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The website of the Russian Ministry of Defense published another batch of declassified historical documents dedicated, this time to the Japanese campaign of the Red Army.
As it is known, the USSR entered into war with Tokyo on August 9, 1945, and on September 2, aboard the American battleship USS Missouri, representatives of the militarist regime signed the Act of Unconditional Surrender.
The Soviet Union carried out the Japanese campaign, following the agreements reached during the Yalta Conference in February 1945.
At the conference, Moscow promised the United States and Great Britain to enter the war in the Far East three months after the end of fighting in Europe.
As of the summer of 1945, Japan held a very impressive military force in northeastern China, Inner Mongolia and Korea. In total, the Kwantung Army numbered more than 1 million people, 1215 tanks, 6640 guns and mortars, 1907 combat aircraft, and 25 warships of the main classes.
On the border with the Soviet Union and Mongolia, the Japanese erected 17 fortified areas, each 50-100 km wide and up to 50 km deep. The defensive positions of the Kwantung Army included three to seven knots of resistance.
One of the most fortified Japanese positions was the city of Fujin.
The resistance node consisted of stone buildings, bunkers and towers with armored caps. Suicide soldiers fired machine guns.
In Tokyo, it was believed that the capture of Manchuria and Inner Mongolia would take the Red Army about six months.
Moreover, the Japanese General Staff hoped that during this period it would be possible to regroup the forces and launch a counteroffensive, ending hostilities on the territory of the USSR.
Before the outbreak of the war, Moscow had to transfer significant forces and assets to the Far East from the European regions.
The leadership of the Soviet group was entrusted to Marshal Alexander Vasilevsky. The idea of the campaign was to encircle the Kwantung Army, and then dissect and destroy its main forces.
To this end, the Red Army carried out three large-scale operations: the Manchurian strategy, the Yuzhno-Sakhalin offensive and the Kuril landing.
A key role in the success of the Red Army was played by the fighting in northeast China, which began on August 9 and continued until September 2. The forces of the Trans-Baikal, 1st and 2nd Far Eastern fronts, the Pacific Fleet and the Amur Flotilla, Primorsky, Khabarovsk and Transbaikal border districts took part in the Manchurian strategic operation.
Despite the off-road and fierce resistance of the enemy, the Soviet formations quickly captured the cities of Hutou, Matsyaohe, Mishan, Hunchun, Mudanjiang and the Dongning fortified area.
On August 19, the Red Army entered Changchun, the capital of the puppet state of Manchukuo, which was ruled by the Japanese military administration.
An appeal is published by the Chinese commandant of Manchukuo to Major General Fyodor Karlov, whose troops disarmed the Japanese garrison.
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The document expresses words of deep gratitude for the liberation from the oppression of the militarists.
In the archival documents published on the website of the military department, one can find information about the stubborn and fanatical resistance of the occupiers.
In particular, the Kwantung Army made extensive use of suicide bombers. They attacked Soviet officers and generals with melee weapons, threw themselves under the tanks, tying themselves with tar and explosives.
Sometimes kamikazes formed a “living” anti-tank minefield. At the same time, suicide bombers rarely managed to commit sabotage. Most often they were shot with fire from machine guns.
However, not all Japanese soldiers and officers acted so recklessly.
Thus, in the combat report of the chief of staff of the Trans-Baikal Front, it is reported that “during the period from 17 to 19 August 1945, 13,800 Japanese soldiers and officers surrendered, including one major general – the commandant of the Hailar fortified area Nomura.”
Realizing the senselessness of hostilities against the successfully advancing formations of the Red Army, a number of high-ranking Japanese military leaders agreed to negotiations on the procedure for disarmament and surrender with the Soviet commanders: Chief of Staff of the Kwantung Army Lieutenant General Hata, his deputy Major General Matsumura, commander of the Mukden garrison Lieutenant General Hongo.
