“We were still at war with Japan, and Russia had a non aggression pact with the Japs.”
News to me...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet%E2%80%93Japanese_War_(1945)
***News to me...***
Back in the early years, Japan invaded parts of Russia and got their butts handed back to them. They then signed a neutrality pact which lasted till Russia violated it and attacked after the Nazis surrendered. Russia had agreed with the Allies to attack Japan after the fall of Germany which they did.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet%E2%80%93Japanese_War_%281945%29
The Russo-Japanese War of the early 20th century resulted in a Japanese victory and the Treaty of Portsmouth by which, in conjunction with other later events including the Mukden Incident and Japanese invasion of Manchuria in September 1931, Japan eventually gained control of Korea, Manchuria and Southern Sakhalin.
In the late 1930s there were a number of Soviet-Japanese border incidents, the most significant being the Battle of Lake Khasan (Changkufeng Incident, July–August 1938) and the Battle of Khalkhin Gol (Nomonhan Incident, May–September 1939), which led to the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact[10][11] of April 1941.
The Neutrality Pact freed up forces from the border incidents and enabled the Soviets to concentrate on their war with Germany, and the Japanese to concentrate on their southern expansion into Asia and the Pacific Ocean.
At the Yalta Conference (February 1945), amongst other things, Stalin secured from Roosevelt the promise of Stalin’s Far Eastern territorial desires, in return agreeing to enter the Pacific war within two or three months of the defeat of Germany.
By the middle of March 1945, things were not going well in the Pacific for the Japanese, and they withdrew their elite troops from Manchuria to support actions in the Pacific. Meanwhile the Soviets continued their Far Eastern buildup. The Soviets had decided that they did not wish to renew the Neutrality Pact.
The terms of the Neutrality Pact required that 12 months before its expiry, the Soviets must advise the Japanese of this, so on 5 April 1945 they informed the Japanese that they did not wish to renew the treaty.[12]
This caused the Japanese considerable concern,[13][14] but the Soviets went to great efforts to assure the Japanese that the treaty would still be in force for another twelve months, and that the Japanese had nothing to worry about.[15]