In 1945, after the Soviet Union declared war on Japan, the United States bombed Japan at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, severely weakening the Japanese Empire. The Soviet Red Army entered Japanese-Korea and captured Pyongyang with little difficulty. They made Kim Il Sung the leader of the North Korean branch of the Korean Communist Party and supplied him with modern Soviet tanks, trucks, arms and artillery for the Korean People's Army (KPA). The Democratic People's Republic of Korea was declared on September 8, 1948 despite UN resistance. Soviet leader Joseph Stalin installed Kim as leader of the new state. The southern portion of the Korean Peninsula declared itself the Republic of Korea (South Korea) in retaliation. Statues of Kim appeared in North Korea as early as 1949.