“I guarantee a good attitude on the part of the Red Army not only to the senior officers, but also to the soldiers,” the words of Marshal Vasilevsky are quoted on the website.
The South Sakhalin and Kuril operations were not as large as the Manchurian ones, but they were decisive for the capture of strategically important territories in the Pacific region.
The battles for South Sakhalin began on August 11 and ended on August 25. The operation was successfully carried out by the Northern Pacific Flotilla and the 16th Army under the command of Major General Leonty Cheremisov.
“In connection with the successful offensive actions of the Red Army troops, on the morning of August 11, by the decision of the commander of the 2nd Far Eastern Front, General of the Army Maxim Purkaev, our units went on the offensive on Sakhalin Island,” the declassified document of the Russian Defense Ministry reads.
The most difficult test for the Red Army was the assault on the Kotonsky fortified area, which was defended by the enemy’s 125th Infantry Regiment.
The Japanese “fortress” was a network of resistance nodes and strongholds to a depth of 8-12 km, which were in fire communication with each other.
Thanks to effectively artillery, on August 19, the Kotonsky fortified area was captured, which violated the entire system of enemy defense of South Sakhalin.
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To discredit the liberation mission of the Red Army, the retreating Japanese soldiers disguised themselves in the uniform of Soviet servicemen and staged a massacre of civilians. In the city of Vanemyao, in the bed of an old river, the Red Army found about 500 bodies of women, children and the elderly.
Among them, Soviet soldiers found survivors: an infant and two wounded women, who told the details of the tragedy.
When the bombing of Vanemiao began, the civilian population left the city and settled down for the night in the bed of the old river. The Japanese ordered the residents to undress and then opened fire on them. Soldiers of the Kwantung Army killed the wounded with knives.
The Japanese were driven out from the Kuril Ridge by the forces of the 2nd Far Eastern Front and the Pacific Fleet.
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The operation lasted from August 18 to September 1 and was characterized by active operations of the airborne forces of the Red Army. By August 23, Soviet troops occupied the ports of Kataoka, Kashiwabara, captured Shumshu Island and the northeastern part of Paramushir Island.
By the end of August 1945, the Red Army had practically completed the process of disarming the Japanese formations. The absence of enemy resistance is evidenced by the order given on August 29 to Vasilevsky to cancel martial law in the Far East from September 1. It took approximately a month, when the Japanese leadership expected it to take half a year.
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To discredit the liberation mission of the Red Army, the retreating Japanese soldiers disguised themselves in the uniform of Soviet servicemen and staged a massacre of civilians. In the city of Vanemyao, in the bed of an old river, the Red Army found about 500 bodies of women, children and the elderly.
Japan’s WWII history is quite nasty. They recruited soldiers by forcing them to kill chinese prisoners sitting bound in a ditch, with bajonets. Those recruits who refused, were shot on the spot and kicked down in the ditch, which was later burned and covered.
Is that documented fact???!!!? If it is, my opinion on Japan will change radically
Here is much better documented war crime https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731
Thanks for the link!
If you haven’t heard of Unit 731 they’re worth looking into as well.
Thanks!
u lying idiot; Gore Vidal observed that you treated prisoners of war worse that your pet doggies….what happened in Vietnam and Iraq u barbaric liar…In 2016 IPSOS Reuters found that only 15% believe torture is never justified—2/3 of u backward baby killers support the use of torture —only exceeded in 1 African nation in the midst of a civil war…apparently the peculiar amerikan cult, sensitivity training, has failed to train very few amerikans how to feel!
WHY “lying idiot”? He is talking about Japanese not US.
Why are you attacking him when he is talking about Japanese crimes? Hi didn’t say word about US or promoting them. And sometimes Tommy is very sarcastic on US while people take that at its face value.
Did you read his comment at all?
