[Zakeet]

The Russian's grabbed this territory from the Japanese in the last days of WW II. Truman felt the US was too war weary, and Truman himself was too new on the job, to make the Commies give it back.

Some historians think Russia's land grab was more of a determining factor in causing the Japanese to surrender than the atom bombs. The Tokyo firestorms were worse; people are expendable; but land lost to the Soviets is a precious resource lost for centuries

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

The Japanese knew they were going to loose before either the nuclear bombs or Russia's assault on the Japanese home islands. Russia simply took the land, probably in part as a sort of revenge for Japan's beating them in the Russo-Japanese War.