(06-18-2014 08:33 AM)GoApps70 Wrote:  

(06-14-2014 04:05 PM)Kaplony Wrote:  I have read elsewhere that one of Stalin's greatest fears was that Hitler and the Nazis would hold out longer than the Japanese, thus shutting the Soviets out of the partition of Asia.

For his many faults one of the smartest things Douglas MacArthur ever did was keeping the Soviets out of Japan post-war. Stalin wanted Japan to be divided much like Germany, and Truman was considering allowing it. MacArthur fought against that happening and succeeded.

The Russians had beat back the Japanese twice really bad. This was probably one reason the Japanese never attempted taking them on again during WWII. It also allowed Stalin to transport troops to help save Moscow from the Germans.

After the war the US took possession of Japanese submarines designed to launch aircraft. The Russians requested one of
them for study. We sank them instead. Things like this may have helped convince the Russians to back North Korea's invasion of South Korea so much, and to send pilots and Migs to them.

I wonder if they might have tried to do something against the Russians even so, if they weren't already bogged down in China.