During World War II, the Soviet Union and the Japanese had a notable confrontation known as the Battle of Normenheim (also known as the Battle of the Haraha River). The battle took place in 1939 when the Japanese Kwantung Army and the armies of the puppet states of Manchukuo and Mongolia were fighting. On the Soviet side, the Soviet-Mongolian coalition led by Marshal Zhukov and Marshal Choibalsan of the Mongolian People's Republic entered the war. Although Japan and the Soviet Union did not officially declare war, the battle was undoubtedly a military conflict between the two countries.
The Battle of Nomenkhan arose from a territorial dispute between Japan and Outer Mongolia over a triangular area west of Nomenkhand to the Halaha River. Japan tried to take control of the area, but was met with strong resistance from Soviet troops. Under Stalin's guidance, the Soviets amassed a huge military force, including 100,000 mechanized troops, a large number of tanks, armored vehicles, artillery and aircraft, and finally launched a decisive ** against the Japanese on August 20.
The result of the battle was a major victory for the Soviet troops, and the Japanese suffered heavy losses under the powerful offensive of the Soviet troops. This defeat dealt a psychological and technological double blow to Japan's militarist expansion plans, and also affected Japan's strategic choices in the Pacific War. Due to the lessons of the Battle of Nomenhan, Japan did not attack the USSR again during the ensuing war. It was not until the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki that the Soviet Union declared war on Japan on August 8, 1945, and participated in Operation August Storm, which captured the puppet state of Manchukuo, that Japan officially went to war with the Soviet Union.
There were many reasons for Japan's launching of the Battle of Nomenkan, involving many factors such as geopolitics, resource needs, and military strategy.
First of all, since the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, Japan has been wary of the Soviet Union. Although the Russo-Japanese War ended in a Japanese victory, the Soviet Union (then known as the Russian Empire) was in awe of the Soviet Union (then known as the Russian Empire). Therefore, in later times, Japan took a cautious approach to the Soviet Union.
However, with the expansion of Germany in Europe in the thirties of the twentieth century and the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, the situation in the world changed. Calls for Japan's foreign expansion were growing louder and louder, and some extremists in the Japanese military advocated settling territorial disputes with the Soviet Union by force in order to obtain valuable resources and lay the foundation for further Japanese expansion in Asia.
In addition, Japan's strategic vision at that time was to create a Japan-centered co-prosperity sphere on the Asian continent, and the Soviet presence in the Far East was seen by Japan as a potential threat. Japan believed that its strategic goals would be much easier to achieve if it could control the abundant resources of the Soviet border areas and eliminate the potential Soviet threat to the Pacific region.
Against this background, Japan decided to launch the Battle of Nomenkan in 1939 as a test of the Soviet Union's military strength and an attempt to strategically consolidate its position in Manchuria (i.e., the puppet state of Manchukuo). However, due to the superiority of the Soviet Union in military and equipment, as well as the mistakes of the Japanese army in strategic judgment, the Battle of Nomenkan ended in the defeat of Japan. This battle not only did not achieve Japan's expected goals, but on the contrary, it gave Japan a deeper understanding of the strength of the Soviet Union, and also affected Japan's strategic choice in the Pacific War to a certain extent.