Japanese resistance to Soviet landings in the Kuril Islands

Could Japan have prevented Soviet forces from taking the Kuril Islands in 1945?

Probably, because any substantial Japanese force in the islands would have put the Soviet assault in trouble.

Japan probably could have prevented the Soviet seizure if a substantial force arrived to contest the operation. The claim concerns the vulnerability of the Soviet landing force rather than an unlimited Japanese ability to defend the island chain. The campaign was a difficult amphibious operation whose outcome depended on the local balance at the landing sites. A meaningful Japanese presence in the Kurils could therefore have put the assault in serious trouble.