How The US Traded a Divided Japan For a Divided Korea
The Koreans got shafted by the Japanese one last time
In 1943, President Roosevelt made a deal with the devil. It was about halfway through 1943 that the war effort for the Allies started to look up. By the end of the year, it was time to start planning on how to wrap up the war. At the Tehran Conference, FDR met with Churchill and Stalin to hammer out agreements about how to bring World War II to a satisfying close. The Allies planned on opening a new front in France to help alleviate pressure on the Russians in the east, and Roosevelt was trying to squeeze out a promise from the USSR to help bring Japan to heel. They were, after all, on the same team.
Stalin agreed to declare war on Japan — after Germany was defeated. He told the American president he would mobilize his armies to march east three months after Hitler had been deposed and Germany was knocked out of the war. That day would not be for another year and a half, but it did finally come.
When the Soviets invaded Manchuria in 1945, it was a whirlwind of steel. Over a million men, tanks, and planes swarmed over the Soviet border and smashed into the depleted Kwantung Army. Stalin had honored his promise, but the Soviets had come to the party late. Very late.
