about half a million people, more than 7,000 guns and more than 2,000 tanks. This was an incredible indicator of moving so many people and equipment over such a distance in such a short time and under such unfavorable conditions.
The command was also worthy. General management was carried out by Marshal A. M. Vasilevsky. And the main blow to the Kwantung Army was to be delivered by R. Ya. Malinovsky. Mongolian units fought in alliance with the USSR.
As a result of the successful transfer of troops, the USSR achieved clear superiority over the Japanese in the Far East. The Kwantung Army numbered about 1 million soldiers (probably somewhat less, since the units were short-staffed) and was provided with equipment and ammunition. But the equipment was outdated (if compared with the Soviet one, it was pre-war), and among the soldiers there were many recruits, as well as forcibly conscripted representatives of conquered peoples.
The USSR, by combining the forces of the Trans-Baikal Front and the arriving units, could field up to 1.5 million people. And most of them were experienced, experienced front-line soldiers who went through Crimea and Rome on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War. Suffice it to say that 3 directorates and 3 divisions of the NKVD troops took part in the hostilities. But only the victims of the “revelatory” articles of the 90s can believe that these units only knew how to shoot the wounded trying to go to the rear or suspect honest people of treason. Anything happened, of course, but... There were no barrier detachments behind the NKVDists - they themselves never retreated. These were very combat-ready, well-trained troops.
This aviation term best characterizes the strategic plan called the Manchurian Operation of R. Ya. Malinovsky to defeat the Kwantung Army. It was assumed that a simultaneous very powerful blow would be delivered in several directions, which would demoralize and split the enemy.
That's how it was. Japanese General Otsuzo Yamada was amazed when it turned out that the guards of the 6th Tank Army were able to overcome the Gobi and Greater Khingan in 3 days, advancing from Mongolia. The mountains were steep, and the rainy season ruined the roads and overflowed the mountain rivers. But the Soviet tank crews, who were able to almost carry their vehicles by hand through the Belarusian swamps during Operation Bagration, could not be prevented by some streams and rain!
At the same time, attacks were carried out from Primorye and from the Amur and Ussuri regions. This is how the Manchurian operation was carried out - the main one in the entire Japanese campaign.
This is exactly how long (from August 12 to August 20) the main combat operations of the Russo-Japanese War (1945) took place. The terrible simultaneous attack of three fronts (in some areas, Soviet troops managed to advance more than 100 km in one day!) at once split the Kwantung Army, deprived it of part of its communications, and demoralized it. The Pacific Fleet interrupted communication between the Kwantung Army and Japan, the opportunity to receive help was lost, and even contacts were limited in general (there was also a minus - many groups of soldiers of the defeated army were for a long time not aware of the fact that they had been given the order to surrender). Mass desertion of recruits and those conscripted by force began; officers committed suicide. The “emperor” of the puppet state of Manchukuo Pu Yi and General Otsuzo were captured.
In turn, the USSR perfectly organized the supply of its units. Although this could be accomplished almost only with the help of aviation (huge distances and the lack of normal roads interfered), heavy transport aircraft coped with the task perfectly. Soviet troops occupied vast territories in China, as well as northern Korea (present-day DPRK). On August 15, Hirohito, Emperor of Japan, announced on the radio that surrender was necessary. The Kwantung Army received the order only on the 20th. But even before September 10, individual detachments continued hopeless resistance, trying to die undefeated.
The events of the Soviet-Japanese War continued to develop at a rapid pace. Simultaneously with the actions on the continent, steps were taken to defeat the Japanese garrisons on the islands. On August 11, the 2nd Far Eastern Front began operations in the south of Sakhalin. The main task was the capture of the Koton fortified area. Although the Japanese blew up the bridge, trying to prevent the tanks from breaking through, this did not help - it took Soviet soldiers only one night to establish a temporary crossing using improvised means. The battalion of Captain L.V. Smirnykh especially distinguished himself in the battles for the fortified area. He died there, receiving the posthumous title of Hero of the Soviet Union. At the same time, ships of the North Pacific Flotilla landed troops at the largest ports in the south of the island.
