Why Did Japan NEVER Attack the Soviet Union?

In the summer of 1941, Japan had more than 700,000 soldiers on the Soviet border. Hitler was tearing into Russia, Berlin wanted Japan to strike from the east, and Japan's own foreign minister wanted to attack. Japan didn't. Instead it attacked the United States. Why? We follow Japan's great argument between "Strike North" and "Strike South": the Army's war on the Soviet Union against the Navy's road to the oil of Southeast Asia. From the border wars at Lake Khasan and Khalkhin Gol, where an unknown commander called Georgy Zhukov crushed a Japanese division, to the Neutrality Pact, the Kantokuen build-up, the American oil embargo, the spy Richard Sorge and the Siberian divisions sent to Moscow, and finally the Soviet invasion of Manchuria in August 1945. Both sides: what Tokyo wanted, what Stalin feared, and who really won the waiting game. Every war has two sides. We show both. Chapters: 0:00 Intro 0:51 Two Roads 2:44 The Lesson of Khalkhin Gol 5:02 The Handshake in Moscow 6:55 Waiting for the Persimmon 9:03 The Spy and the Siberians 11:25 The Verdict Sources include Alvin D. Coox, Nomonhan: Japan Against Russia, 1939; Jonathan Haslam, The Soviet Union and the Threat from the East; Nobutaka Ike, Japan's Decision for War; Gordon Prange, Target Tokyo; David Glantz, August Storm; Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, Racing the Enemy. Music: Mozart and Haydn string quartets, public domain recordings (Musopen). Sound effects: CC0 (BigSoundBank). #WW2 #History #Japan #SovietUnion #Stalin