It was the last battle of the Second World War, and it was also the last battle of the Soviet Union against Japan in World War II. 1.5 million Soviet troops fought against 700,000 Japanese imperial elites known as the "Flower of the Imperial Army" Kanto Army , as the Japanese army’s best-equipped and most powerful , Japan’s Kwantung Army instantly collapsed under the devastating offensive of the Soviet army. More than 100,000 Kwantung Army died and nearly 600,000 Kwantung Army became the Soviet Union. The captives were then sent by the Soviet Union to serve in the extreme cold of Siberia.
How pleasant is their subsequent encounter? Which battle is this battle? Next, let’s review this little-known battle and see how the Soviet army handled Japanese prisoners of war.
Japan's ambitions were exposed, and the occupation of the Northeast began to make the Soviet Union's idea again. The Soviet Union: I am so bullied?
From the Sino-Japanese War to the end of World War II, the three provinces of Northeast China, which are rich in resources, have always been the arena of Tsarist Russia and Japan . First, Tsarist Russia used its "intervention to return Liaoning" to its merits, relying on powerful military forces to infiltrate the three eastern provinces, opening shops, banks, building a railway spanning Heilongjiang, Jilin to Vladivostok, forcibly renting Lushun and Dalian, etc., and gradually realizing the "Yellow Russia" whale Plans for the Northern Territory of China.
This plan inevitably conflicts with Japan's "mainland policy". To put it simply, Japan, which uses aggression as its national policy, also covets the three northeastern provinces and even China. It is naturally impossible for the three northeastern provinces, which are strategically important, to give up to Tsarist Russia, so they secretly accumulate strength and prepare to compete with Tsarist Russia in the northeast.
Time came to 1904. Tsarist Russia was defeated in the war with Japan, and the Tsarist regime lost its military power.This triggered a series of political unrest in the country. took the opportunity to seize the opportunity to launch a war against Tsarist Russia, and finally forced Tsarist Russia to sign the " Portsmouth Peace Treaty". Japan completely seized the Liaodong Peninsula and the Nanban Railway Lease from Changchun to Lushun from Tsarist Russia. right. In 1908, Japan changed the port of Dalian to a free port, following the name of " Kanto State" by Tsarist Russia. The Japanese army stationed here also officially changed its name to "Kwantung Army." It ended in failure.
After the outbreak of World War II, the Soviet Union faced a fierce attack from the German fascist on the west. Go forward with the goal of "Prosperity Circle".
However, at this time, China’s all-out war of resistance broke out and Japan was caught in the quagmire of the Chinese war. In order to break this situation, the Japanese cabinet set its sights on the Soviet Union and formulated a "northbound" And go south" strategy . As the name suggests, going north is to attack the Soviet Union, using the Dongning Fortress as a stronghold, quickly occupying the Soviet Far East naval base in Vladivostok, and attacking Germany to force the Soviet Union to surrender. Going south is going south to grab many resources.
In May 1939, the Japanese Kwantung Army Headquarters decided to take the Haraha River area in eastern Mongolia first. used it as a springboard for Japan to invade the Soviet Far East and pursued a long-standing plan. of the "Northern Advance Project". On May 4, it brazenly launched an attack on Mongolia. As the Soviet Union with a friendly alliance of mutual assistance, it would naturally not sit back and watch its allies being bullied by the Japanese, so it sent Marshal Zhukov and 200,000 troops to fight with them. The Japanese Kwantung Army battled to the death,This battle is the famous battle of Normanham .
At this time, the Japanese still think that the Soviet Union is as bully as the Tsarist Russia at that time. was dumbfounded after the frontal contact. It turned out that he was the "jumping clown". is powerful in the Soviet army. Under the torrent of iron and steel, the Japanese Kwantung Army was defeated steadily. Facing the torrent of advanced tanks, the Japanese cavalry troops could only make symbolic resistance. Under the powerful artillery bombardment, the Japanese Kwantung Army failed. It ended, but the Japanese "suicide" blasting and germ warfare and other dirty tactics caused a lot of casualties to the Soviet army and became a thorn in the heart of the Soviet Red Army. It will not be forgotten for a long time.