Most importantly: Japan capitulated because of soviet intervention, not A-Bombs. Americans already destroyed almost all japanese cities with conventional bombing (including Tokyo killing 100.000+ people) but Japan did not surrendered. Japan was bombarded daily with approximately 5 kilotons, erasing 2-5 cities every day for 68 days, and on August 6, the reports only mentioned that a new type of bomb was used,16 kilotons – that’s all. 5 kilotons carpet bombing is much more efficient due to the larger area covered. At meetings of the Japanese government, the topic of nuclear strikes was mentioned only 2 times. And General Anami said that “..nuclear strikes are no more terrible than ordinary airstrikes.”
Japan hoped that USSR mediate between them and western allies; instead Soviets declared war (as promised in Potsdam), soon they annihilated Kwantung army in such a brilliant operation that japanese HQ was shocked. All remaining japanese industry in Manchuria was lost (they invested heavily in Manchuria before the war), all japanese armies in China were now completely isolated and basically doomed, Korea was basically lost (another important part of japanese empire), Hokkaido now exposed to possible soviet invasion (something that terrified Japenase elites). Overall, japanese strategic situation was desperate and they had no choice but to capitulate.
A-Bombs were just a hideous war crimes, nothing else.
That was just great explanation AleK !
Few things I did know, but most of it I didn’t… Because so detailed I have learned quite lot. Thank you so much !
No problem mate, most people don’t know any of this. Almost all people in the west are absolutely sure that A-Bombs forced Japan to surrender (and therefore “saved many lives”, as Americans like to say). In reality – Russian intervention saved those lives: Americans lost 20.000 soldiers in tiny Okinawa, Japan 80-100.000 plus 100.000 civilians; allied invasion of japanese home islands means 100x worse bloodbath. The west never even said -thanks. They are actually trying to hide this entire episode of WW2, presenting it as something insignificant , “Stalin’s opportunism” (while they actually begged Stalin to attack Japan).
It is just mindboggling when one compares the size of USSR sacrifices with the rest of the “allays”. The number of dead.
US + allay loses in Europe were ridiculous comparing to Soviets…, Even German loses who fought on 2 fronts and against the Soviets were insignificant. And now Poland and some lunatics on the West try to deny even obvious?! The most heroic fight and victory against the Nazi’s, they try to present as some kind of Molotov Ribbentrop collaboration and main reason of the starting of the war “against the free world” ?!? They try to present heroes as collaborators and rob them from their victory!
Both Britain and Poland supported Hitler since 1933. while USSR was the only country that opposed him…… same in Syria: russian intervention saved millions from ISIS, yet western media never even acknowledged that, instead they accuse Russia of imaginary crimes, produce hate again and again… I guess you can’t expect from Devil to tell the truth… they are not lunatics, they are just incredibly evil.
USA/UK supported Franco; only USSR supported the legally elected republican
precisely—Japan was entirely embargoed—prevented from importing agriculture products or petrol….Admiral William Leahy described the murder of 250,000 civilians w 2 atom bombs as “unnecessary, barbaric”
The Kwantung Army was a shadow of its former self, the Soviets are big bullshit artists as we say here in occupied Australia, never trust a bullshit artist or a Jew, often they are one and the same.
Your ignorance is without limit, apparently “bullshit artist” knows “bullshit artist”.
The Japs were bleeding the Kwantung Army to feed other fronts all the Commies overrun was some old men, misfits and bottle washers.
u death fearing insecure children lose all wars—“only in amerika is the father vestigial –the amerikan mind and conscience is feminine”. Geoffrey Gorer compare his ethnography ‘the amerikan people’ with his ethnography ‘the Great Russian People” to comprehend how pathetic you really are…”amerikans bewilder Europeans” as he wrote. LOL
“The Kwantung Army was a shadow of its former self” “The Kwantung Army was a shadow of its former self”
First off that’s just butthurt Americans excuse for not being able to do what the Soviets could.
Second open your eyes and appreciate what the Soviets achieved militarily without the stink of ideological propaganda getting in the way.
The feats of engineering, logistics and the coordination of forces alone were jaw dropping regardless of who they were facing.
