The Korean War followed on from the Land Grab by the Soviets at the end of WW2. After the capture of Berlin, the Russians declared their war over on May 8,1945. Of course, for the British, Americans, Dutch and Australians the war still continued in the pacific against the Japanese. After the first Atomic Bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on 6th August 1945, the Russians thought it would be a good time to get back into the war fighting business and declared war on Japan on 8th August (after being "At peace" for 3 months!). Japan wasn't expecting such a late development and had already reduced it's defences in mainland Asia to fend off the island-hopping allies. The US thought thought the Japanese hadn't heard the first one go off, so dropped another Atomic Bomb on Nagasaki on 9th August. Russian forces were able to make rapid advances through Manchuria, China and down the Korean peninsula by the time the Japanese capitulated on 14th August.
The Russians had a thirst for revenge for the humiliation of losing the first Japanese-Russian war in 1905, while the Japanese Emperor had much to fear from the spread of Communism. It is a widely held belief in Western circles that the Japanese surrendered because of the devastation of the two Atomic bombs, but to the Japanese, the true destruction of the Japanese system and culture would have come from a Soviet invasion. Japan would have continued to fight the Americans for each and every village of mainland Japan in spite of how many Atomic Bombs were rained down on Japan. There was no time to be involved in a protracted fight with the US as the Russians were knocking on the door.
After Japan surrendered to the US and Western Allies, US troops were hastily dispatched to the Korean peninsula to occupy the remaining Japanese held territory. The Japanese Emperor Hirohito offered complete co-operation to the Western Allies, if only they WOULD KEEP THOSE DAMN RUSSIANS AWAY! It was (and still is) in Japan's interest to keep a large force of US troops in South Korea as a buffer against Communism. As a matter of interest, Japan and Russia never signed a peace treaty after surrendering unconditionally to the Western Allies and are still disputing the ownership of the Kurile Islands, which are still held by the Russians. Similarly, North and South Korea have never signed a treaty to end the Korean War and are still technically at war since the cease fire of 1953.
Did the US beat the Japs in WW2 or was Macarthur played as a pawn by the Japanese Emperor, whose phobia of the Russians effectively sowed the seeds of the Cold War and saw the US, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand fighting for the defence of Japan in Korea in '50 to '53?
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