Lunatic,
Doubts are allowed, of course. Sorge did not made the decision, that has to be underlined. He was, however, not the only person to take influence on the political decision, the japanese made in 1941. Yamamoto for example warned that a war against the US would be a very risky one. Documentations about Sorge are hard to get. (the soviets did not acknowledge him prior to 1964)I had acces to some russian documents which simply proof that he was member of NKVD (1933-34 first try to establish an information collective network in Japan), convinced communist (his uncle was secretary of Karl Marx!), member of the Nazi party (he worked for the german Embassy in Japan as an agent of the Abwehr (counterspy-that allowed him to double check all informations) However he did, but he managed to work with Ozaki Hozumi, who closely worked together with the japanese prime minister Fumimaro Konoye. I had a talk with the wife of the japanese ambassador in Berlin, Mrs. Aiko Takashima on january 24th. Dr. Sorge is well known to her. She told me, that he was even "familar" to the emperor himself. Whether his influence was remains unknown, he turned to be active and tried to influence others and he voted not to atack Russia. Tensions have been to both nations, the US as well as Russia. He did influence the prime minister via Ozaki (and by himself) . According to www. japan-101.com\history\richard_sorge.htm he also warned for the Pearl Harbour Attack, but no documents are delivered on that Site to proof it. I doubt that he knew much about that. He was suspiscious and some messages were intercepted by japanes secret service in middle 1941. Ozaki was arrested on October 14 and Sorge 4 days later. even the day of his death is not clear in all sources, some indicate it was late in 1943 others he was hanged in october 1944. To say the japanese were simply fearful of a land war against russia is only partly correct. Every nation, including the US is fearful to fight a prolonged land war against Russia, I agree. With the difficulties the russians faced at the early campaigns (Smolensk, Kiev) in mind, it would have been a different matter. Japanese military remained strong in the Manchurian until the russian attacked them in 1945 with numerical overwhelming and experienced forces. In 1941 the Manchurian Army was more a thread to the russians. (..resulting in an military build up along the border until the german attacked russia..) It would have been logical to attack russia instead of the US or not? The german ambassador in Japan was actually surprised that it did not happen. Who knows about Dr. Sorge in detail? I am no wizard. But even if his actions had no significant impact on the political decision regarding whether to atack the US or not (we simply don´t know all details), it remains that his informations allowed Zhukov to deploy needed forces to hold Moscow (both, numerical, experienced and -what seems to be more important- with good troop morale) and to counteratack in the winter. That happens to a dangerous time (for the soviets, when the Stalin tried via the rumanien ambassador to make peace with Hitler, he was even willing to sacrifice Belorussia for that!).