They move columns of tanks, artillery and supplies across some of the most difficult terrain on earth.
They moved entire tank armies thousands of miles through Siberian forests, over mountains and through the Gobi desert in less than 2 weeks to cut off and surprise the japanese forces.
They built airfields and prepositioned fuel and supply dumps as their armies progressed.
The japanese themselves have stated that it was they threat of Russian invasion of the home islands that forced them to surrender unconditionally not the US atom bombs.
Americans like to tell us that taking islands by amphibous assault is much more difficult than what the Soviets did however the Soviets took the Kuril and Sakhalin Islands with ease in a matter of days.
What we did on D-Day was not a joke. We swimmed from NYC to Normandie with a riffle in our mouth and saved Europe! Take that one. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b778183fe2e61dc1ab08c2a72886e09019f16e8bbcec1853173053ee0d879032.jpg
Yeah yeah we agree but one mistake, not with a rifle but just a knife and your paratroopers jumped without parachutes either…hahaha Normandy was nothing compare to the fights in the East, I dont want to downscale the bravery of the men in Normandy, their were all brave men and I salute them for their sacrifice. But eastern front was literally magnitudes of order higher in difficulty and brutality. By the time the allies start landing in Normandy the German army was pretty much finished and was a shadow of their former self.
And the German forces facing west against the allies were just a fraction of what they had in the east. So be real, dont act like you saved Europe by yourselves, the Red army is responsible for destroying 90% of the German war machine and thats a fact that no reasonable historian denies it.
Thankfully the Red Army was keeping the main German army occupied on the eastern front allowing the allies to get a toe hold on the Normandy beaches otherwise the only way an American would’ve gotten to Paris is with a tourist visa and a German phrase book.
Fuck yeah, we all watched that Hollywood movie! 100s of them actually: How to destroy Tiger tank with your Colt M1911 ?
In reality – main strategic objective of allied invasion was to prevent Soviets to eventually reach Paris…
Come on. Everybody knows that Hitler was defeated by Brad Pitt and his M4 Sherman.
Since he single singlehandedly defeated Hitler he merits rise in salary
ya ravitza
I am sure that Brad Pitt could have destroyed German Tiger tank even with karate kick only if he wanted to. Not to mention Rambo who after defeating Soviets went on mission to defeat aliens. That’s why they didn’t put Rambo in Star Wars not to reduce it on only one episode. He would probably kill whole galaxy of the enemies in 45 minutes only.
Tommy Jensen the name “D day” comes from true name a “Disaster day” !
But since historians on the West and military took great care to hide some facts and distribute number of killed to next month the size of that disaster was reduced and “legend” of the “D day” was created about spectacular victory of US and “allays” during first days of invasion….A Hollywood scenarist was awarded to make hole story from the scratch since reality was brutal….thus ‘”D day” was born !
Well basically during the beach invasion on D-Day, the only “sizeable” fight that happened was in Omaha beach. Have you wonder why all Hollywood movies referring to that beach alone? Because in Utah, Gold, Juno and Sword there was no fight, basically no resistance at all. 98% of the Fight in D-Day was in Omaha beach and even that battle was a fraction of what a battle of the eastern front was.
I was teasing Tommy by exaggerating and inventing things . If you read his comment you’ll see that he was totally sarcastic. So I just have continued talking rubbish. I doubt that he bought my bullshit story anyways.
No pets and children are harmed and life goes on. Thanks for your explanation.
u cowards had zero to w WWII–more than 80% of German casualties occurred at the eastern front where not 1 cowardly amerikan soldier could be found—u only entered the European theatre when the Luftwaffe did not exist and German troops had no petrol to operate their famous tiger tanks…expected from insecure amerikans, “feminized by “the tyranny of the school mar’m” as Boorstin observed perhaps you can convince other meth users in your trailer park that you do not lose all your wars
It was sarcasm! qoute:
‘We swimmed from NYC to Normandie”
Are you historian or ….? You seam to know a lot on the subject.
