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Re: What if Japan....?
The scenario you alude to was in fact a prime concern of Stalin's and the Soviet High Command. Japan and Russia had fought a brief, but savage, battle in 1939 known as the Nomonham Incident. Even after June 1941 Russia continued to hold valuable troops in the South in case Japan took the opportunity to attack Russia. Only after Japan struck south against the British, Dutch and American colonial powers did the Soviet High Command breath a sigh of relief.
The Japanese Army also saw Russia as the main enemy, and several plans existed for the invasion of Russia. It was only in early 1941 that the Japanese High Command finally settled on striking south against the Western powers that Army planners changed their focus.
Had Japan struck north into Russia, from both Manchuria and Japan itself, instead of south against the Colonial powers, a whole different ending of WWII may have come about.
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