So in a typical scenario regarding Operation Downfall, the atomic bomb is either not invented or is not ready in time to be dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. As a result, the Allies (the US, the UK and it's Commonwealth and France) launch a land invasion of Japan.
One element that's always been debated about Operation Downfall is the Soviets. It is always hypothesized that after the Soviets were finished conquering China and the Korean Peninsula, their next target would be the island of Hokkaido, the northernmost island in the Japanese archipelago, from which they would work their way down and race the Western Allies to Tokyo, similar to how in Europe, they had a race to Berlin.
But, here's my question. Was a Soviet invasion of Northern Japan even feasible? From what I have heard, the Soviets had a substantially weak navy and would've been unable to pull off the invasion, but some alternate historians have suggested otherwise.
One element that's always been debated about Operation Downfall is the Soviets. It is always hypothesized that after the Soviets were finished conquering China and the Korean Peninsula, their next target would be the island of Hokkaido, the northernmost island in the Japanese archipelago, from which they would work their way down and race the Western Allies to Tokyo, similar to how in Europe, they had a race to Berlin.
But, here's my question. Was a Soviet invasion of Northern Japan even feasible? From what I have heard, the Soviets had a substantially weak navy and would've been unable to pull off the invasion, but some alternate historians have suggested otherwise.