The fortified area was captured on August 17. The surrender of Japan (1945) occurred on the 25th, after the last successful landing in the port of Korsakov. From it they tried to take valuable things home. All of Sakhalin came under the control of the USSR.
However, the Yuzhno-Sakhalin operation of 1945 went somewhat slower than Marshal Vasilevsky had planned. As a result, the landing on the island of Hokkaido and its occupation did not take place, as ordered by the marshal on August 18.
The islands of the Kuril ridge were also captured through amphibious landings. The Kuril landing operation lasted from August 18 to September 1. Moreover, in fact, battles were fought only for the northern islands, although military garrisons were located on all of them. But after fierce battles for the island of Shumshu, the commander of the Japanese troops in the Kuril Islands, Fusaki Tsutsumi, who was there, agreed to capitulate and surrendered himself. After this, the Soviet paratroopers no longer encountered any significant resistance on the islands.
On August 23-24 there were classes in the Northern Kuril Islands, on the 22nd classes began and southern islands. In all cases, the Soviet command allocated airborne units for this purpose, but more often the Japanese surrendered without a fight. The largest forces were allocated to occupy the island of Kunashir (this name is now widely known), since it was decided to create a military base there. But Kunashir also surrendered virtually without a fight. Several small garrisons managed to evacuate to their homeland.
And on September 2, the final surrender of Japan (1945) was signed on board the American battleship Missouri. This fact marked the end of World War II (not to be confused with the Great Patriotic War!). The USSR was represented at the ceremony by General K. Derevyanko.
For such a large event Russo-Japanese War 1945 (you learned about it briefly from the article) cost the USSR inexpensively. In total, the number of victims is estimated at 36.5 thousand people, of which slightly more than 21 thousand died.
Japanese losses in the Soviet-Japanese War were greater. They had more than 80 thousand dead, more than 600 thousand were captured. Approximately 60 thousand prisoners died, almost all of the rest were repatriated before the signing of the San Francisco Peace Treaty. First of all, those soldiers of the Japanese army who were not Japanese by nationality were sent home. The exceptions were those participants in the Russo-Japanese War of 1945 who were convicted of war crimes. A significant part of them was transferred to China, and there was a reason for it - the conquerors dealt with participants in the Chinese Resistance, or at least those suspected of it, with medieval cruelty. Later in China, this topic was explored in the legendary film “Red Kaoliang”.
The disproportionate ratio of losses in the Russo-Japanese War (1945) is explained by the clear superiority of the USSR in technical equipment and the level of training of soldiers. Yes, the Japanese sometimes offered fierce resistance. At the height of Ostraya (Khotou fortified area), the garrison fought until the last bullet; the survivors committed suicide, and not a single prisoner was taken. There were also suicide bombers who threw grenades under tanks or at groups of Soviet soldiers.
But they did not take into account that they were not dealing with Americans who were very afraid of dying. The Soviet soldiers themselves knew how to cover the embrasures with themselves, and it was not easy to scare them. Very soon they learned to detect and neutralize such kamikazes in time.
As a result of the Soviet-Japanese War of 1945, the USSR got rid of the shame of the Portsmouth Peace, which ended the hostilities of 1904-1905. He again owned the entire Kuril ridge and all of Sakhalin. The Kwantung Peninsula also passed to the USSR (this territory was then transferred to China by agreement after the proclamation of the People's Republic of China).
What other significance does the Soviet-Japanese War have in our history? Victory in it also contributed to the spread of communist ideology, so successfully that the result outlived its creator. The USSR no longer exists, but the PRC and the DPRK do, and they never tire of astonishing the world with their economic achievements and military power.
But the most interesting thing is that the war with Japan is not actually over for Russia yet! There is no peace treaty between the two states to this day, and today’s problems around the status of the Kuril Islands are a direct consequence of this.
