Alexander Koshelev. Soviet-Japanese War (1945)

Today on our site - the premiere of the rubric. Starting from August 8 and up to September 2, 2015, we will talk about the events that took place in South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands on this very day exactly 70 years ago. And so, together with you, we will recall all the stages of the liberation of the land on which we live. On August 8, 1945, at 17:00 Moscow time, People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs V. M. Molotov received the Japanese ambassador to the USSR, Sato Naotake. During the meeting, he made a statement on behalf of the Soviet government that "... with tomorrow i.e., from August 9, the Soviet Union will consider itself in a state of war with Japan.

The date of the declaration of war was not chosen by chance. Even during the Yalta Conference in February 1945, Stalin promised the Allies anti-Hitler coalition that "... two or three months after the surrender of Germany and the end of the war in Europe, the Soviet Union will enter the war with Japan on the side of the allies ...". The conditions for the entry of the USSR into the war were, among other things, the return of territories and influence lost after the Russo-Japanese War, as well as the Kuril Islands.

The war against Japan became a logical continuation of the Great Patriotic War, because back in 1936 Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact, creating a bilateral bloc with Nazi Germany against the spread of communist ideology.

Three fronts were formed: Trans-Baikal, 1st and 2nd Far Eastern, with a total number of 1.5 million people. Marshal was appointed commander-in-chief Soviet Union A.M. Vasilevsky. He was a brilliant officer, a participant in the First World War and the Civil War. During the Great Patriotic War, he commanded the General Staff, the 3rd Belorussian Front.

A. M. Vasilevsky recalled: “For many years the Japanese militarists hatched plans to capture the Soviet Far East. During the Great Patriotic War, when every division was needed, we kept on Far East several armies in full combat readiness. Japan was just waiting for the moment to unleash a war against the Soviet Union.

How was the news of the coming war on Sakhalin received? Here is what A.N. wrote in his diary. Ryzhkov, at that time a military correspondent for the newspaper “For the Soviet Motherland” of the 79th Infantry Division, located on Northern Sakhalin: “August 8, 1945. There were regular exercises. And suddenly the command: "Communists - to the meeting." At the edge of the forest we sit down on the ground. The speaker, senior lieutenant Chuvilin, speaks of the Japanese imperialists, who, under the guise of a neutrality treaty, were active accomplices of fascist Germany. Japanese planes attacked our merchant ships and bombed them. He spoke about provocations at the borders. If the party and the government order us to fight, we are obliged to show heroism like our brothers in the west ... Severe eyes are turned to the south, towards the Japanese border, which is very close, at a distance of an artillery shot ... ".

Yaroslav Gabrikov, employee of the State Historical Archive of the Sakhalin Region

Fulfilling the allied obligations undertaken to the USA and Great Britain, as well as in order to ensure the security of its Far Eastern borders, the USSR entered the war against Japan on the night of August 9, 1945, which was a logical continuation of the Great Patriotic War.

With the defeat of Germany and its allies in Europe, the Japanese did not consider themselves defeated, their stubbornness caused an increase in pessimistic assessments of the American command. It was believed, in particular, that the war would not end before the end of 1946, and the loss of allied troops during the landing on the Japanese islands would amount to more than 1 million people.

Fortified areas were the most important link in Japanese defense. Kwantung Army stationed in the territory of occupied Manchuria (Northeast China). On the one hand, this army served as a guarantee of the unhindered supply of Japan with strategic raw materials from China and Korea, and on the other hand, it performed the task of pulling Soviet forces out of the European theater of war, thereby helping the German Wehrmacht.

Back in April 1941, the Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact was concluded, which somewhat reduced the tension between Japan and the USSR, but, simultaneously with the preparation of a strike against the Anglo-American troops on pacific ocean, the Japanese command developed a plan of military operations against the Red Army, code-named "Kantokuen" (Special maneuvers of the Kwantung Army). The danger of war on the Far Eastern borders of the USSR persisted throughout the subsequent time. On April 5, 1945, the Soviet government denounced the Soviet-Japanese neutrality treaty.

By the summer of 1945, the Japanese had 17 fortified areas in Manchuria, 4.5 thousand pillboxes and bunkers, numerous airfields and landing sites. The Kwantung Army had 1 million men, 1.2 thousand tanks, 1.9 thousand aircraft, and 6.6 thousand guns. To overcome strong fortifications, not only courageous, but also experienced troops were needed. By the beginning of the war in the Far East, the Soviet command had transferred here additional forces that had been released in the west after the victory over Nazi Germany. By the beginning of August, the total number of Red Army formations in the Far Eastern theater of operations reached 1.7 million people, 30 thousand guns and mortars, 5.2 thousand tanks, more than 5 thousand aircraft, 93 ships. In July 1945, the High Command of the Soviet troops in the Far East was formed, it was headed by Marshal of the Soviet Union A. Vasilevsky.

