The Russians were also persuaded at Yalta to renounce their neutrality agreement with Japan, which they did in April 1945. This saved Allied lives by speeding up the Japanese surrender and capitulation.
“The Russians were also persuaded at Yalta to renounce their neutrality agreement with Japan, which they did in April 1945. This saved Allied lives by speeding up the Japanese surrender and capitulation.”
In the end, the bombing of Nagasaki compelled Emperor Hirohito to order his government to surrender whether or not Russia entered the war against Japan. So, the Russian war upon Japan saved little or no American lives, but it did set the stage for the Russians to take a large number of American lives when they planned and staged the Korean War only five years later with the participation of the Soviet air forces, air defense forces, intelligence groups, and assorted other Soviet units.
The Russians also imprisoned and liquidated the lives of more than about 36,000 British Commonwealth and about 24,000 American POWs taken into Soviet custody in the German POW camps in 1945.