A general peace treaty was signed in 1951 in San Francisco, but there was no USSR signature on it. The reason was precisely the Kuril Islands.
The fact is that the text of the treaty indicated that Japan was refusing them, but did not say who should own them. This immediately created the basis for future conflicts, and for this reason, Soviet representatives did not sign the treaty.
However, it was impossible to remain in a state of war forever, and in 1956 the two countries signed a declaration in Moscow to end such a state. Based on this document, diplomatic and economic relations now exist between them. But a declaration of an end to the state of war is not a peace treaty. That is, the situation is again half-hearted!
The declaration indicated that the USSR, after concluding a peace treaty, agreed to transfer back to Japan several islands of the Kuril chain. But the Japanese government immediately began to demand the entire Southern Kuril Islands!
This story continues to this day. Russia continues it as the legal successor of the USSR.
In 2012, the head of one of the Japanese prefectures, heavily damaged by the tsunami, presented President V.V. Putin with a purebred puppy in gratitude for Russian assistance in eliminating the consequences of the disaster. In response, the president gave the prefect a huge Siberian cat. The cat is now almost on the payroll of the prefect's office, and all the employees adore and respect him.
This cat's name is Mir. Maybe he can purr understanding between two great states. Because wars must end, and after them peace must be concluded.
In February 1945, a conference was held in Yalta, at which representatives of the countries that were part of Great Britain and the United States were present and managed to obtain consent from the Soviet Union to take direct part in the war with Japan. In exchange for this, they promised him to return the Kuril Islands and South Sakhalin, lost during the Russo-Japanese War of 1905.
At the time the decision was made in Yalta, the so-called Neutrality Pact was in force between Japan and the Soviet Union, which was concluded back in 1941 and was supposed to be valid for 5 years. But already in April 1945, the USSR announced that it was terminating the agreement unilaterally. The Russo-Japanese War (1945), the reasons for which were that the Land of the Rising Sun in recent years had acted on the side of Germany and also fought against the allies of the USSR, became almost inevitable.
Such a sudden statement literally plunged the Japanese leadership into complete confusion. And this is understandable, because its position was very critical - the Allied forces inflicted significant damage on it in the Pacific Ocean, and industrial centers and cities were subjected to almost continuous bombing. The government of this country understood perfectly well that it was almost impossible to achieve victory in such conditions. But still, it still hoped that it would be able to somehow wear down and achieve more favorable conditions for the surrender of its troops.
The United States, in turn, did not expect victory to be easy. An example of this is the battles that took place over the island of Okinawa. About 77 thousand people fought here from Japan, and about 470 thousand soldiers from the United States. In the end, the island was taken by the Americans, but their losses were simply astounding - almost 50 thousand killed. According to him, if the Russo-Japanese War of 1945 had not begun, which will be briefly discussed in this article, the losses would have been much more serious and could have amounted to 1 million soldiers killed and wounded.
On August 8, in Moscow, the Japanese Ambassador to the USSR was presented with a document at exactly 5 p.m. It said that the Russian-Japanese War (1945) was actually starting the very next day. But since there is a significant time difference between the Far East and Moscow, it turned out that there was only 1 hour left before the start of the Soviet Army’s offensive.
The USSR developed a plan consisting of three military operations: Kuril, Manchurian and South Sakhalin. They were all very important. But still, the Manchurian operation was the most large-scale and significant.
On the territory of Manchuria, the Kwantung Army, commanded by General Otozo Yamada, was opposed. It consisted of approximately 1 million people, more than 1 thousand tanks, about 6 thousand guns and 1.6 thousand aircraft.
At the time when the Russo-Japanese War of 1945 began, the forces of the USSR had a significant numerical superiority in manpower: only there were one and a half times more soldiers. As for equipment, the number of mortars and artillery exceeded similar enemy forces by 10 times. Our army had 5 and 3 times more tanks and aircraft, respectively, than the Japanese had the corresponding weapons. It should be noted that the superiority of the USSR over Japan in military equipment was not only in its numbers. The equipment at Russia's disposal was modern and more powerful than that of its enemy.