On August 8, 1945, in Moscow, the Soviet government handed over to the Japanese ambassador a statement stating that in connection with Japan's refusal to stop hostilities against the USA, Great Britain and China, the Soviet Union considers itself in a state of war with Japan from August 9, 1945. On that day, the offensive of the Red Army in Manchuria began in all directions almost simultaneously.

The high rate of advance of the Soviet and Mongolian troops in the central part of Manchuria put the Japanese command in a hopeless situation. In connection with the success in Manchuria, the 2nd Far Eastern Front part of its forces went over to the offensive on Sakhalin. The final stage of the war against Japan was the Kuril landing operation, carried out by part of the forces of the 1st and 2nd Far Eastern Fronts and the Pacific Fleet.

The Soviet Union won a victory in the Far East in the shortest possible time. In total, the enemy lost over 700 thousand soldiers and officers, of which 84 thousand were killed and more than 640 thousand were captured. Soviet losses amounted to 36.5 thousand people, of which 12 thousand were killed and missing.

On September 2, 1945, in Tokyo Bay, on board the American battleship Missouri, the Japanese rulers, in the presence of plenipotentiaries of the USSR, the USA, China, Great Britain, France and other allied states, signed the Act of Japan's unconditional surrender. Thus ended World War II, which had lasted six long years.

YALTA SECRET AGREEMENT OF THE THREE GREAT POWERS ON THE FAR EAST, February 11, 1945

The leaders of the three great powers—the Soviet Union, the United States of America, and Great Britain—agreed that two or three months after the surrender of Germany and the end of the war in Europe, the Soviet Union would enter the war against Japan on the side of the Allies on the condition that:

1. Maintaining the status quo of Outer Mongolia (Mongolian People's Republic).

2. Restoration of the rights belonging to Russia, violated by the perfidious attack of Japan in 1904, namely:

a) the return to the Soviet Union of the southern part of about. Sakhalin and all adjacent islands,

b) the internationalization of the commercial port of Dairen with the provision of the predominant interests of the Soviet Union in this port and the restoration of the lease on Port Arthur, as a naval base of the USSR,

c) joint operation of the Chinese Eastern Railway and the South Manchurian Railway, which gives access to Dairen, on the basis of organizing a mixed Soviet-Chinese Society with the provision of the predominant interests of the Soviet Union, while it is understood that China retains full sovereignty in Manchuria.

3. Transfer to the Soviet Union of the Kuril Islands. It is assumed that the agreement regarding Outer Mongolia and the aforementioned ports and railways would require the consent of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. On the advice of the Marshal, the President will arrange for such consent to be obtained.

The heads of the governments of the Three Great Powers agreed that these claims of the Soviet Union should be unconditionally satisfied after the victory over Japan.

For its part, the Soviet Union expresses its readiness to conclude a pact of friendship and alliance between the USSR and China with the National Chinese Government to assist it with its armed forces in order to liberate China from the Japanese yoke.

Franklin Roosevelt

Winston Churchill

Foreign policy of the Soviet Union during the Great Patriotic War. T. 3. M., 1947.

JAPANESE SURRENDER ACT, September 2, 1945

(extract)

1. We, acting on the orders and in the name of the Emperor, the Japanese Government and the Japanese Imperial General Staff, hereby accept the terms of the Declaration issued on July 26 at Potsdam by the Heads of Government of the United States, China and Great Britain, subsequently acceded to by the Soviet Union, which four Powers shall later known as the Allied Powers.

2. We hereby declare the unconditional surrender to the Allied Powers of the Japanese Imperial General Staff, all Japanese military forces and all military forces under Japanese control, no matter where they are located.

3. We hereby order all Japanese troops, wherever located, and the Japanese people to cease hostilities immediately, to preserve and prevent damage to all ships, aircraft and other military and civilian property, and to comply with all demands that may be made by the supreme Commander of the Allied Powers or organs of the Japanese government on his instructions.

4. We hereby order the Japanese Imperial General Staff to immediately issue orders to the commanders of all Japanese troops and troops under Japanese control, wherever located, to surrender unconditionally in person, and also to secure the unconditional surrender of all troops under their command.

