Prolonged for more than 70 years, the territorial dispute over the ownership of the southern Kuril Islands partly provoked Washington's policy during the Second World War. This was pointed out by the American expert on security and military history Sebastian Roblin. According to him, without the assistance of the US, the Soviet army could not defeat the remnants of the Japanese army in 1945. and capture Sakhalin and the Kurils. In an article for The National Interest, the expert recounted the historical events that predetermined the unhappy ending of the military conflict for Japan. In the spring of 1945. Moscow and Tokyo officially were in peaceful relations. After in 1939 g. Soviet tanks and Mongolian cavalry defeated the Japanese forces at Khalkhin-Gol, the two countries concluded a pact on neutrality. But US President Franklin Roosevelt decided that the Americans alone could not cope with the invasion of Japan and asked the USSR to support. In response, Joseph Stalin promised to send Soviet troops to the Far Eastern theater of military operations three months after the fall of the Third Reich. He also demanded that the fleet. The Soviet naval forces did not have as many opportunities for landing as they did in the Western allies. Soviet ships were technologically backward, and in addition, they were deployed in the Atlantic direction, where the struggle against the Nazi troops continued,.

So the Americans did not just have to provide ships, but also to train Soviet sailors to manage them. In April 1945. 2300 sailors of the USSR Navy were transferred to a military base in Alaska. There they were trained and learned how to manage the ships that the Americans handed over to the Soviets. In total, Washington handed over to Moscow 180 ships: large amphibious ships, patrol frigates, minesweepers, cutters for fighting submarines and spare wooden torpedo boats, as well as four floating stations for the repair of damaged ships.

On these ships, the Soviet sailors were subsequently secretly brought to the Japanese shores to participate in the invasion. Learning interfered with the language barrier. Moreover, it was difficult for the US military to explain to Soviet soldiers how to work with radars, since they had no idea about the existence of such a technology,. Nevertheless, by May 17, the training of personnel was completed. Three months after the surrender of Nazi Germany, Soviet troops opposed the Kwantung Army of Japan in Manchuria. On August 11, Soviet ground forces, with the support of American ships, began an invasion of southern Sakhalin, which at that time belonged to Japan.

In just four days, the Japanese capitulated, and Soviet troops easily captured the ports on Sakhalin. Further, in the course of fierce battles, during which the Japanese exerted insane resistance, the Kuril Islands were also captured.

After the Japanese garrison finally carried out the order for surrender, the Soviet navy began to ensure the security of the islands of the Kuril chain. Four months later, the US Navy demanded the return of ships temporarily loaned to the USSR. But 27 patrol frigates were returned only in 1949. , and 15 of the 25 remaining afloat amphibious ships of the USSR held until 1955. By that time, they had come to such a bad state that the Americans refused to spend money even for their disposal. As a result, the ships were flooded or sold for scrap.