All participants in the Russo-Japanese War of 1945 understood perfectly well that sooner or later, it had to begin. That is why the Japanese created a significant number of well-fortified areas in advance. For example, you can take at least the Hailar region, where the left flank of the Transbaikal Front of the Soviet Army was located. Barrier structures in this area were built over more than 10 years. By the time the Russo-Japanese War began (August 1945), there were already 116 pillboxes, which were connected to each other by underground passages made of concrete, a well-developed trench system and a significant number of Japanese soldiers, whose numbers exceeded the divisional strength.
In order to suppress the resistance of the Hailar fortified area, the Soviet Army had to spend several days. In war conditions this is a short period of time, but during the same time the rest of the Transbaikal Front advanced forward by about 150 km. Considering the scale of the Russo-Japanese War (1945), the obstacle in the form of this fortified area turned out to be quite serious. Even when its garrison surrendered, the Japanese warriors continued to fight with fanatical courage.
In the reports of Soviet military leaders one can often see references to soldiers of the Kwantung Army. The documents said that the Japanese military specifically chained themselves to machine gun frames so as not to have the slightest opportunity to retreat.
The Russo-Japanese War of 1945 and the actions of the Soviet Army were very successful from the very beginning. I would like to note one outstanding operation, which consisted of a 350-kilometer throw of the 6th Tank Army through the Khingan Range and the Gobi Desert. If you look at the mountains, they seem to be an insurmountable obstacle to the passage of technology. The passes that Soviet tanks had to go through were located at an altitude of about 2 thousand meters above sea level, and the slopes sometimes reached a steepness of 50⁰. That is why cars often had to drive in a zigzag.
In addition, the advancement of technology was further complicated by frequent heavy rains, accompanied by river floods and impassable mud. But, despite this, the tanks still moved forward, and already on August 11 they overcame the mountains and reached the Central Manchurian Plain, to the rear of the Kwantung Army. After such a large-scale transition, Soviet troops began to experience an acute shortage of fuel, so it was necessary to arrange additional delivery by air. With the help of transport aviation, it was possible to transport about 900 tons of tank fuel. As a result of this operation, more than 200 thousand Japanese soldiers were captured, as well as a huge amount of equipment, weapons and ammunition.
The Japanese War of 1945 continued. In the sector of the 1st Far Eastern Front, Soviet troops encountered unprecedentedly fierce enemy resistance. The Japanese were well entrenched on the heights of Camel and Ostraya, which were among the fortifications of the Khotou fortified area. It must be said that the approaches to these heights were cut by many small rivers and were very swampy. In addition, there were wire fences and excavated scarps on their slopes. The Japanese soldiers had cut out the firing points in advance right into the granite rock, and the concrete caps protecting the bunkers reached a thickness of one and a half meters.
During the fighting, the Soviet command invited the defenders of Ostroy to surrender. A man from among the local residents was sent to the Japanese as an envoy, but he was treated extremely cruelly - the commander of the fortified area himself cut off his head. However, there was nothing surprising in this action. From the moment the Russo-Japanese War began (1945), the enemy, in principle, did not enter into any negotiations. When Soviet troops finally entered the fortification, they found only dead soldiers. It is worth noting that the defenders of the height were not only men, but also women who were armed with daggers and grenades.
The Russo-Japanese War of 1945 had its own specific features. For example, in the battles for the city of Mudanjiang, the enemy used kamikaze saboteurs against units of the Soviet Army. These suicide bombers tied grenades around themselves and threw themselves under tanks or at soldiers. There was also a case when, on one section of the front, about two hundred “live mines” lay on the ground next to each other. But such suicidal actions did not last long. Soon soviet soldiers They became more vigilant and managed to destroy the saboteur in advance before he got close and exploded next to equipment or people.
