Even if he wanted to grab as much territory in Asia as possible, he was too much focused on establishing a beachhead in Europe more so than Asia."[83]. Because the U.S. military planners assumed "that operations in this area will be opposed not only by the available organized military forces of the Empire, but also by a fanatically hostile population",[13] high casualties were thought to be inevitable, but nobody knew with certainty how high. By 1937 Japan controlled large sections of China, and war crimes against the Chinese became commonplace. War against Japan, 1945 In South East Asia, by late 1944, British and Commonwealth, US and Chinese forces had begun the reconquest of Burma (Myanmar). It was the largest Japanese campaign on land during the war comprising 500,000 troops. Instead, at the Quebec conference, the Combined Chiefs of Staff agreed that Japan should be forced to surrender not more than one year after Germany's surrender. 2,500 Army aircraft (conventional as well as suicide), together with 2,900 Naval trainers for, 2,000 Army and Navy "air superiority" fighters to escort the. Interservice rivalry over who it should be (the United States Navy wanted Nimitz, but the United States Army wanted MacArthur) was so serious that it threatened to derail planning. All of which resulted in the first atomic bomb test carried out at the Alamagordo Air Force Base, New Mexicoon 16 July 1945. 109 (8): 4647, History of Planning division, ASF. When these figures were questioned by General Marshall, MacArthur submitted a revised estimate of 105,000, in part by deducting wounded men able to return to duty. The first firebombing attack was on Wuhan, the Imperial Japanese Army headquarters in China, on 18 December 1944. 11 World War II in Eastern Europe, 1942-1945. The Soviets had arrived to train on the first of 149 vessels the U.S. Navy was transferring to the Soviet . Emperor Hirohito, in a meeting with his Imperial Council, stated that he wished to surrender as long as the role of the emperor was not compromised. On July 26, the leaders of the US, Britain and China issued the Potsdam Declaration, demanding unconditional Japanese surrender and vowing "prompt and utter destruction" if Japan refused.
Invasion of Manchuria | Harry S. Truman Before 1944, the Japanese continued to plan for an aggressive attack against the Chinese and Soviets to advance their territorial goals in the Far East. At Kysh, because of the more favorable circumstances (such as terrain that would reduce the Allies' radar advantage, and the impressment of wood and fabric airframe training aircraft into the kamikaze role which would have been difficult for Allied radar systems of the time to detect and track), they hoped to raise that to one for six by overwhelming the US defenses with large numbers of kamikaze attacks within a period of hours. Close to 66,000 people were killed. However, the Battle of Okinawa went on for so long that they concluded the Allies would not be able to launch another operation before the typhoon season, during which the weather would be too risky for amphibious operations. "[87] This assessment included neither casualties suffered after the 90-day mark (US planners envisioned switching to the tactical defensive by X+120[88] ), nor personnel losses at sea from Japanese air attacks. In addition, the Japanese had organized the Volunteer Fighting Corps, which included all healthy men aged 15 to 60 and women 17 to 40 for a total of 28 million people, for combat support and, later, combat jobs. According to this analysis, the real reason for Japan's surrender was the Soviet invasion of Japanese-controlled Manchuria on 9 August 1945, mere hours before the Nagasaki bombing. In the Allied party were Generals Percival and Wainwright who had surrendered to the Japanese in 1942 at Singapore and in the Philippines respectively. Pastel was designed to convince the Japanese that the Joint Chiefs had rejected the notion of a direct invasion and instead were going to attempt to encircle and bombard Japan. [44][45], The two defensive options against amphibious invasion are strong defense of the beaches and defense in depth. You must aim for the abdomen. "[51] They were expected to serve as a "second defense line" during the Allied invasion, and to conduct guerrilla warfare in urban areas and mountains. The defending forces of 77,000 troops (and 20,000 Okinawan militia) largely hid in the caves during the bombardment which withstood all but a direct hit to the entrance, with the resulting raising of Japanese morale. ", "Are New Purple Hearts Being Manufactured to Meet the Demand? [3] Britain and Decolonisation in South East and South Asia, 1945-1948. [85] This likewise excludes wounded who would be treated in-theater during an initial window of 30 days, later to be expanded to 120 days. Airbases would be established, which would give cover for Operation Coronet, the attack on Tokyo Bay. During World War II, the Japanese had a naval base at Paramushiro in the Kuril Islands and several bases in Hokkaido. It had already been decided that Germany would . Background Fourteen U.S. divisions and a "division-equivalent" (two regimental combat teams)[14] were scheduled to take part in the initial landings. [54] By the time the war ended, the Japanese actually possessed some 12,700 aircraft in the Home Islands, roughly half kamikazes. They achieved complete surprise, outgunning and outflanking the defending Japanese Kwantung Army of 713,000 troops, commanded by General Otozo Yamada. The Japanese planned to commit the entire population of Japan to resisting the invasion, and from June 1945 onward, a propaganda campaign calling for "The Glorious Death of One Hundred Million" commenced. [40] Accordingly, Marshall and United States Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox concluded the Americans would have to invade Japan to end the war, regardless of casualties.[40]. [69], In addition to use against people, the U.S. military considered chemical attacks to kill crops in an attempt to starve the Japanese into submission. If a clock were drawn on a map of Kysh, these points would roughly correspond to 4, 5, and 7 o'clock, respectively. Operation Downfall was the proposed Allied plan for the invasion of the Japanese home islands near the end of World War II. Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The ensuing Operation Downfall envisaged two main assaults Operation Olympic on Kyushu, planned for early November and Operation Coronet, the invasion of Honshu in March 1946.