6. We hereby undertake that the Japanese Government and its successors will honestly carry out the terms of the Potsdam Declaration, issue such orders and take such actions as the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers or any other representative appointed by the Allied Powers, in order to implement this declaration, requires.

8. The authority of the Emperor and the Japanese Government to govern the State shall be subordinated to the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers, who shall take such steps as he deems necessary to carry out these conditions of surrender.

Foreign policy of the Soviet Union during the Patriotic War. M., 1947. T. 3.

August 8, 2010 marks 65 years since the USSR entered the war with Japan.

Of the entire coalition of states that unleashed the Second world war, after May 1945, only Japan continued to fight.

On July 17-August 2, 1945, the Berlin (Potsdam) Conference of 1945 of the heads of government of the USSR, the USA and Great Britain was held, at which, along with a discussion of European problems, much attention was paid to the situation in the Far East.

The Potsdam Declaration, stating the readiness of the allied states to deliver a final blow to Japan, emphasized that the military power of Great Britain, the United States and China is supported and inspired by the determination of all allied nations to wage war against Japan until she accepts the terms of unconditional surrender presented to her.

The Potsdam Declaration set out the terms of surrender in an ultimatum form: the eradication of militarism, the removal of the power of those who deceived and misled the Japanese people, forced them to follow the path of world conquest, severe punishment of war criminals; temporary occupation of Japan (until there is conclusive evidence that Japan's ability to wage war has been destroyed); limitation of Japan's sovereignty by the islands of Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, Shikoku and some other less large islands; disarmament of the Japanese Armed Forces; prohibition of the development of military branches of the Japanese economy; creation of conditions for the revival and strengthening of democratic tendencies in the country, the introduction of freedom of speech, press, religion, respect for fundamental human rights.

The Potsdam Declaration specifically emphasized that the Allies did not seek to enslave the Japanese as a race or destroy as a nation, that the occupying forces would be withdrawn from Japan as soon as the goals of the declaration were achieved, and that a peaceful and responsible government was formed in Japan in accordance with the freely expressed will of the Japanese people.

The Soviet Union, which denounced the Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact in April 1945, confirmed at the Berlin Conference its readiness to enter the war against Japan in the interests of a speedy end to World War II and the elimination of the hotbed of aggression in Asia.

On August 8, the USSR joined the Potsdam Declaration and declared a state of war with Japan. The Soviet government explained at the same time that such a policy of its was the only way to hasten the onset of peace, to free the peoples from further sacrifices and suffering. Entering the war with Japan, the USSR also took into account that it provided significant assistance to Nazi Germany and threatened the borders of the USSR in the Far East.

On August 9, the USSR began military operations against the Japanese Kwantung Army concentrated in Manchuria, which, together with local formations, numbered over 1 million people.

On August 10, the Mongolian Empire entered the war against Japan. people's republic. As a result of the rapid advance Soviet troops and the Mongolian People's Army's Kwantung Army short term was defeated, the territories of Northeast China were liberated (Manchuria is the most developed in economic terms area of ​​China) and North Korea, South Sakhalin and Kurile Islands. The entry of the Soviet Union into the war and the defeat of the Kwantung Army hastened Japan's unconditional surrender.

On September 2, 1945, the Japanese government signed the Instrument of Surrender, accepting all the requirements of the Potsdam Declaration. Japan's surrender marked the end of World War II.

Great Patriotic War, which ended in May 1945, did not become the final completion of the participation of the USSR in World War II. In the Far East, the ally of Nazi Germany, militaristic Japan, continued to resist.

Relations between the two countries have remained difficult since the unsuccessful for Russia Russo-Japanese War. In the years civil war Japanese soldiers participated in the intervention, and then growing appetites brought her closer and closer to a direct invasion of the USSR.

Danger big war existed since the mid-1930s, when the Japanese invasion of China allowed the imperial army to go directly to the borders of the Soviet Union and its allied Mongolian People's Republic.

The battles on Lake Khasan in 1938 and on the Khalkhin Gol River in 1939 were a kind of test of military forces. Their results led the Japanese generals to the conclusion that it would be more expedient to postpone a major war with the USSR to a later date.

Fragile Neutrality

On April 13, 1941, the Neutrality Pact was signed between the USSR and Japan. Japan, thanks to this document, was able to continue its expansion into southeast Asia, avoiding military confrontation in the north. The Soviet Union, in turn, received certain guarantees that it would not have to wage a war on two fronts.