The Russo-Japanese War of 1945 ended on August 15, when the country's Emperor Hirohito addressed his people by radio. He stated that the country had decided to accept the terms of the Potsdam Conference and capitulate. At the same time, the emperor called on his nation to remain patient and unite all forces to build a new future for the country.
3 days after Hirohito’s address, a call from the command of the Kwantung Army to its soldiers was heard on the radio. It said that further resistance was pointless and there was already a decision to surrender. Since many Japanese units did not have contact with the main headquarters, their notification continued for several more days. But there were also cases when fanatical military personnel did not want to obey the order and lay down their arms. Therefore, their war continued until they died.
It must be said that the Russo-Japanese War of 1945 had a truly enormous impact not only military, but also political significance. managed to completely defeat the strongest Kwantung Army and complete the Second world war. By the way, its official end is considered to be September 2, when the act of surrender of Japan was finally signed in Tokyo Bay right on board the US battleship Missouri.
As a result, the Soviet Union regained territories that had been lost back in 1905 - a group of islands and part of the South Kuril Islands. Also, according to the peace treaty signed in San Francisco, Japan renounced any claims to Sakhalin.
Preparing for war
The threat of war between the USSR and Japan existed since the second half of the 1930s. In 1938 there were clashes at Lake Khasan, in 1939 there was a battle at Khalin Gol on the border of Mongolia and Manchukuo. In 1940, the Soviet Far Eastern Front was created, which indicated a real threat of war.
But the aggravation of the situation on the western borders forced the USSR to seek a compromise in relations with Japan. The latter, in turn, sought to strengthen its borders with the USSR. The result of the coincidence of interests of the two countries is the non-aggression pact signed on April 13, 1941, according to Article 2 of which: “If one of the parties to the treaty becomes the object of hostilities with one or more third countries, the other party will maintain neutrality throughout conflict."
In 1941, the countries of Hitler's coalition, except Japan, declared war on the USSR, and in the same year Japan attacked the United States, marking the beginning of the Pacific War.
In February 1945, at the Yalta Conference, Stalin pledged to the allies to declare war on Japan 2-3 months after the end of hostilities in Europe. At the Potsdam Conference in July 1945, the Allies issued a general declaration demanding the unconditional surrender of Japan. In the same summer, Japan tried to conduct separate negotiations with the USSR, but to no avail.
On August 8, 1945, the USSR unilaterally withdrew from the Soviet-Japanese non-aggression pact and declared war on the Empire of Japan.
Progress of the war
The commander-in-chief of the Soviet troops during the invasion of Manchuria was Marshal of the Soviet Union O.M. Vasilevsky. There were 3 fronts: Trans-Baikal, First Far Eastern and Second Far Eastern Front (commanders R.Ya. Malinovsky, K.P. Meretskov and M.O. Purkaev), with a total number of 1.5 million people. They were opposed by the Kwantung Army under the command of General Yamada Otozo.
As stated in the “History of the Great Patriotic War”: “In the units and formations of the Kwantung Army there were absolutely no machine guns, anti-tank rifles, rocket artillery, small-caliber and large-caliber artillery (infantry divisions and brigades, artillery regiments and divisions in most cases had 75-mm guns )."
Despite the efforts of the Japanese to concentrate as many troops as possible on the islands of the empire itself, as well as in China to the south of Manchuria, the Japanese command also paid attention to the Manchurian direction.
That is why, from the nine infantry divisions that remained in Manchuria at the end of 1944, the Japanese deployed an additional 24 divisions and 10 brigades until August 1945.
True, to organize new divisions and brigades, the Japanese were able to use only untrained young conscripts, who made up more than half of the personnel of the Kwantung Army. Also, in the newly created Japanese divisions and brigades in Manchuria, in addition to the small number of combat personnel, there was often no artillery.
The most significant forces of the Kwantung Army - up to ten divisions - were stationed in the east of Manchuria, which bordered on Soviet Primorye, where the First Far Eastern Front was stationed, consisting of 31 infantry divisions, a cavalry division, a mechanized corps and 11 tank brigades.
