What transpired between Japan and the USSR in the second world war?

Question: What transpired between Japan and the USSR in the second world war!?
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

Japan didn't make any pre-emptive attempts to invade the USSR during the war for a two basic reasons:
a!.) China had turned out a more of a handful that Japan was expecting!. The nationalist army may have been no real threat but the couldn't be got rid of, so a huge/expensive army had to left in China!. Later US involvement tied down most of the IJA air force so combat against the USSR would have been even more unfavourable!.
b!.) The Japanese battles with Zuhkov at Kalin Gol in 1939 had seen the Japanese armies severely rough-handled by the Red Army!. The IJA was not exactly itching for a second round!. The fighting in the West may have caused the Reds great casualties but also taught them tactical essons & greatly improved their equipement!.

This is not to say that Soviet concerns over Japan's presence were insignificant; the need to keep a substantial force in Siberia was unhelpful!. Only with allied intelligence being able to reveal Japanese intentions (or rather lack of them) was Russia able to free up these forces for the war in the West!.
When the Soviets finally invaded Japanese Manchuria in 1945 it wasn't pretty!. Soviet artillery & aviation overwhelmed the Japanese (frequently 2nd rate Munchu conscripts) forces and Soviet armour was laughably better than Japanese systems!. For marginal casualties the Red Army destroyed the Japanese forces in a week, inflicting huge casualties & taking some 800,000 prisoners!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Firstly, Japan was at war long before Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941)!. Japan had been waging war in Asia, against China!.

They tried their hand also in expanding at the expense of the USSR but were soundly defeated by the Russians!. They thus concluded a peace treaty with the Soviets and turned their attentions south and east - which lead to Pearl Harbor!.

Thus for almost all of WWII the Russians and Japanese were not at war with each other!.

Late in the war, in 1945 the Russians were persuaded to enter the war, hence they took the northern part of Korea - which is communist to this day

There were some plans to partition Japan amongst the allies as Germany had been partionedWww@QuestionHome@Com

Japan and Russia were old enemies, having fought a war in Korea in 1904!.
In August 1939 a Japanese Army in Manchuria expanded into Soviet-claimed territory, resulting in a short, sharp war that the Soviets, led by WW2's greatest general Georgi Zukov, won easily!.
Japan concluded a non-aggression pact with the Soviets in early 1941!. This made Stalin very happy as he was trying to avoid war with Germany, and the treaty made him more secure against attack by both nations at once!.

The USSR attacked Manchuria in the last week of World War II, advancing quickly thanks to Blitzkrieg tactics that had worked so well against Germany!. When the nuclear bombs ended WW2, the USSR controlled much of China, north Korea and some Pacific Islands!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

First, the Japanese and Russians had a history of bad blood!. The early post about how the Russians kicked butt is wrong!. In the Russo-Japanese War, almost everyone expected the Russians to win!. Like in WW-2, the Japanese were in negotiations with the Russians but launched a surprise attack (Port Arthur) and soundly beat the Russians in a humiliating defeat for them, one the Russians never forgot!.

Second, during WW-2, the Russians and Japanese were officially never at war most of the time!. Some Japanese eyed parts of Russia but the Japanese had their priorities elsewhere!.

As the war progressed (badly for the Japanese), some elements of the Japanese government approached the Vatican and also the Russian Govt!. Some people have argued that this indicated the Japanese were ready to surrender, which is a very weak conclusion!. Neither (Vatican or Russia) were at war with Japan!. Imagine if Hitler had "surrendered" to Switzerland and insisted that the Allies had to stop bombing Germany--nonsensical, no!? The Vatican talks never went anywhere (logical considering that the Vatican had a terrible track record in WW-2 and probably wasn't a very effective conduit!.)!. As for talks with Russia, it appears that the Russians never took them seriously!. Additionally, both Russian and now the USA (with Pearl Harbor) had person experience with the Japanese as negotiators--both Port Arthur and Pearl Harbor occurred in the midst of negotiations so both countries had a tendency to view Japanese "negotiations" as untrustworthy!.

At Potsdam, the Allies met to discuss what to do about Japan!. The Russians never indicated to the other allies that the Japanese had approached them!. The Allies agreed to first ask for the Japanese surrender!. Truman indicated we'd then use our "secret" weapon!. At which point if the Japanese didn't surrender, Russia would then invade!.

And that's how it played out!. In early August we asked for them to surrender (they refused)!. We bombed Hiroshima and asked for them to surrender again!. Russia declared war and invaded Korea, Manchuria, and the Kuriles!. We then bombed Nagasaki and asked for them to surrender!. They refused!. The Emperor then personally intervened and said Japan needed to surrender!. There was then an attempted coup to prevent the surrender!. Russia kept Sakhalin!. We rushed troops into Korea (landing at Inchon!) so the Russians couldn't occupy all of that country and keep it (it led to a division at the 38th parallel!. Because there was no land invasion of Japan (other than the Kuriles), there was no divided occupation force of the mainland which the Russians had envisioned!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Not much, really!. The USSR invaded the southern half of the island of Sakhalin in 1945 and planned an amphibious invasion of the home islands late in the war; the latter was made unneccessary by the dropping of the atomic bombs!.

Basically, they stared angrily at each other across the Manchurian border!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Japan was supposed to support Germany's invasion by attacking from the East!. But Japan was having a lot of trouble subduing the Chinese and desperately needed oil wells of Indonesia and the forest products (like rubber) of Maylasia!. The Japanese knew they would have to take these resources out ot the hands of the British and Americans!. They thought that if they dealt a heavy blow to the US Navy at Pearl Harbor that the US would be in no position to fight and would come to terms (an invasion of the USA was not on the plate)!.
Truman wanted to bring the war to a swift conclusion!.That's why he ordered the dropping of the Atomic Bombs!. Roosevelt had asked Stalin to invade Northern Japan!. So they did, after Japan was already defeated!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Japan was considering invading Mongolia, to get the oil fields for them selves!. They thought that the russians would be too busy dealing with a German invasion to be able to prevent them doing this!.However, they decided to forgo this idea when they realised that their army would be stretched too far to sustain an invasion of mongolia!.Www@QuestionHome@Com