Story Highlights
- Historical event:
- 8 August 1945
- It is general belief that the American nuclear bombs were decisive factors that forced Japan to final surrender. However, it is the opinion of some researchers that rapid Soviet victories over Japanese troops were even more decisive for the final surrender of Japan.
On this day, in 1945, Stalin’s USSR declared war on imperial Japan.
Of course, it was already very late in World War II, since the Americans dropped a nuclear bomb on Hiroshima two days earlier and, immediately after the Soviet declaration of war, the other American bomb was dropped on Nagasaki.
On this day the notice of the declaration of war was presented by the Soviet statesman Molotov to Japanese ambassador Sato. The very next day, one minute after midnight, Soviet troops began invasion on Manchuria, which was then under Japanese leadership (Manchuria is a part of China today).
It is general belief that the American nuclear bombs were decisive factors that forced Japan to final surrender. However, it is the opinion of some researchers that rapid Soviet victories over Japanese troops were even more decisive for the final surrender of Japan.
Either way, the Japanese Emperor’s speech announcing surrender was broadcasted on radio already a week after the Soviet declaration of war.