In the north of Manchuria, the Japanese concentrated one infantry division and two brigades - while they were opposed by the 2nd Far Eastern Front consisting of 11 infantry divisions, 4 infantry and 9 tank brigades.
In western Manchuria, the Japanese deployed 6 infantry divisions and one brigade - against 33 Soviet divisions, including two tank, two mechanized corps, a tank corps and six tank brigades.
In central and southern Manchuria, the Japanese had several more divisions and brigades, as well as two tank brigades and all combat aircraft.
It should be noted that the tanks and aircraft of the Japanese army in 1945, according to the criteria of that time, were obsolete. They roughly corresponded to Soviet tanks and aircraft of 1939. This also applies to Japanese anti-tank guns, which had a caliber of 37 and 47 mm - that is, capable of fighting only light Soviet tanks.
Taking into account the experience of the war with the Germans, the fortified areas of the Japanese were bypassed by mobile units and blocked by infantry.
The 6th Guards Tank Army of General Kravchenko was advancing from Mongolia to the center of Manchuria. On August 11, army equipment stopped due to lack of fuel, but the experience of German tank units was used - delivering fuel to tanks transport aircraft. As a result, by August 17, the 6th Guards Tank Army had advanced several hundred kilometers - and about one hundred and fifty kilometers remained to the capital of Manchuria, the city of Changchun.
The First Far Eastern Front at this time broke the Japanese defenses in eastern Manchuria, occupying The largest city in this region - Mudanjian.
In a number of areas, Soviet troops had to overcome stubborn enemy resistance. In the zone of the 5th Army, the Japanese defense in the Mudanjiang area was held with particular ferocity. There were cases of stubborn resistance by Japanese troops in the lines of the Transbaikal and 2nd Far Eastern fronts. The Japanese army also launched numerous counterattacks.
On August 17, 1945, in Mukden, Soviet troops captured Emperor Pu I of Manchukuo (the last emperor of China)
On August 14, the Japanese command requested an armistice. But hostilities on the Japanese side did not stop. Only three days later, the Kwantung Army received an order from the command to surrender, which came into effect on August 20.
On August 18, a landing was launched on the northernmost of the Kuril Islands. On the same day, the commander-in-chief of Soviet troops in the Far East gave the order to occupy the Japanese island of Hokkaido with the forces of two infantry divisions. This landing was not carried out due to the delay in the advance of Soviet troops in South Sakhalin, and was then postponed until the orders of Headquarters.
Soviet troops occupied the southern part of Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands, Manchuria and part of Korea, capturing Seoul. The main fighting on the continent continued for another 12 days, until August 20. But individual battles continued until September 10, which became the day of the complete surrender of the Kwantung Army. The fighting on the islands completely ended on September 1.
In the winter of 1945, the leaders of the Big Three met at the next conference in Yalta. The result of the meeting was the decision to enter the USSR into the war with Japan. For opposing Hitler's eastern ally, the Soviet Union was supposed to get back the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin, which became Japanese under the Portsmouth Peace of 1905. The exact date for the start of the war has not been established. It was planned that active fighting in the Far East would begin a few months after the defeat of the Third Reich and the complete end of the war in Europe.
The USSR began implementing the agreements reached at the end of the summer of 1945. On August 8, war on Japan was officially declared. Thus began the last stage of the Second World War.
Second Meiji Revolution half of the 19th century century made Japan a powerful and aggressive militaristic power. In the first half of the twentieth century, the Japanese repeatedly tried to establish their dominance on the mainland, primarily in China. However, the Japanese army had to confront Soviet troops here. After clashes on Lake Khasan and the Khalkhin Gol River, both sides signed a neutrality pact in the spring of 1941. According to this document, over the next five years, the USSR and Japan pledged not to enter into war against each other if third countries started one. After this, Tokyo abandoned its claims in the Far East, and the main direction of Japanese foreign policy was the conquest of dominance in the waters of the Pacific Ocean.
