On September 2, 1945, Japan signed an act of surrender, which ended the Second World War. This is a well-known fact. However, today not everyone knows that in the strategic plans for the conduct of hostilities against Japan, which the military command of the United States and Great Britain had "in the hands" of, the timing of the end of the war was different. The fact is that Washington and London did not assume that the Japanese authorities would agree to sign the act of surrender in September 1945. The American and British command set out to end the war at least in 1947.
What does this fact indicate?
First of all, that the United States, even after delivering atomic strikes on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, understood that it was, by and large, impossible to obtain surrender from the Japanese by this method. This concerned both the mentality of the Japanese themselves and the military-political ambitions of their authorities.
So why did the Japanese government and the Emperor of the Land of the Rising Sun decide to surrender? The answer to this question is actually simple. This is the entry of the Soviet Union into the war against Japan with the subsequent defeat of the Kwantung Army, which at that time was about 1.4 million people. Great power! But the Soviet troops defeated this huge force in less than two weeks, moreover, depriving Japan of the opportunity to use the industrial centers located in the territories that today belong to the northeastern part of China.
It was the loss of the Kwantung Army, together with the loss of the ability to operate industrial enterprises on the mainland, that led to the fact that Tokyo was thinking hard about the further possibility (or rather the impossibility) of continuing the big war.
Today, an information machine is spinning in Japan, which is trying to present the Soviet Union as an aggressor. The main reproach: the USSR allegedly violated the agreement of the spring of 1941, which provided for the neutrality of the two countries in relation to each other. But here's the problem - the Japanese authorities do not want to face the truth and open their eyes to this historical truth for millions of Japanese. And the historical truth is that by the time it entered the war against Japan, the Soviet Union had already withdrawn from that neutrality treaty for several months. The Soviet leadership understood that Japan remained too serious a threat on the eastern borders of the country, keeping in mind the events on Khasan and Khalkhin Gol. Those events eloquently testified to the expansionist policy of Tokyo - Japan at any moment could attack the borders of the Soviet Union and move deep into the country's Far Eastern territories.
To neutralize this threat, the Soviet Union entered the war. You need to understand another important factor of that introduction. Despite the fact that in 1941-1945 Japan did not attack the USSR, it was a direct ally of Hitler's Germany. It concentrated a powerful force on the Soviet borders, which could start a military operation at any moment. Moreover, Japan was waging a war in the Pacific, in fact, drawing on the forces of the allies in the anti-Hitler coalition.
If we compare all these facts, then the conclusions suggest themselves. The Soviet Union did not violate any international norms when it entered the war against Japan, having withdrawn from the treaty in advance. If it had not been for the defeat of the Kwantung Army by the Soviet Union, then no American bombing, including atomic bombing, would have led to Japan's surrender. If it were not for the decisive blow of the Red Army on the Kwantung Army, then the Second World War would have continued for about two more years, which would have led to a colossal number of new victims. The plans of the Americans included the destruction of about 10 million Japanese - huge numbers.
Another important aspect: the Soviet Union, as a result of the victory over Japan, did not engage in large-scale expansion, which it could well afford as a winner, but, as they say, returned its own. After the war, the island of Sakhalin completely passed under the jurisdiction of the USSR (its southern part by that time was occupied by Japan), and the Kuril ridge, which until 1875 belonged to the Russian Empire, also passed. Therefore, all of today's Japanese claims to the South Kuriles look untenable on the grounds that the act of surrender was signed by Japan and all subsequent territorial transitions were detailed and approved by the international community.
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