In June 1941, Japan was the only ally of Germany that did not declare war on the USSR. Meanwhile, the plan for such a campaign was actively discussed in the Japanese General Staff in July 1941.

Japanese politicians and the military proceeded from purely practical considerations. It was supposed to enter the war against the USSR at the moment when Germany achieved a decisive advantage. Therefore, while maintaining tension on the Soviet border, Tokyo preferred to wait, despite Hitler's insistent appeals.

After the defeat of the Nazis at Stalingrad and on the Kursk Bulge, the situation changed dramatically. It became clear that there was no longer any talk of a German victory, and now Japan itself, drawn into a grueling war with the United States and Great Britain, began to seek to avoid a military conflict with the USSR.

However, even during the Tehran Conference of 1943, the Soviet Union gave the Allies an obligation to enter the war against Japan no later than three months after the end of the war in Europe.

This promise was confirmed by Stalin at the Yalta and Potsdam conferences.

Compromise is impossible

By the spring of 1945, it became obvious that the war for Japan would end in defeat. The whole question was on what terms peace would be concluded. This largely depended on whether the USSR would be faithful to the obligation given to the allies.

On April 5, 1945, the USSR denounced the Neutrality Pact, which was an alarming signal for the Japanese authorities. Japanese diplomats in Moscow cautiously sounded out the possibility of Soviet mediation in the peace talks between Japan on the one hand and the US and Britain on the other. In return, Japan was ready to offer the USSR profitable terms including making territorial concessions.

This kind of prospect openly frightened Britain and the United States, but the Soviet Union was not inclined to compromise with Japan.

Since the time of Port Arthur and the shame of Tsushima, only four decades had passed by that time, and later events did not in any way evoke friendly feelings towards Japan. The Soviet Union intended to fulfill its allied obligations and at the same time take revenge for all previous grievances inflicted by the Japanese.

Three fronts against the Kwantung Army

Beginning in May 1945, units and subunits released in Europe were actively transferred to the Far East. Over 400 thousand people, 7137 guns and mortars, 2119 tanks and self-propelled guns were sent to reinforce the Far Eastern grouping of Soviet troops. The total number of the Soviet group in the Far East reached 1.75 million people. The Soviet troops were armed with more than 26 thousand guns, 5500 tanks and self-propelled guns, almost 5400 aircraft.

The forces of the Red Army were divided into three fronts - Transbaikal under the command Marshal Rodion Malinovsky, 1st Far East under the command Marshal Kirill Meretskov and 2nd Far East under the command General of the Army Maxim Purkaev. The overall direction of the operation was entrusted to Marshal Alexander Vasilevsky. was an ally of the Soviet troops Mongolian army headed by Marshal Khorlogiy Choibalsan.

The Kwantung Army opposed the Soviet troops, the number of which, taking into account the military formations of the puppet state of Manchukuo, was about 1 million people. The Japanese were armed with 6260 guns and mortars, 1150 tanks, 1500 aircraft.

By the summer of 1945, the Kwantung Army was not in the best condition. The most combat-ready soldiers and officers were recalled to Japan to protect its territory from a possible American invasion. The replenishment had no combat experience, and the weapons were outdated, seriously inferior to Soviet models of equipment.

General Otsudo Yamada, who commanded the Kwantung Army, made every effort to, if not repel a possible offensive of the Red Army, then at least to complicate it and delay it as much as possible.

Predictions about how long the military campaign might last were made cautiously. It was possible that the fanatical devotion of the Japanese soldiers to the emperor, as well as the use of suicide squads, would delay the inevitable outcome of the war.

"Pincers" for samurai

On August 8, 1945, at 17:00 Moscow time, the Japanese Ambassador to the USSR was officially presented with a document declaring war.

At dawn on August 9, 1945, the advanced reconnaissance detachments of the three Soviet fronts launched an offensive. At the same time, aviation launched massive attacks on military facilities in Harbin, Xinjing and Jilin, on troop concentration areas, communication centers and communications of the enemy in the border zone. The Pacific Fleet also began combat operations.

The plan of the Soviet command envisaged taking the enemy into "strategic pincers" by encircling the territory with a total complexity of 1.5 million square kilometers.

During the operation, it was necessary to act in difficult climatic conditions, overcome the Gobi desert, fight in hard-to-reach mountainous areas.

But by August 1945, the army of the Soviet Union was the most powerful military structure in the world, and the implementation of these plans was quite realistic.

