What if? A Japenese front against Russia.

I remember reading somewhere that Stalin pulled his forces out of the far east and placed them on the Moscow front based on intelligence he gathered from sources that said Japan had decided not to open up a front on Russia and vowed to fight the Allies solely in the Pacific. It is safe to say that if they had opted to do this (second front) their eventual decapitation at the hands of the allies would have happened much sooner. But, what if they never attacked Pearl Harbor and other islands in the Pacific? Would the "sleeping giant" have preferred to stay neutral even longer?

Sure there are many redeundant 'what ifs' that pop-up in WW2 discussions, so, if this is an old topic let me know.

 

I think the Japanese were "shocked" by the Molotov-Ribbentrop agreement and thought they were betrayed. So they made a pact with Russia in 1940 as well for not attacking each other. And thus were more or less on Russia´s side and could not be made to attack Russia as Hitler insisted on this later on. Hitler then again went for the trap and declared war on the US as Japan attacked in Pearl Harbor.

Hard to say anything about the Japanese attacking willness except that the US itself speeded it up as they refused to send oil to Japan. Thus the Japanese Fleet would be useless by Summer 1942 without oil, and the attack in December time was seen suitable.
Oh yeah, and wans´t the minister of defence changed to someone who was more anxious to attack but anyway why give the keys to his hands ( no oil for you until you leave China alone )?

 

Indeed Wilconqr. You are talking about the famous Russian journalist who worked in a German press office in Tokyo.

I think his name was Sorge...

 

More on Sorge on this page on the Forums:

http://www.ww2forums.com/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=7;t=000046#000024



Richard Sorge

 

Thanks Kai.

Couldn't find his total name.

 

Its not known very well but Japan did invade USSR I believe in 1939, and the elite Siberian army fought off the invasion and then crossed into Japanese territory, and then peace came and a non-agression pact came out of it. Japan was not to try that one again.

 

Well that seems odd that the Japanese would lose to the Russians especially after handing the Russians their butts at Port Macarthur in the Russo-Japanese War.

 

Guys, I don't want to seem bad and spoil the fun and all the fun and nice posts in here, but this subject was already discussed here:

Japan attacks USSR not USA

You can go there and discuss this with many more arguments to back your ideas, in a more appropiate forum!

 

Japan attacked Russian in 1938. But they lost a lot of tanks and men, so didn't want to attack Russia again.

 

Erwin, that was in 1939 in the Mongolian steppes. General Zhúkov and his Siberian divisions defeated the Japanese so apawlingly, that Japan did not attack the USSR again for the rest of the war...

 

They even signed a pact in which they said not to attack one another. This pact was broken in 1945 when Russia attacked Japan in Manchuria.

 

Actually, that was a five year pact, and it conveniently expired on its own shortly before the Russian attack on Manchuria...

 

Actually, that was a five year pact, and it conveniently expired on its own shortly before the Russian attack on Manchuria...

 

Actually, that was a five year pact, and it conveniently expired on its own shortly before the Russian attack on Manchuria...