How a Soviet Blitz Campaign Against Imperial Japan Helped Create Modern North Korea

Name: How a Soviet Blitz Campaign Against Imperial Japan Helped Create Modern North Korea
Uploaded: 2025-08-15T10:42+0000
Duration: 3 min 9 s
Description: 80 years ago, in August 1945, Red Army forces flanked by the Korean-Chinese 88th Separate Rifle Brigade and Korean partisans completed one of the most successful military operations in history. They smashed Imperial Japan’s 1.1 million-man Kwantung Army and freed Manchuria and Korea in less than two weeks.

10:42 GMT, 15 August 2025

80 years ago, in August 1945, Red Army forces flanked by the Korean-Chinese 88th Separate Rifle Brigade and Korean partisans completed one of the most successful military operations in history. They smashed Imperial Japan’s 1.1 million-man Kwantung Army and freed Manchuria and Korea in less than two weeks.

Sputnik

While it would become one of the main catalysts for Japan’s surrender, the Manchurian Operation would be relegated to the status of a footnote in Western historiography, with many key details unknown.

What problems did Soviet naval infantry face while cutting off Japanese forces trying to flee from Korea’s ports?

What role did Korean partisans play in freeing their homeland?

How did Koreans react to their liberation after 35 years of brutal Japanese occupation?

Who was responsible for the Cold War tensions that would arise in the campaign’s aftermath?

Find out in our video.