By far the most extensive, protracted, and abusive treatment of surrendered forces came at the hands of the Soviets, who entered the war on August 8, one week before the emperor’s broadcast, and accepted the Japanese surrender in Manchuria and northern Korea. American and Japanese authorities estimated that between 1.6 and 1.7 million Japanese fell into Soviet hands, and it soon became clear that many were being used to help offset the great manpower losses the Soviet Union had experienced in the war as well as through the Stalinist purges.
