Manchurian lifeline ' Until 1941 , a military strike against the Soviet Far East was high on Japan 's list of strategic options and was favored by many army leaders . Despite of the fact Stalin did not start the war against Japan in 1945 it was improbable that postwar Soviet-Japanese relations would have prospered . When Japan 's wartime leaders faced defeat in 1944-45 , their greatest fear next to national humiliation was Japan 's Sovietization . This fear carried was compounded by the rise...











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