The Yalta Conference gave the Soviet Union the right to invade the southern Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands , but not the Japanese home islands . According to Thomas B. Allen and Norman Polmar , detailed Soviet plans for the Far East invasions had been carefully drawn up , except that the landing for Hokkaido " existed in detail " only in Stalin 's mind and that it was " unlikely that Stalin had interests in taking Manchuria and even taking on Hokkaido . Even if he wanted to grab as much territory in Asia as possible , he was too much focused on establishing a blockhead in Europe compared to Asia . " Two days before Japan 's surrender on August 15 , 1945 , Commissar Nikita Khrushchev and Marshal Meretskov suggested that they should invade Hokkaido , but majority of Soviet diplomats and officers , including Vyacheslav Molotov and Georgy Zhukov opposed it on the grounds that they still did n't have enough landing craft and equipment needed for the invasion ; thus , if they tried anyway , it would dangerously expose their troops to a fierce Japanese defense , and that it would violate the Yalta agreement with the Western Allies , which forbade the Soviets from invading the Japanese home islands
Yalta Conference
Yalta Conference
Project Hula