Instructions: In this task, you are given two sentences in the English language (Sentence 1 and Sentence 2). Your task is to identify the connecting word between the two sentences.
Input: Sentence 1: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 . Sentence 2:Meanwhile , the Soviets continued their Far Eastern buildup .
Output:
meanwhile