Comments by "Voryn Rosethorn" (@vorynrosethorn903) on "Kamikaze Tactics - Insane or Rational?" video.

As someone said they did a video about it. It's pointed out in that video that the ease of the Soviet invasion of Manchuria was largely thanks to the internal chaos that the atom bomb kicked off in Japan and the emperors orders starting to filter through. The army was planning a fighting retreat to the North Korean mountains which would be turned into a fortress and used to bleed the Soviets just as they were planning with the home islands and the Americans. Port Arthur would also be heavily Garrisoned and some units would remain in Manchuria to threaten Soviet logistics and tie them down in the same sort of nonsense that the Japanese had had to deal with in China.
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@psychohist They would have invaded anyway, they just got fortunate with the circumstances.
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@LOL Those experienced soviet troops had been seriously depleted by the war, to the point of an acute manpower shortage having taken hold. It go’s without mentioning that the Japanese troops were also experienced. However they had absolutely no chance of holding Manchuria due in part to being totally out matched in armour. Holding Port Arthur seems very optimistic given the supply situation and state of the Imperial Japanese Navy (not that they did much to help the army even at the best of times). Retreat might seem difficult but given what the Japanese were like the rear guard would probably have been more of a sacrifice. The plan for troops to remain behind enemy lines would probably also work but be hampered by the enmity of the local population and the experience and lack of scruples when dealing with resistance and partisan activities that the Soviets had but then the Japanese had plenty of the same so that might have been an interesting part of the war. The plan to hold the mountains would very likely work. Armour would be much less of a game changer in such warfare and the resistance of the Korean people was bigged up after the war, so no grand expulsion, however given time the Koreans could provide a rising threat. Another factor is that Stalin wasn’t stupid and knowing him would not feel like playing the Japanese game and throwing men into a fortified mountain range defended by fanatics, he would very likely build up a navy in the region to attack Hokkaido when the American invasion was distracting the Japanese or to threaten the rear of the Korea line. He might even recruit Chinese to go into the meatgrinder in place of his own troops or the remnants of defeated powers militaries, POW’s and freed soviet prisoners from the west come to think of it. The Japanese plan to be such a major pain in the ass that everyone would give up after burning down all the urban areas, much besides and picking off the softer targets might or might not work, depends how dedicated to weeding out a wreak the allies would be and how much blood they were fine spending to achieve it. Stalin probably wouldn’t bother with anything to big or costly and leave the decision up to the Americans and then try to take best advantage out of said decision. The longer term things became the worse for the Japanese as they faced famine, korea and the less populated islands would become untenable in the face of enemy naval power and more and more would be fire bombed, with the allies only becoming more secure in their encirclement.
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