Far East

1945: The Soviet–Japanese War

August – September 1945 · 1 battle

True to the promise made at Yalta, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan three months after Germany’s surrender. On the night of 8–9 August 1945 Marshal Vasilevsky’s three fronts struck from three directions at Manchuria, defended by a weakened Kwantung Army. In less than two weeks the Red Army overran Manchuria, northern Korea, southern Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. The campaign, fought at the same time as the atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, hastened Japan’s decision to surrender, and its consequences – the Soviet presence in Manchuria and the division of Korea along the 38th parallel – shaped post-war East Asia.