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Kantokuen

Kantokuen (Japanese: 関特演, from 関東軍特種演習, Kantōgun Tokushu Enshū, "Kwantung Army Special Maneuvers"[2]) was an operational plan created by the General Staff of the Imperial Japanese Army for an invasion and occupation of the Russian Far East, capitalizing on the outbreak of the Soviet–German War in June 1941. Involving seven Japanese armies and a major portion of the empire's naval and air forces, it would have been the largest combined arms operation in Japanese history up to that point, and one of the largest of all time.[3]

Kantokuen

Strategic

Manchuria, Mongolia, Soviet Union

September 1941[1]

Japanese Imperial General Headquarters

Occupation of the Far East of the Soviet Union

Canceled on August 9, 1941

The plan was approved in part by Emperor Hirohito on July 7 and involved a three-step readiness phase followed by a three-phase offensive to isolate and destroy the Soviet defenders within six months.[4] After growing conflict with simultaneous preparations for an offensive in Southeast Asia, together with the demands of the Second Sino-Japanese War and dimming prospects for a swift German victory in Europe, Kantokuen fell out of favor at Imperial General Headquarters and was eventually abandoned after increased economic sanctions by the United States and its allies.[5]


Nevertheless, the presence of large Japanese forces in Manchuria forced the Soviets, who had long anticipated an attack from that direction, to retain considerable military resources in Siberia throughout World War II.[6]

Far Eastern Russia and the Mongolian People's Republic formed a horseshoe around Manchuria over a border more than 4500 km long.

Far Eastern Russia was economically and militarily dependent on via the single Trans-Siberian Railroad.

European Russia

Proposed Japanese invasion of Australia during World War II

Askey, Nigel (2013). Operation Barbarossa: The Complete Organizational and Statistical Analysis and Military Simulation. Vol. IIA. Lulu.com.  978-1-304-45329-7.

ISBN

Coox, Alvin (1985). Nomonhan: Japan against Russia, 1939. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.  978-0-8047-1835-6.

ISBN

Cherevko, Kirill Evgen'evich (2003). Serp i Molot protiv Samurayskogo Mecha [Hammer and sickle against Samurai Sword]. Moscow: Veche.  978-5-94538-328-9.(link)

ISBN

Drea, Edward (1981). (PDF). Leavenworth Papers (online ed.). Fort Leavenworth, KS: Combat Studies Institute. OCLC 464602642. Retrieved 13 August 2017.

Nomonhan: Japanese-Soviet Tactical Combat, 1939

Glantz, David (2004). The Soviet Strategic Offensive in Manchuria, 1945: "August Storm". London: Routledge.  978-1-135-77499-8.

ISBN

Hattori, Takushiro (1955). Japanese Operational Planning against the USSR. : Japanese Studies on Manchuria. Vol. I. et al. Military History Section, HQ Army Forces Far East. OCLC 63860465.

Japanese Monographs

Hayashi, Saburo; Yano, Muraji (1955). . Vol. XIII. Military History Section, HQ Army Forces Far East. OCLC 832049534. Archived from the original on 28 February 2018. Retrieved 13 August 2017.

Japanese Special Studies on Manchuria: Study of Strategical and Tactical Peculiarities of Far Eastern Russia and Soviet Far East Forces

Heinrichs, Waldo (1990). . Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-987904-5.

Threshold of War: Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Entry into World War II

Humphreys, Leonard A. (1996). The Way of the Heavenly Sword: The Japanese Army in the 1920s. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.  978-0-8047-2375-6.

ISBN

Ishiwatari (1954). (PDF). et al. Headquarters, Army Forces Far East: Military History Section. OCLC 220383206. Retrieved 13 August 2017.

Japanese Preparations for Operations in Manchuria Prior to 1943

(PDF). Special series (United States. War Department). Washington D.C.: War Department. 1945. OCLC 55009262. Retrieved 13 August 2017.

Japanese Tank and Antitank Warfare

Kondrat'ev, Vyacheslav Leonidovich (2002). Khalkhin-Gol: Voyna v vozduzhe [Khalkhin-Gol War in the air]. Moscow: Youth Technology.  978-5-88573-009-9.(link)

ISBN

Koshkin, Anatoliy Arkad'evich (2011). "Kantokuen" - "Barbarossa" po-Yaponski. Pochemu Yaponiya ne napala na SSSR ["Kantokuen" - "Barbarossa" in Japanese. Why Japan did not attack the USSR]. Moscow: Veche.  978-5-95335-345-8.(link)

ISBN

Khazanov, Dmitriy; Medved, Aleksander (2015). Bf 109E/F vs Yak-1/7: Eastern Front 1941–42. London: Bloomsbury.  978-1-4728-0580-5.

ISBN

Li, Peter (2002). Japanese War Crimes: The Search for Justice. Routledge.  978-0765808905.

ISBN

(2007). Thunder in the East: The Nazi-Soviet War 1941–1945. London: Hodder Arnold. ISBN 978-0-340-61392-4.

Mawdsley, Evan

Shtemenko, Sergei Matveevich (1970). The Soviet General Staff at War, 1941–1945. Moscow: Progress.  473767901.

OCLC

. Special series (United States. War Department General Staff.). Washington D.C.: War Department. 1944. OCLC 1389205. Retrieved 27 January 2022.

Soldier's Guide to the Japanese Army

. Washington, D.C.: United States Strategic Bombing Survey Overall Effects Division. 1946. OCLC 504257715. Retrieved 13 August 2017.

The Effects of Strategic Bombing on Japan's War Economy

(2007). Japanese Tanks 1939–45. Oxford: Osprey. ISBN 978-1-84603-091-8.

Zaloga, Steven J.

Zhumatiy, Vladimir Ivanovich (2006). Boevoy i chislenniy sostav Voenno-Morskogo Flota SSSR (1918–1945 gg.): statisticheskiy sbornik [Combat and Numerical Strength of the Navy of the USSR (1918–1945): Statistical Compendium]. Moscow: Military History Institute, Russian Ministry of Defense.

Zolotarev, Vladimir Antonovich; Emelin, A. S. (1996). Velikaya Otechestvennaya, STAVKA VGK Dokumenti i Materiali 1942 [Great Patriotic War, Stavka VGK Documents and Materials 1942]. Russkiy Arkhiv. Moscow: Military History Institute, Russian Ministry of Defense.  623089539.(link)

OCLC