The Japanese in Manchuria were easy pickins.
Japanese in Manchuria:
- No real tanks
- No real anti-tank guns
- Very little mechanization
- Extremely obsolete and small airforce
- Short on supplies with no hope of resupply
Soviets in Manchuria:
- Vast mechanized army of world class tanks and guns
- More troops than the Japanese
- Vast stockpiles of supplies and steady resupply
- Vast air armada vastly superior in capability.
Terrain:
-Open and rolling.
-Not suitable for point-defense holding/attrition tactics used on small, rocky Pacific islands
I think a TSA agent might have been able to have taken over as Grand Soviet Marshall at that point and had the same results.
Do not confuse the first combat Russians had with the Japanese from May to September 1939 in Mongolia, with later combat in 1945. Apples and oranges.
In Mongolia, the Soviets kicked the arrogant Jap’s arses very severely and crushing them in the final battle. This forced the Japanese to call for and getting an armistice which held until just before the Japanese were defeated. No further combat took place between the two countries until just before the Japanese surrendered It was then when Russia went on their land grab rampage in Manchuria, Korea &c, even after the Japanese surrendered, Soviets continued to attack them and invading more territory.
In the winter of 1941-42, Stalin recalled Zhukov, along with many of the Siberian troops from Mongolia to defend Moscow, and Zhukov gave the Nazis one hell of a shock, forcing them to retreat.