Firstly you are not australian or christian,nor know sht about khazar/nazi jews reffering to, unless you too have been mislead by kamestram media or cia/nwo/nazis (period)
How is it nwo/cia blowjobbers always fail to mention the deep state socialist (anti commy sects) Put it this way to all the dumbasses,there is no such thing as communist governance in usa,ever!
Stalin not only hard a tougher time dealing with (moscow times)sibling cocksukrz of the goymz, but exiled millions to the middle east and other traitors of humanity, to the gulags with nazi blood!
The diligent christian heterosexual variant whoms iron sickle crushed the lotta the incestives,YEA
Still refute to take heed? How about you save that anti commy crap for the kweer bars and phaedophile rigs like soros/hockey,abbott+ turnbulls akong with the very few remaining pieces of sht whom srewed over austalians,kihe as if any of these vile + kame gutkess wonders live now in australkia,like fk they do,why? Well i ever see any I would headbutt them senseless before bring out akk the evidence to plea my case in court exposing them pieces of sht,They are scared sht!!
What are you babbling on about there are no real Australians anymore. I lost ancestors in these useless wars for the Jew for waht? When I travel to the big smoke all I see is Asians, Africans, Arabs, South Americans and the stench worse than a back lane in Canton
like amerikans you derive from the lowest most incompetent classes from other societies—a nation of criminals—as racist as amerikans…like the amerikans that genocided Indians u neanderthal genocided aborigines…little different fro kiwis that genocided maoris…pitiful sexually repressed racist
You must be a Jew or a fool which per chance is it kind sir?
The Vanemyao massacre was probably done by Japanese soldiers sInce Japanese brutality to prisoners and civilians is well recorded. However, there are also some doubts there. History is written by the victors and there is a possibility that the Russians intended to colonize Sakhalin completely. The real test would be, what were the ethnicity of the 500 civilians? From the article, there was an allegation of false flag involved. If these were Russian civilians, the japs would need no uniform. They are that brutal. If these were japanese civilians, the remote possibility would be dissidents. The wounds were also described as coming from knives. Japanese soldiers while famed for beheading prisoners using a mass produced katana are not known to use knives. The other remote possibility is through bayonets.
US have also received letters of deep deep gratitude for our liberation of countries into freedom. Its not only Russia who are receiving a letter, and we dont know if this letter is falsified or copied from a letter sent to an American. This is normal that we get letters of deep gratitudes where we walk by. But unusual that Russia get it.
You comparing soviet/russian ethics to usa/nuke hitting? who is more noble?Don’t insult truth!
Don’t forget Tokyo napalm bombing. This bombing killed more civilians than nuke.
worse in Korea–murdered 4 million Koreans and lost…3 million in SE Asia and lost
fascist liar—u had zero to w WWII or WWI—insecure death fearing cowards—-while. the German occupiers raped no French females—u sexually repressed “liberators” raped 2000….everyon e despises the “self uglified amerikan” “amerikans have always been genocidal, enjoying killing from afar”. P Slater sure—the Japanese r grate ful that u racists interned them a murder 250,000 civilians w2 atom bombs—described as “unnecessary ” by Halsey, Nimitz, MacArthur and “barbaric, unnecessary” by Admiral William Leahy nobody like you or wants your fascism—even Huntington, a conservative, observed that civilized peoples despise your decadent puritanism–as he wrote it is due to your “capacity to organize violence” that has permitted you to defeat weak defenseless nations like Dominican Republic, Grenada—so incompetent u r unable to topple the socialist freedom loving people of Cuba
Jap/nazi kuns:
The Japanese elites like German elites preferred surrender to the US which guaranteed the survival of their respective oligarchs. The case of Korea is instructive. The US put in as their vassals the same vassals who served their Japanese masters. This infuriated the people of Korea who admired the Communists who fought the Japanese occupation.
Thanks, for your valuable explanation.