On September 1, Hitler's Panzer Division invaded Poland and, a few days later, the victorious Russian armored vehicles from Khalkhin-Gol resumed the Trans-Siberian in the direction of the new Soviet-Polish border... as a simple precaution.
Hirohito faced much more than the shock of a military disaster. The non-aggression pact surprised no one more than the Japanese, to whom it seemed like an incredible breach of the word given. The Prime Minister, overwhelmed with shame, tendered his resignation.
And the mikado would have felt even greater surprise and disappointment if he had heard the contemptuous remarks made by Hitler to his generals a few days earlier:"...This Emperor of Japan...he is a weakling, a coward, an irresolute... We are of the race of lords. These people are just polite half-monkeys. They really need to feel the Knout! In Hitler's eyes, the Japanese defeat was no surprise.
But if the Khalkhin-Gol affair did not undermine his faith in the success of an invasion of Russia by his troops, the Japanese did not share his confidence.
Hirohito was thus abandoned of his allies. However, the outcome of the case was not entirely negative. In the Imperial Army, the Northward Push faction was definitely discredited. The Kwangtung army asked permission to launch a new offensive, to save face, but this time the emperor opposed an unshakable veto. In Moscow, the diplomats took over and it was a new return to the status quo.
A ceasefire was signed on September 15, followed, in April 1941, by the Russian-Japanese non-aggression pact. Far Eastern Russia was thus protected from Japanese imperialist designs and, throughout the Second World War, American ships were able to navigate quietly under the Soviet flag from the west coast of the United States to Vladivostok. Japan was going to strike south.