In early 1945, the fronts of the Axis countries were on the verge of collapse, and the German Third Reich was not in . On May 8, the German Supreme Commander appointed Marshal Keitel in front of the representatives of the United States, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and France. Signed the German unconditional surrender , and the European battlefield of World War II ended with the complete destruction of and Hitler of the Nazi Empire.
At this time, Japan was the only country left in the Axis, which was still struggling to resist. At that time, the United States did not give him any chance to counterattack. surrendered on May 9th and August 26th after Germany surrendered. More than 900 B-29 bombers visited Japan twice. After 6,000 tons of incendiary bombs, Tokyo, Japan was instantly reduced to a sea of flames. Until Tokyo had no more targets to bomb, he reluctantly left Tokyo.
July 13, 1945, at the Yalta meeting ,The United States and Britain hoped that three months after the Soviet Union’s surrender in Germany, it would terminate the " Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Treaty" signed with Japan in 1941, declare war on Japan, and join the Pacific War . In the past 30 years, although Japan and the Soviet Union each built thousands of kilometers of defense lines in the 1930s, but they did not come in handy.
The "Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Treaty" treaty stipulates that within five years, , Sude, will break out of war, Japan will not intervene, Japan and the United States will have a war, and the Soviet Union will not intervene . However, both parties understand that whenever the situation changes, this contract is equivalent to a piece of waste paper.
Therefore, after Germany announced its unconditional surrender, seeing the balance of victory tilted towards the Allied powers, the Soviet Union unilaterally abolished the "Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Treaty" on April 5, 1945, and declared its right. Japanese combat .
The Soviet Union declared war against Japan. How long did the Japanese Kwantung Army support the Soviet Union’s 1.5 million army?
The last decisive battle between the Soviet Union and the Japanese Kwantung Army broke out on the Sino-Russian border. The Soviet Union directly dispatched 1.5 million troops to engage in a desperate battle with the Japanese Kwantung Army in the three northeastern provinces. In the early morning of August 9th, 1945, Dongning In the quiet night, with a burst of fire piercing the night sky, the Battle of the Far East Officially broke out.
Millions of Soviet troops attacked the Puppet Manchuria and the Kwantung Army entrenched here in from three directions: east, west, and north. The Soviet Far East Army crossed the border under heavy rain.Across the Hubutu River , the Japanese Kwantung Army in Dongning Fortress raided.
In response to the attack on Japan, the Soviet Union also has a special unit, the Soviet Far East Front Army’s independent 88th Infantry Brigade, also known as the Teaching Brigade. , Brigade Commander Zhou Baozhong was also Secretary of the Northeast China Party Committee. The commander of the first battalion of was Kim Il Sung. Before the attack on the Northeast, this 300-man troop was divided into small teams and sneaked into various important Japanese bases. obtained a large amount of Intelligence, Dongning Fortress, as the last line of defense of the Japanese Kwantung Army, naturally became the primary target of Soviet attacks.
Dongning Fortress is the largest of the 17 huge military fortresses built by Japan on the Sino-Soviet and Sino-Mongolian borders. It is a large permanent group of Japanese military positions for offensive purposes, starting from Yanwangdian in Suiyang Town in the north and Ganhe in the south. Kwantung Army describes itself as the "Permanent Fortress of North Manchuria" and " Magino Line of Defense in the East" by the Kwantung Army. . is equipped with complete military facilities and military logistics support system, including more than 400 permanent fortifications. contains more than 300 airfields, 45 field artillery positions, and many anti-tank trenches. And so on, formed a three-dimensional crossing defense system.
The Japanese troops stationed here were affected by the war. Elite troops and large-scale weapons and equipment were transferred to the South Pacific battlefield. Most of the remaining troops were recruits and reserves. The number was insufficient and the main force was missing. The defenseless Dongning Kwantung Army was It was caught off guard. The Soviet army relied on its powerful military firepower to break through all the way. Without much resistance, it occupied the forward post of the Japanese army. Most of the Japanese army had no choice but to retreat to Changchun strategically.
