Operation Red Star

Sashenka Tikhonova

Oleg Sidorenko

Aram Komulakov

Georgy Zhukov

Boris Shaposhnikov

Aleksandr Vasilevsky

Semyon Timoshenko

Aleksei Antonov

Ivan Konev

Ivan Bagramyan

Konstantin Rokossovsky

Vasily Chuikov

Nikita Khrushchev

Kostya Danilov

Konstantin Bandanov

Vanya Shvernik

Lev Filipchenko

Konstantin Bandanov

Otozō Yamada

Yoshijirō Umezu

Korechika Anemia

Yasuhiko Asaka

Shunroku Hata

Seishirō Itagaki

Kotohito Kan'in

Iwane Matsui

Toshizō Nishio

Yasuji Okamura

Hajime Sugiyama

Civilian militia

> "*Mark my words, comrades, we will tear Japan apart, one island at a time!*"
> ― Soviet leader Grigori Kroputikin in a public war declaration against the Imperial Japanese Empire
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> "*Kill the Barbarians! Show them no mercy!*"
> ― A Soviet soldier during **Operation Red Star**
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> "*You all know what you are here for! Some of you have lost family members on December 7th, some of you have not. Regardless, you have a duty for your great nation! We will exact our retribution on the murderers that spilled our people's blood on our soil! Just as they lay waste to our country, we shall lay waste to theirs! We stand for what we, as the Soviet Union, believe in! Remember December 7th! Make these filthy pieces of shit pay for what they've done! We will fight until day where the Imperial Japanese Empire BURNS!!!*"
> ― A Soviet commissar during Operation Red Star
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**Operation Red Star**is the name given to the Soviet invasion of Japan that kicked off the Pacific Theater of World War II, which happened as a result of the December 7, 1941 Terrorist Attacks and the subsequent Japanese invasion of the Soviet Union that followed. It saw the Soviet Union invading the Japanese island of Hokkaido, with the intention of capturing any oil fields and bases for its military following the Japanese terrorist attacks against the Soviet Union, as well as vengenace against the Imperial Japanese Empire for said terrorist attack.

## Background

### Talks of retaliation

In the wake of the December 7, 1941 Terrorist Attacks and the Imperial Japanese invasion of the USSR, Joseph Stalin's successor, Grigori Kroputkin, consulted with his advisors to discuss a plan of retaliation. Nearly the entirety of the Soviet population wanted vengeance against Japan for the attacks on December 7, 1941, as well as retribution for the death of Stalin.

Worse still, the Soviet citizens (aided by Soviet propaganda) saw Japan as a nation of "animals" and "uncivilized monsters" that deserved to be killed.

Grigori Koputkin, having lost some close friends and family members himself during the terrorist attacks and also wanting to avenge Stalin, authorized a full-scale invasion of the Japanese island of Hokkaido, resolving to "tear Japan apart one island at a time."

## The Operation

> "*We did not distinguish between soldiers and civilians. In our eyes, the civilian population of Imperial Japan were just as guilty as the thugs that shot up our country and killed many of our people. Why? Simply because they served their government, worshipped their Emperor as if he was a god, and used his rhetoric to justify saying nothing when the Imperial Japanese terrorists attacked our country. Those who witness evil and say nothing, they are just as guilty as the perpetrators themselves. In the Soviet Union we called it, 'Guilt by association.' Plain and simple.*"
> ― Yuri Belov, a Soviet soldier who participated in Operation Red Star, as he explains the Soviet Army's justification for targeting both civilians and soldiers during the war.
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> "*Remember December 7th! Make these filthy vermin pay for what they've done!*"
> ― A Soviet commissar during Operation Red Star
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Operation Red Star officially kicked off on September 2, 1945, with Soviet paratroopers air-dropping in Hokkaido, Japan after securing the island of Sakhalin, intended to be used as a forward operating base for the Soviet invasion force. Their first major action was to attack a Japanese school in Hokkaido (regarded by some to be an act of terrorism on the USSR's part).

Although Soviet propaganda tried to assure the public that no civilians were harmed in the invasion and that any civilian casualties that did happen were the results of collateral damage, the eyewitness records and diary entries of Japanese citizens in Hokkaido proved otherwise; Russian soldiers, wanting to avenge the deaths of their family members and friends in the December 7 Terrorist Attacks and the Japanese invasion of Russia, took their anger out on the civilian population by shooting up civilian residences and, on various different occasions, engaged in human hunting: Soviet soldiers were witnessed slaughtering civilians en-masse out of "anger for their dead brethren back home", seeing them as "vermin".

Across Hokkaido, Soviet soldiers pillaged various villages and towns, robbing homes to take people's belongings as "souvenirs" for Soviet soldiers to take home to their families and friends.

The Imperial Japanese Army, completely caught off guard by the Soviet war machine, scrambled to repel the invaders. They fought tooth and nail to defend Japan from the Soviets, but the Soviet Union's scorched earth tactics quickly overwhelmed the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces.

Hokkaido fell to Soviet occupation a year later, on May 12, 1945. From there, it was a practical race to Tokyo.