Tomorrow, Russia’s dictator Vladimir Putin, along with his cronies and subordinates, will celebrate the so-called Victory Day in honor of the end of World War II. However, the timing isn’t quite accurate, as World War II is generally considered to have ended with Japan’s surrender—first with the Emperor’s announcement on August 15, 1945, and officially with the signing of the surrender documents on September 2. Of course, the European war had already ended 80 years ago, in May 1945.
It’s also worth remembering that the Soviet Union didn’t stop fighting when the war in Europe ended. Instead, it entered the war against Japan on August 8, 1945, in accordance with what had been agreed among the Allies at the Yalta Conference earlier that year. This happened at a point when Japan’s defeat was all but inevitable, though no formal surrender had yet occurred. The Soviet offensive in Manchuria, southern Sakhalin, and the Kuril Islands continued through late August and even into early September.
As a consequence of these events, the Korean Peninsula ended up divided into Soviet and American occupation zones—and remains split into two nations to this day. In addition, Japan and the Soviet Union, and later Russia, have never signed a formal peace treaty due to the ongoing dispute over four of the Kuril Islands.
These facts are unlikely to dampen Putin’s celebratory mood. What may trouble him more—like a squirrel tormented by a frozen nut—is the persistent fear, lurking in the back of his mind throughout the festivities, that a Ukrainian drone could strike directly in Red Square. Even if Ukraine likely lacks the capacity to cause large-scale destruction in such an attack, that doesn’t guarantee peace of mind inside the Kremlin.
In my understanding, the Soviet Union and Japan had an anti-aggression agreement until suddenly there was no anti-aggression agreement anymore. How could this be?
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