At this time, the commander-in-chief of the Kwantung Army in Shenyang Otsuzo Yamada gave a fatal decision to move the Kwantung Army headquarters to Tonghua. In the following three days, The relocation of the headquarters caused a large-scale communication interruption, and the Kwantung Army on the front was completely in chaos. The Soviet army took advantage of the Japanese army like a headless fly, and quickly launched a fierce attack. Under the strong offensive of the Soviet army, the Kwantung Army Rout all the way south, vulnerable.
However, on August 15, 1945, the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. Seeing the homes destroyed by the atomic bombs and causing a large number of military and civilian casualties, the Emperor of Japan finally had to declare an unconditional surrender. One day the Pacific Allies and Japan ceased the war, and the United States also stopped bombing the Japanese mainland. However, at the Dongning Fortress in the Far East battlefield, the Japanese Kwantung Army was still stubbornly resisting because of the continuous fire bombing by the Soviets. The Japanese Kwantung Army has long lost contact with the outside world, and the Kwantung Army, which has not been informed, is naturally still fighting to the death against the Soviet attack.
However, it seems that it was also angered by the tenacious resistance of the Japanese army. The Red Army of the Soviet Union also began a large-scale military operation. From dawn to evening, the Soviet bombers with heavy firepower such as howitzers launched against the Dongning Fortress. Differential bombing. On the second day, August 16, Soviet Army Staff issued a statement blatantly claiming: Although the Emperor of Japan announced his surrender, he announced to the troops an order to cease resistance.
Therefore, the Soviet army determined that the Japanese troops had not yet surrendered, and continued to launch the Japanese Kwantung Army’s offensive, but the army was defeated. The Japanese Kwantung Army who fought again, In the early morning of August 17, after Kwantung Army Commander Yamada Otsuzo called the Soviet Marshal Vasilevsky,Formally surrendered, On the afternoon of August 18, the Kwantung Army began to disarm and surrender collectively.
However, part of the Kwantung Army who believed in the spirit of Bushido entered the Dongning Fortress to fight to the death. After repeated persuasion to no avail, the Soviet army directly poured a large amount of gasoline from the vent. Then he lit a torch and burned more than 1,000 soldiers alive in the underground fortress.
On September 2, 1945, on the Missouri battleship moored in Tokyo Bay , Japan signed the unconditional surrender agreement . So far, the Second World War came to an end.
See how the Soviet Union dealt with Japanese prisoners? This method is really pleasant.
In the Far East Campaign, the Soviet army, after paying the price of more than 1,000 people, wiped out nearly 100,000 Kwantung Army, and the remaining 600,000 Kwantung Army naturally became the Soviet prisoners. When the Soviets dealt with these 600,000 Japanese prisoners of war, the way they handled them was even more applauding.
After World War II, the Soviet Union consumed a large number of young and strong people in the country due to the war. The domestic population was originally not large. Regarding these 600,000 prisoners of war as free labor, sent 600,000 prisoners, including the commander-in-chief of the Kwantung Army, Yamada Otsuzo, to the extremely cold Siberian prisoner-of-war camp using rail transportation.
At this time, Siberia is experiencing severe cold.The temperature is below 50°C, which is horribly low. Under such harsh conditions, the only thing the Kwantung Army prisoners of war had was a ragged cotton-padded jacket. They did the most tiring mining, logging and other hard work. They lived in small wooden houses with air leaks on all sides, and the gnawing was frozen like a rock hard. With brown bread, he had to do a lot of physical work if he couldn't eat enough to eat. Life is not as good as death. The once proud Japanese army was finally reduced to inhuman treatment.
Disregarding Geneva Convention , the Soviet army, who dared to transport 600,000 prisoners back to China, would not care about their lives or lives. They were lazy and shot directly, and those who dared to escape would be shot before they were shot. The sick were carried directly into the crematorium, not treating them as human beings at all, and there were countless people who died of starvation and freezing. Different from our preferential treatment of prisoners, the Soviets were very rude in treating Japanese prisoners. In the next five years, nearly 100,000 Japanese prisoners died in the bitter cold of Siberia. These executioners with blood on their hands deserved the crime.
.