In 1941-1942, the neutrality agreement completely suited both the USSR and Japan. Thanks to him, each side could fully concentrate on fighting the more significant opponents at the moment. But, obviously, both powers considered the pact temporary and were preparing for a future war:
In addition, spies regularly crossed the Soviet-Japanese border on both sides.
Historians different countries They are still arguing whether it was legal to break previous agreements on the part of the Soviet Union, who should be considered the aggressor in this situation, and what were the real plans of each of the powers. One way or another, in April 1945, the neutrality treaty expired. People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR V.M. Molotov confronted the Japanese Ambassador Naotake Sato with a fact: the Soviet Union would under no circumstances conclude a new pact. The People's Commissar justified his decision by the fact that Japan had provided significant support to Nazi Germany all this time.
There was a split in the Japanese government: one part of the ministers was in favor of continuing the war, and the other was strongly against it. Another important argument of the anti-war party was the fall of the Third Reich. Emperor Hirohito understood that sooner or later he would have to sit down at the negotiating table. However, he hoped that Japan would act in dialogue with Western countries, not as a weak defeated state, but as a powerful adversary. Therefore, before the start of peace negotiations, Hirohito wanted to win at least a few major victories.
In July 1945, England, the USA and China demanded that Japan lay down their arms, but received a decisive refusal. From that moment on, all sides began to prepare for war.
Technically, the Soviet Union was far superior to Japan, both quantitatively and qualitatively. Soviet officers and soldiers who fought such a formidable enemy as the Third Reich were much more experienced than the Japanese military, who on land had to deal only with a weak Chinese army and with individual small American detachments.
From April to August, about half a million Soviet soldiers were transferred to the Far East from the European Front. In May, the Far Eastern High Command appeared, headed by Marshal A. M. Vasilevsky. By mid-summer, the group of Soviet troops responsible for waging the war with Japan was put on full combat readiness. Structure armed forces in the Far East was as follows:
The total number of Soviet soldiers was almost 1.7 million people.
The number of fighters in the Japanese army and the Manchukuo army reached 1 million people. The main force opposing the Soviet Union was to be the Kwantung Army. A separate group of troops was supposed to prevent landings on Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. On the border with the USSR, the Japanese erected several thousand defensive fortifications. The advantage of the Japanese side was the natural and climatic features of the region. On the Soviet-Manchurian border path Soviet army had to be slowed down by rugged mountains and numerous rivers with marshy banks. And to get to the Kwantung Army from Mongolia, the enemy would have to cross the Gobi Desert. In addition, the beginning of the war coincided with the peak activity of the Far Eastern monsoon, which brought with it constant downpours. In such conditions it was extremely difficult to conduct an offensive.
At some point, the start of the war was almost postponed due to hesitation by the USSR's Western allies. If before the victory over Germany, England and the United States were interested in the speedy defeat of Japan at any cost, then after the fall of the Third Reich and the successful testing of the American nuclear bomb, this issue lost its urgency. Moreover, many Western military officers feared that the USSR's participation in the war would raise Stalin's already high international authority and strengthen Soviet influence in the Far East. However, American President Truman decided to remain faithful to the Yalta agreements.
It was originally planned that the Red Army would cross the border on August 10. But since the Japanese were thoroughly prepared for defense, at the last moment it was decided to start the war two days earlier in order to confuse the enemy. Some historians believe that the American bombing of Hiroshima could have accelerated the outbreak of hostilities. Stalin chose to immediately withdraw troops, without waiting for Japan's surrender. Contrary to popular belief, Japan did not stop resisting immediately after the nuclear bombs fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. For a full month after the bombings Japanese army continued to resist the Soviet offensive.
On the night of August 8-9, Soviet troops acted as a united front. The start of the war was a big surprise for the Japanese, therefore, despite the heavy rain and washed out roads, the Red Army soldiers managed to cover a considerable distance in the very first hours of the war.
