In August 1945, the Japanese army in China believed that they were safe with a million soldiers. However, they had committed a great error. They failed to remember a painful lesson the Soviet Red Army had taught them six years earlier.
The Soviets had a very quick method of combat at the time. They had a massive tank line in front of them, followed by airplanes overhead and infantry behind. This enabled them to break through enemy lines in no time at all.
The Soviets continued to practice this, but the Japanese army remained unchanged. They continued to battle the old thinking of World War One, and even worse, Japan had withdrawn its best troops and the most up-to-date weapons to battle with the United States. The soldiers remaining in China were equipped with old weapons, and there was no obstacle to the modern tanks.
In the meantime, the Soviets had sent a million veteran soldiers from Europe to the border. These men had just beaten the powerful German army. They were hardy, battle-tested and knew how to win a modern war.
On August 9, 1945, the Soviets attacked. Their tanks did not stop to fight at the border. They just drove right past the Japanese defenses and rushed deep into the back. They turned off the radio, stole food and fuel before the Japanese could even figure it out.
The Japanese soldiers were courageous but they were no match for the enemy. Weak 1937 weapons were being used against a strong 1945 army. In a few days, the Japanese army was divided and the Soviet Union had won a great victory with minimal losses.
Related:
Why didn’t thousands of prisoners in Nazi concentration camps simply overpower the guards?
There were many prisoners and few guards. Why not just charge them all down?
In the concentration camps, numbers did not mean much.
Many of the victims came confused and exhausted from the torturous journey by train. In the death camps, families were quickly processed and instructed to enter showers. The doors were already locked, and guards waited outside once they knew they entered a gas chamber.
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Those selected for forced labor would be broken down more slowly. They were fed soup and bits of bread while working, which would leave them weakened. A starved prisoner who can hardly walk would have little chance of overpowering a guard with a gun.
The guards had guns, automatic weapons, dogs, fences, and full control over practically everything. Prisoners had practically NOTHING.
Fear was one of the other tools used. One attempted escape could mean the punishment of innocent prisoners, leading people to consider how many others might die because of them. Differing languages, informants, and constant observation made organizing a secret uprising extremely difficult.
Yet, there were uprisings.
Prisoners revolted at Sobibor and Treblinka, and some managed to ESCAPE.
That is what makes these rebellions remarkable: the camps were designed not only to imprison people, but also to strip them of any chance at rebelling.
Writer: Faisal Azam Peter Chemy was a survivor of a camp Field Marshal Paulus