Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact

소련-일본 중립조약

A five-year neutrality treaty signed in Moscow on 13 April 1941 by Japanese Foreign Minister Yosuke Matsuoka and Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov. Each side undertook to remain neutral for the duration of any conflict in which the other was attacked by a third power, and an attached declaration had the USSR respect the territorial integrity of Manchukuo and Japan that of the Mongolian People's Republic. It matched a Japan whose Strike North faction had been broken at Khalkhin Gol with a USSR watching its western frontier. When Germany invaded two months later, Japan honoured the pact and stayed out, and Stalin was able to move Far Eastern divisions to the defence of Moscow. The USSR denounced the pact on 5 April 1945 and entered the war against Japan on 9 August.