Already on August 9, on the first day of the war with the USSR, at an emergency meeting Supreme Council to lead the war Japanese Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki declared: "The entry into the war of the Soviet Union this morning puts us completely in a hopeless situation and makes it impossible to continue the war."

In the war with Japan, Soviet troops made extensive use of the experience gained during the war with Germany. In the course were techniques adopted from the enemy. So, when, during the offensive of the 6th Guards Tank Army of General Kravchenko on the Khingan Mountains, the equipment stopped due to a lack of fuel, the delivery of fuel was arranged with the help of aviation, as was practiced in the Wehrmacht.

Japanese aircraft captured by Soviet troops at a military airfield in the city of Xinjing (Changchun). Photo: RIA Novosti / Georgy Homzor

Defeat in 12 days

Mobile formations of the Soviet units bypassed the fortified areas of the Japanese, leaving them in the rear, where they were blocked by infantry units.

The troops of the Trans-Baikal Front, advancing from the territory of Mongolia and Dauria, overcame the waterless steppes, the Gobi Desert and the mountain ranges of the Great Khingan, defeated the Kalgan, Solun and Hailar enemy groups, reached the approaches to the most important industrial and administrative centers of Manchuria, cutting off the Kwantung Army from the Japanese troops in Northern China.

The troops of the 1st Far Eastern Front, advancing towards the Trans-Baikal Front from Primorye, broke through the enemy’s border fortifications, repelled strong Japanese counterattacks in the Mudanjiang area, occupied Jilin and Harbin, in cooperation with the landing forces of the Pacific Fleet, captured a number of port cities and took control of the northern part Korea.

The troops of the 2nd Far Eastern Front, in cooperation with the Amur military flotilla, crossed the Amur and Ussuri rivers, broke through the long-term enemy defenses in the Heihe and Fujin regions, overcame the Lesser Khingan mountain range and, together with the troops of the 1st Far Eastern Front, captured Harbin.

Already on August 14, the position of the Kwantung Army was such that it requested an armistice. But in fact, the Japanese units continued to fight, and this freed their hands Soviet military leaders to complete what you have planned.

On August 18, the Kuril landing operation began, during which the Kuril Islands were cleared of the Japanese. During the simultaneously developing South Sakhalin operation, South Sakhalin came under the control of the Soviet troops.

On August 19, 1945, he was taken prisoner in Mukden. Emperor of Manchukuo Pu Yi. By August 20, Soviet troops advanced 400-800 km deep into Northeast China from the west, 200-300 km from the east and north, reached the Manchurian Plain, dismembered the Japanese troops into a number of isolated groupings and completed their encirclement.

At the same time, the order of the Emperor of Japan to surrender was brought to the units of the Kwantung Army, after which mass surrender began.

Thus, the main fighting to defeat the Kwantung Army were completed in 12 days.

Unconditional victory

Separate pockets of resistance were suppressed until September 10, when the capture of the Kwantung Army was completed.

During the operation, Soviet troops lost 12,031 people killed and 24,425 wounded. The loss of Japanese troops killed amounted to about 84,000 people, over 600,000 were captured.

On September 2, 1945, Japan signed the Unconditional Surrender Act aboard the USS Missouri. On behalf of the Soviet Union, the act was signed Lieutenant General Kuzma Derevianko.

The defeat of the Kwantung Army allowed the Soviet Union to take a convincing revenge for the defeat Russian Empire at the beginning of the 20th century. All previously lost territories returned under the control of the USSR, although attempts to challenge the ownership of the South Kuriles continue today.

On September 30, 1945, the medal "For the Victory over Japan" was established by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. About 1,800,000 people have received this award.

The question of the entry of the USSR into the war with Japan was decided at a conference in Yalta on February 11, 1945 special agreement. It provided that the Soviet Union would enter the war against Japan on the side of the Allied Powers 2-3 months after the surrender of Germany and the end of the war in Europe. Japan rejected the July 26, 1945 demand from the United States, Great Britain and China to lay down their arms and surrender unconditionally.

By order of the Supreme High Command, back in August 1945, preparations began for a military operation to land an amphibious assault in the port of Dalian (Far) and liberate Lushun (Port Arthur), together with units of the 6th Guards Tank Army from the Japanese invaders on the Liaodong Peninsula of Northern China. The 117th Air Regiment of the Air Force of the Pacific Fleet was preparing for the operation, which was trained in Sukhodol Bay near Vladivostok.