According to the strategic plan, the Kwantung Army should have been surrounded. The 6th Guards Tank Army, which was part of the Trans-Baikal Front, was tasked with going behind the Japanese rear. In a matter of days soviet tanks The troops overcame a huge section of the Gobi Desert and several difficult mountain passes and occupied the most important Manchu strongholds. At this time, troops of the 1st Far Eastern Front fought their way to Harbin. In order to achieve the final goal, Soviet soldiers had to establish control over the well-defended Mudanjiang, which was done on the evening of August 16.
Soviet sailors also achieved great success. By mid-August, all major Korean ports were under Soviet control. After the Soviet Amur Flotilla blocked Japanese warships on the Amur, the forces of the 2nd Far Eastern Front began to rapidly advance towards Harbin. The same front, together with the Pacific Fleet, was to occupy Sakhalin.
During the war, not only Soviet soldiers, but also diplomats distinguished themselves. A week after the start of the war, an agreement on friendship and cooperation was signed with China. The agreement provided for joint ownership of some Far Eastern railways and the creation of a Soviet-Chinese naval base in Port Arthur, closed to military vessels of third countries. The Chinese side expressed its readiness to fully obey the Soviet commander-in-chief in matters of military operations and began to provide all possible assistance to the Red Army soldiers.
On August 17, the Kwantung Army received an order to surrender from Tokyo. However, not all areas received the order on time, and in some parts they decided to simply ignore it, so the war continued. The Japanese fighters demonstrated amazing masculinity. They more than compensated for the technical backwardness of their army with fearlessness, cruelty and perseverance. Lacking anti-tank weapons, the soldiers, hung with grenades, threw themselves under Soviet tanks; There were frequent attacks by small sabotage groups. On certain sections of the front, the Japanese even managed to launch serious counterattacks.
The heaviest and longest battles during the war were the battles for the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin. It was difficult to land troops on the steep rocky banks. Each of the islands was turned by Japanese engineers into a defensible, impregnable fortress. The battles for the Kuril Islands continued until August 30, and in some places the Japanese fighters held out until the beginning of September.
On August 22, Soviet paratroopers managed to occupy the port of Dalniy. During the successful operation, 10 thousand Japanese troops were captured. And already in the last days of summer, almost the entire territory of Korea, China and Manchuria was liberated from the Japanese occupiers.
By the beginning of September, all the tasks facing the Soviet command were completed. On September 2, 1945, Japan announced its surrender. In honor of the victory over the enemy, a solemn parade of Soviet troops was held in Harbin on September 8.
Although the USSR (and now the Russian Federation) and Japan did not have armed conflicts after 1945, and during the era of “perestroika” they even moved to cooperation, a peace treaty ending the war still does not exist. In fact, the Soviet-Japanese war ended in September 1945. Formally, it ended with the Moscow Declaration, signed only in 1956. Thanks to this document, the countries were able to re-establish diplomatic contacts and restore trade ties. As for the peace treaty, disputes about it continue to this day.
The cornerstone in Russian-Japanese relations was the San Francisco Peace Treaty of 1951, concluded between the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition and Japan. This document assumed the delimitation of spheres of influence in the Far East, in which the United States had the greatest weight in the region. Moreover, the agreement contradicted the agreements reached in Yalta, since it did not provide for the transfer of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands to the Soviet Union. The Chinese authorities also suffered certain damage, as they also did not receive part of their occupied territories.
It should be noted that the first clashes related to the establishment of their influence between the USSR and the USA occurred in the summer of 1945, when the Americans tried to occupy Dalny, where Soviet soldiers and sailors had already arrived. In response, the USSR did not allow the American military to establish its bases on the islands of the Kuril archipelago.
To date, Moscow and Tokyo have not come to a common decision regarding control over Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. The Japanese authorities believe that Russia owns the islands illegally, and the Russian Foreign Ministry refers to the decisions of the Yalta Conference and similar precedents (for example, the inclusion of the German Königsberg into the USSR).
