Curated playlist
Japan–Soviet Union relations
- Invasion of the Kuril IslandsThe Invasion of the Kuril Islands was a Soviet military operation against Japan in the last days of the Second World War. It never turned on one great battle. It moved instead from island to island across a long chain, over a span of about…
- Soviet invasion of South SakhalinSoviet troops kept fighting on Sakhalin for over a week after Japan surrendered.
- Surrender of JapanArmy officers staged a coup to seize Emperor Hirohito's surrender recording.
- Soviet–Japanese Neutrality PactStalin personally saw off Japan's foreign minister at a train station.
- Soviet–Japanese Joint Declaration of 1956The Soviet Union promised Japan two islands in 1956, but only after a peace treaty that was never signed.
- Anti-Comintern PactThe Anti-Comintern Pact had a secret clause naming the Soviet Union. The public text did not.
- Soviet invasion of ManchuriaThe Soviet invasion of Manchuria began one minute past midnight on the 9th of August 1945.
- Soviet–Japanese WarJapan expected a Soviet attack in autumn 1945 or spring 1946, but it came in August.
- Hokushin-ronJapan's army once wanted to expand north into Siberia, not south. That plan, Hokushin-ron, collapsed in 1939.
- Japanese Instrument of SurrenderOne misplaced signature nearly unraveled Japan's surrender in 1945. A Canadian colonel signed one line too low.
- KantokuenJapan's 1941 plan to invade Siberia, Kantokuen, was its largest operation yet and never fired a shot.
- Battles of Khalkhin GolA search for horse pasture in 1939 helped push Japan toward Pearl Harbor. It began at the Khalkhin Gol river.
- Kuril Islands disputeFour small islands have kept Japan and Russia from a peace treaty since World War II.
- Treaty of San FranciscoCeylon gave up its right to war reparations from Japan at the 1951 San Francisco peace conference.
- Richard SorgeRichard Sorge arrived in Japan as a Nazi journalist while spying for Moscow. German diplomats trusted him for years.