Why didn't the Soviets invade Japan?

How close were the Soviets from invading the Japanese Home Islands in 1945? There is quite some discussion going on about the likelihood of a Soviet Invasion of Japanese Home Islands in 1945. The Soviets invaded Shumsu (Kuril Islands) and also Sakhalin Island, yet, what about Hokkaido? Where there any plans? How likely was there success? What were Stalin's goals, what about Truman? Was this discussed in Yalta. Note this video is mainly based on the chapter "Hokkaido Myth" by D.M. Giangreco in his book Hell to Pay (2nd Edition!).

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Military History NOT Visualized is a support channel to Military History Visualized with a focus personal accounts, answering questions that arose on the main channel and showcasing events like visiting museums, using equipment or military hardware.

» SOURCES «

Giangreco, D. M.: Hell to Pay: Operation Downfall and the Invasion of Japan, 1945-1947. US Naval Institute Press: United States, 2017.

Atschkassow, W. I.: Landing Operations of the Soviet Naval Fleet during World War Two. In: Bartlett, Merrill (Ed.): Assault from the Sea. Naval Institute Press: Annapolis, 1983

Alexander, Joseph H.: Storm Landings – Epic Amphibious Battles in the Pacific. US Naval Institute Press: Annapolis, United States, 1997

» CREDITS & SPECIAL THX «
Song: Ethan Meixsell - Demilitarized Zone

#Japan #WW2 #SovietInvasion

[MilitaryHistoryNotVisualized]

CORRECTION: The author of Hell to Pay D. M. Giangreco watched the video and pointed out a mistake of mine:
"The only thing that was actually off the mark was the 24-division comparison to Overlord and Olympic as the figure Zhukov gave Stalin more likely represents the force structure at the culmination of operations or during key offensive operations after a build-up (in this case, an extraordinarily painful build-up). So Z’s not really talking about an insertion phase like, say, Overlord, but the desired force structure during the subsequent breakout and exploitation, Cobra. Some listeners also might not realize that Sov divisions are somewhat smaller than American divisions and that the US corps commanding its divisions controlled about twice as many soldiers in support than a Sov field army controlling an equal number of divisions. No big deal, though. In the larger scheme of the video, it’s only a minor flaw." (Mail from D.M. Giangreco, 8th September 2018)

[_Matsimus_]

The beard is looking badass brother. The style of video is even better!!! 👍 keep it up man! Loving the channel

[captainseyepatch]

The question of why the SU didn't invade Japan is like asking why Germany didn't invade the UK.
Simple answer.

"With what navy?"

[galgenvogel]

Oh, visuals except you on "MH not V" ;D
And the new presentation style is realy good.

[ogerpinata]

Nobody invades a Nation with weapons like Godzilla and hentai.

[napoleonibonaparte]

Mass Ura Assault against Mass Banzai Assault won’t work.

[scipioafricanus]

Nice jacket. But why isn't it in panzergrau?

[decem_sagittae]

your channel keeps getting better and better. congratz mein freund!

[bkmeister]

The most comprehensive treatment of Japan’s geography and the invasion, especially since Japanese defense plans are examined in great detail, can be found in Hell to Pay’s chapters 7, 8, 10, and 13 through 17.

Also re Asheer -- Despite any bombast that may have come from MacArthur, it's worth noting that unannounced Soviet reconnaissance parties were treated not only respectfully, but quite well by American occupation forces on Hokkaido.

[andrewstrongman]

Aside from the inability to project air or naval power in support of landings they had no capacity to undertake in the face of entrenched opposition? The Soviets could never have landed enough men to defeat the Japanese. The terrain would have restricted the freedom of movement Soviet armies relied on, and Japanese defensive positions would not have been vulnerable to Soviet artillery or armour.

The US plan didn't include Hokkaido but even with the full might of the US navy and all the experience gained during years of island war across the Pacific they estimated losses of up 1 million men would be suffered in subduing Kyushu, Shikoku, and Honshu. The Soviets could easily have lost 300, 000 men and still failed to make any gains.

[GabrielUngacta]

The Soviets barely had a navy. How did they have any chance of successfully landing on mainland Japan?

[mrbloodmuffins]

Is there any literature on how the geography of Japan factored into any invasion plans of any Allied nation? With 70% listed as mountainous, it seems like the Japan home islands are basically Switzerland but with the additional benefit of being an island.

[wolfu]

The question of why the Soviet didn't invade the Home Islands has always been an unknown element for me, thank you for the video.

[Gillan]

Simplify

1. Lack of a navy and amphibious fleet. The US Navy only let them borrow 36 LCTs, some were lost to Kamikazes.
2. Lack of experience. Amphibious warfare is the hardest type of warfare to conduct due to logistics and defender has the initial advantage.
3. Logistics. The Soviets had problems with that.

[steve]

Bottom Line:
1--Given Soviet losses thus far (they basically already decimated 2 entire generations of men) and manpower requirements to control Eastern Europe and maintain their offensives in Manchuria, mustering proper manpower would be a bit more difficult than would be expected
2--The Soviets concentrated their military power for ground assault and crossing rivers, not naval invasions crossing 100+ km of open ocean, and much of their industial capacity would have to be re-tooled to support buildup of the kinds of equipment needed for such operations.
3--If the largest and best equipped Navies in the world (US, UK) were having a bear of a time dealing with kamikazees and such, how would the much smaller, much less sophisticated, less well defended soviet navy fare in pulling off amphibious invasion of a well defended homeland of an enemy?
4--the soviets lacked naval aviation and much of their air power was in shorter range land based fighters operating from accross the sea, which means that Soviet air support for such operations would involve reduced sortie rates and less time on target vs what they had been used to fighting the Germans
5--given their reliance on lots and lots of armor support, amphibious assault becomes more problematic because it's hard to rapidly transport tanks to support amphibious assault unless you not only capture a large port but capture it with it's docking facilities intact. Even then, you're probably going to have less tanks availabe than usual and that is compounded by the heavy use of mines and tank traps/tank barriers by the enemy defenders, who have fortified their home islands well, not to mention the maintenance issues for soviet tanks (they weren't designed to last long so they tended to break down frequently) become more problematic when you don't have dozens of railroad flat cars carrying tanks being delivered to the front each day.

[alexyakyma]

I like MHNV better than MHV. A combination of both your video with occasional insertions of graphics + smartly selected background pictures looks like the way to go!

[wewuzvikangz]

Invade Japan? With what navy? The us navy was never going to allow it and they sure as hell werent going to give the Soviets a ride, on top of that the Russians had absolutely no experience with amphibious assaults so I have serious doubts they would be able to pull one off against the extremely well defended Japanese home islands even If they could somehow miraculously get there

[michaeldunne]

Nice clip. I do feel the Japanese in Northern Hokkaido did get a bit lucky in avoiding Soviet occupation (if Wikipedia is to be believed, something like 17, 000 Japanese were expelled from the Kurils, or couldn't return home). As for Hokkaido, the "a" and "i" together is pronounced more like "eye" in English.

[eduardochiscuet]

I'd love a video about the manchurian invasion #amirite

[glutinousmaximus]

Well, they _knew_ that they didn't have to invade the home islands. Already in April/May of that year, Stalin and STAVKA were making huge plans to take Manchuko (Manchuria) with 4 huge armies later in July or August of that year. Stalin knew that the Americans would be successful in the Pacific and may launch an invasion of the home islands, probably in 1946. As it happened, Iwo Jima, and then Okinawa showed possible American losses to be unacceptable - but in July, the bomb was ready. Russia merely wanted a place at the table after any surrender by the Japanese. VERY clever on Stalin's part!