The Soviet invasion of Manchuria, also called Operation August Storm, occurred in August 1945 when the Soviet Union invaded Japanese-occupied Manchuria, Inner Mongolia, and northern Korea at the end of World War II, helping seal Japan's fate and bring the Pacific War to an end.
Background[]
Abiding by the decisions made at the Tehran Conference and the Yalta Conference, the Soviet Union entered the war against Japan on 8 August 1945, exactly three months after the defeat of Nazi Germany. Previous months had seen the Soviets stealthily build up a force of 90 divisions in the Russian Far East, using vehicles to cross Siberia rather than take the Japanese-monitored railway. On 9 August 1945, just hours before the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, the Soviets commenced the Khingan-Mukden Operation, the Harbin-Kirin Operation, and the Sungari Operation.
The Transbaikal Front invaded Manchuria from the west while the 1st Far Eastern Front attacked from the east, leaving the 2nd Far Eastern Front to attack the center of the pocket from the north. The Transbaikal Front would attack across the Inner Mongolian desert and over the Greater Khingan mountains to secure Mukden (Shenyang) and meet the 1st Far Eastern Front at Changchun to finish the pincer. The 6th Guards Tank Army was to serve as an armored spearhead, while the Soviet 36th Army was to attack from the west and meet the 2nd Far Eastern Front at Harbin and Qiqihar. The 1st Far Eastern Front would strike towards Mutanchiang and then advance towards Jilin, Changchun, and Harbin, closing the double envelopment. Its secondary objective was to cut off the Japanese forces' escape route to Korea and then invade Korea up to the 38th parallel; the Soviet 25th Army carried out this task. The 2nd Far Eastern Front's main objectives were Harbin and Qiqihar and to prevent an orderly withdrawal to the south by Japanese forces. Chinese and Korean guerrillas, including Kim Il-sung, were among the fighters in this front.
These Soviet forces would face off against the Kwantung Army's First Area Army and Third Area Army, supported by the IJA 4th Army in northern Manchuria, the IJA 34th Army in northern Korea, and the Seventeenth Area Army in southern Korea. The Japanese were also assisted by up to 200,000 troops from Manchukuo and another 44,000 from Mengkukuo. However, the Kwantung Army had already transferred its best military units and much of its heavy equipment to fight in the Pacific War or in Operation Ichi-Go, and the Kwantung Army came to consist of a large number of raw recruits and conscripts. The Japanese wrongly assumed that the main Soviet attack would occur at Hailar or Solun, believing the Greater Khingan range to be impassable.
Campaign[]
The Red Army's western pincer advanced through the deserts and mountains of Mongolia, far from their resupply railways, catching the Japanese defenders by surprise in unfortified positions. Soviet paratroopers destroyed the Kwantung Army from behind its own lines while Soviet tanks withstood harmless Japanese anti-tank shells, forcing the Japanese to retreat. The Soviets sent captured Japanese troops and able-bodied Manchurian settlers to labor camps in Siberia, where many would die, avenging the Russo-Japanese War. Hailar's defenders held out until 18 August, when 3,827 survivors surrendered, and the Japanese also sent suicide bombers to carry out anti-tank attacks while IJA aviators launched kamikaze attacks on armored targets and fortifications. The Japanese offered strong resistance at Khanka Lake and Suifenhe, but the Soviets ultimately overwhelmed them. On 15 August 1945, Emperor Hirohito announced his intention to accept the terms of the Potsdam Conference, but Japan's lack of a formal surrender meant that the Kwantung Army continued fighting. The Soviets largely avoided pockets of resistance as they reached Mukden, Changchun, and Qiqihar by 20 August. On the Soviet right, the Soviets and Mongolians quickly took Dolon Nur and Kalgan, capturing the Manchurian emperor Puyi. On 18 August, Soviet troops landed in North Korea, South Sakhalin, and the Kuril Islands. The Soviet land advance stopped a good distance short of the Yalu River, while the forces already in Korea established control of the north. On 8 September 1945, American forces would land at Incheon and assume control of South Korea from surrendered Japanese forces.
The operation ended with Japan's ceasefire, and the Chinese Communist Party took advantage of the Soviet occupation of Manchuria to send soldiers to the region in September 1945 and pick up captured Japanese arms. Though the Soviets initially continued to side with Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists and demanded that the CCP withdraw from Manchuria's major cities in November 1945, the Soviet withdrawal in 1946 helped the communists seize control of the region and later win the Chinese Civil War. Meanwhile, Japan abandoned thousands of female settlers in Manchukuo, refusing to grant their families citizenship due to their mixed Japanese-Chinese heritage. The Soviets perpetrated several war crimes against Japanese settlers similar to those carried out in East Prussia. The Soviets carried out similar atrocities in North Korea, stealing valuable materials and industrial equipment.