After the outbreak of war in Poland, Stalin threatened Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania with military invasion, forcing the three Baltic countries to sign pacts allowing the creation of Soviet military bases in these countries; in October 1939, significant Soviet military contingents were moved there. Finland refused to sign a similar pact. League of Nations for this crime of aggression. Rejected ceding part of its territory to the Soviet Union. Finno-Soviet war ended in March 1940 with some Finnish concessions of territory.

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Land warfare changed from the static frontlines of trench warfare of World War I, which had relied on improved artillery that outmatched the speed of both infantry and cavalry, to increased mobility and combined arms. This idea was challenged by the poor performance of the relatively light early tank guns against armour, and German doctrine of avoiding tank-versus-tank combat. At the start of the war, most commanders thought enemy tanks should be met by tanks with superior specifications. The tank, which had been used predominantly for infantry support in the First World War, had evolved into the primary weapon. This, along with Germany‘s use of combined arms, were among the key elements of their highly successful blitzkrieg tactics across Poland and France.

The call for unconditional surrender was rejected by the Japanese government, which believed it would be capable of negotiating for more favourable surrender terms. Between the two bombings, the Soviets, pursuant to the Yalta agreement, declared war on Japan, invaded Japanese-held Manchuria and quickly defeated the Kwantung Army, which was the largest Japanese fighting force. In early August, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Japanese military did not consider the former an option, and many officers considered the oil embargo an unspoken declaration of war. Japan planned to seize European colonies in Asia to create a large defensive perimeter stretching into the Central Pacific. The Japanese would then be free to exploit the resources of Southeast Asia while exhausting the over-stretched Allies by fighting a defensive war. To prevent American intervention while securing the perimeter, it was further planned to neutralise the United States Pacific Fleet and the American military presence in the Philippines from the outset.

Deutsche Welle. Archived from the original on 19 March 2018. Retrieved 12 July 2023. Kwoka was murdered with a phenol injection to the heart a few weeks later. Zemskov V.N. On repatriation of Soviet citizens. Victims of the Soviet Penal System in the Pre-War Years: A First Approach on the Basisof Archival Evidence. Istoriya SSSR., 1990, No. 4, (in Russian). The American Historical Review, Vol. Ju, Zhifen (June 2002). “Japan’s Atrocities of Conscripting and Abusing North China Draftees after the Outbreak of the Pacific War”. J. Arch Getty, Gábor T. Rittersporn and Viktor N. Zemskov. 98, No. 4 (Oct. 1993), pp. American Experience: the Bataan Rescue.