Japan rebuild Kwantung Army

[Permanganate]

Not true. Manchurchia to a great deal is mountainous not FLAT.

AFAIK, overall, it's not as hilly as Korea, it's just that it has worse infrastructure than Korea. Korea also has a much better supply situation from the Japanese POV.

In the 1937-38 conflit the Japanese were able to stop the Russian flat.

True, but they were already showing serious weaknesses in doctrine and equipment by that time, and they were outclassed by 1941, never mind by 1945. I'd be amazed if Japan managed to hold northern Manchuria in a 1940s war without the USSR being distracted somewhere else (like by Barbarossa).

 

[chris N]

It is true that if the Kwantung army remained as it was in OTL then it is highly likely that the soviets would once again crush it. However, If the changes that I have proposed were implimented then I believe that it might very well stand a good chance of checking any soviet invasion. Let me recap. The Japanese build factories in Manchuria giving it the capacity to produce weapons and equipment for the Japanese army and Army Air force in China, they produce the late war weapons at a much earlier date, they build the proposed heavier medium tank armed with an 88mm gun and rebuild the Kwantung army. During the period from 1941 to 1945 improvements are made to border defences with the construction of improved fortifications and bunkers. Thus in 1945 the Kwantung Army is both far larger than was the case in OTL but also much better equipped. This is the army that would fight the Soviet August 1945 invasion!