Marshal of the Soviet Union O.M. was appointed commander-in-chief of the Soviet troops for the invasion of Manchuria. Vasilevsky. A grouping was involved, consisting of 3 fronts (commanders R.Ya. Malinovsky, K.P. Meretskov and M.O. Purkaev), with a total number of 1.5 million people.

They were opposed by the Kwantung Army under the command of General Yamada Otozo.

On August 9, the troops of the Trans-Baikal, 1st and 2nd Far Eastern Fronts, in cooperation with the Pacific Navy and the Amur River Flotilla, began military operations against Japanese troops on a front of more than 4 thousand kilometers.

Despite the efforts of the Japanese to concentrate as many troops as possible on the islands of the empire itself, as well as in China south of Manchuria, the Japanese command also paid great attention to the Manchurian direction. That is why, in addition to the nine infantry divisions that remained in Manchuria at the end of 1944, the Japanese deployed an additional 24 divisions and 10 brigades until August 1945.

True, to organize new divisions and brigades, the Japanese were able to use only untrained young conscripts, who accounted for more than half personnel Kwantung Army. Also, in the newly created Japanese divisions and brigades in Manchuria, in addition to the small number of combat personnel, artillery was often absent.

The most significant forces of the Kwantung Army - up to ten divisions - were stationed in the east of Manchuria, which bordered on the Soviet Primorye, where the first Far Eastern Front was stationed as part of 31 infantry divisions, a cavalry division, a mechanized corps and 11 tank brigades.

In the north of Manchuria, the Japanese concentrated one infantry division and two brigades - while they were opposed by the 2nd Far Eastern Front, consisting of 11 infantry divisions, 4 infantry and 9 tank brigades.

In the west of Manchuria, the Japanese deployed 6 infantry divisions and one brigade against 33 Soviet divisions, including two tank, two mechanized corps, a tank corps and six tank brigades.

In central and southern Manchuria, the Japanese had several more divisions and brigades, as well as two tank brigades and all combat aviation.

Taking into account the experience of the war with the Germans, the Soviet troops bypassed the fortified areas of the Japanese with mobile units and blocked the infantry.

The 6th Guards Tank Army of General Kravchenko was advancing from Mongolia to the center of Manchuria. On August 11, the army’s equipment stopped due to lack of fuel, but the experience of German tank units was used - the delivery of fuel to tanks by transport aircraft. As a result, until August 17, the 6th Guards Tank Army advanced several hundred kilometers - and about one hundred and fifty kilometers remained to the capital of Manchuria, the city of Chanchun.

The First Far Eastern Front at that time broke the Japanese defenses in eastern Manchuria, occupying the largest city in this region, Mudanjian.

In a number of areas, Soviet troops had to overcome the stubborn resistance of the enemy. In the zone of the 5th Army, the Japanese defenses in the Mudanjiang area held out with particular ferocity. There were cases of stubborn resistance by Japanese troops in the lines of the Trans-Baikal and 2nd Far Eastern fronts. The Japanese army also launched numerous counterattacks.

On August 14, the Japanese command requested a truce. But military operations on the Japanese side did not stop. Only three days later, the Kwantung Army received an order from the command to surrender, which came into force on August 20.

On August 17, 1945, in Mukden, Soviet troops captured the Emperor of Manchukuo - last emperor China Pu Yi.

On August 18, a landing was launched on the northernmost of the Kuril Islands. On the same day, the commander-in-chief of the Soviet troops in the Far East ordered the occupation of the Japanese island of Hokkaido by the forces of two infantry divisions. However, this landing was not carried out due to the delay in the advance of Soviet troops on South Sakhalin, and then postponed until the orders of the Headquarters.

Soviet troops occupied southern part Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands, Manchuria and part of Korea, capturing Seoul. The main fighting on the continent continued for another 12 days, until 20 August. But separate battles continued until September 10, which became the day of the complete surrender of the Kwantung Army. The fighting on the islands completely ended on September 1.

Japan's surrender was signed on September 2, 1945 aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. From the Soviet Union, the act was signed by Lieutenant General K.M. Derevianko.

Participants in the signing of the act of surrender of Japan: Hsu Yong-chan (China), B. Fraser (Great Britain), K.N. Derevianko (USSR), T. Blamey (Australia), L. M. Cosgrave (Canada), J. Leclerc (France).

As a result of the war, the territories of South Sakhalin, temporarily Kwantung with the cities of Port Arthur and Dalian, as well as the Kuril Islands, went to the USSR.