Why America shouldn't have nuked Japan - Asia Times In the initial stage, the First Army would have invaded at Kujkuri Beach, on the Bs Peninsula, while the Eighth Army invaded at Hiratsuka, on Sagami Bay; these armies would have comprised 25 divisions between them.
These were the Army plans to conquer Japan - We Are The Mighty "[72] An air burst 1,8002,000ft (550610m) above the ground had been chosen for the (Hiroshima) bomb to achieve maximum blast effects, and to minimize residual radiation on the ground, as it was hoped that American troops would soon occupy the city. Depending on the degree to which Japanese civilians would have resisted the invasion, estimates ran up into the millions for Allied casualties. These flamethrowers were used to drive Japanese defenders from their caves and pillboxes. As set out in prior parts of the series, communications intelligence revealed the massive Japanese build up on southern Kyushu, the planned target for an initial invasion of Japan in November 1945 (Operation OLYMPIC.) Yet the conflict did not end on this day, particularly in Asia. As the war raged, the leaders of the Allies met several times to direct the course of the fighting and to begin planning for the postwar world. Over 14 million Chinese died during the war, of which 2 million were battlefield casualties. A destroyed hotel in Kyiv after a . [1] In 1941, Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union, formerly a partner. When the Western Allies began planning for the invasion of Japan's home islands, they asked for Soviet assistance to keep the large Kwantung army in Manchuria tied down so the troops could. [95] Of these estimates, only Nimitz's included losses of the forces at sea, though kamikazes had inflicted 1.78 fatalities and a similar number of wounded per kamikaze pilot in the Battle of Okinawa,[96] and troop transports off Kysh would have been much more exposed. Weapons, training and uniforms were generally lacking: many were armed with nothing better than antiquated firearms, molotov cocktails, longbows, swords, knives, bamboo or wooden spears, and even clubs and truncheons: they were expected to make do with what they had. These ranged from 0.42 dead and missing and 2.16 total casualties per 1000 men per day under the "European Experience" to 1.95 dead and missing and 7.45 total casualties per 1000 men per day under the "Pacific Experience. [26][27] He also recommended that the corps be organized along the lines of a U.S. corps, should use only U.S. equipment and logistics, and should train in the U.S. for six months before deployment; these suggestions were accepted.
Proposed Soviet invasion of Hokkaido | Military Wiki | Fandom Japan's rejection of the demand led to final order to proceed with atomic bombing. [citation needed], In March 1945, there was only one combat division in Kysh. Japan and the Soviet Union formally made peace four years later, when they signed the Soviet-Japanese Joint Declaration of 1956. The invasion was not intended to conquer the entire island, just the southernmost third of it, as indicated by the dashed line on the map labeled "general limit of northern advance". The Allies decided to launch a two-stage invasion. In China, Operation Ichigo started in April 1944. The provinces of Henan, Hunan and Guangxi were taken and by October 1944 Sichan was the last large province still held by the Chinese Nationalists.
Operation Downfall - Wikipedia ", Henry L. Stimson, "The Decision to use the Atomic Bomb" p. 11, "Okinawa: The Final Great Battle of World War II", "The Final Months of the War with Japan. A number of surrender ceremonies took place across South East and East Asia culminating on 2 September when the formal instrument of surrender was signed by Allied and Japanese representatives on the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. A study done for Stimson's staff by William Shockley estimated that invading Japan would cost 1.74 million American casualties, including 400,000800,000 fatalities, and five to ten million Japanese fatalities. It referred instead to the Japanese foreign office's attempt (under the suspicious eyes of the military) to persuade the Soviet Union to broker a negotiated peace that would have permitted the. The Japanese High Command instigated a massive defence plan, Ketsu Go (Operation Decisive) beginning with Kyushu that would eventually amount to almost 3 million men with the aim of breaking American morale by ferocious defence. Estimated troop strength in early July was 350,000,[59] rising to 545,000 in early August. [5], The Pacific War was not under a single Allied commander-in-chief (C-in-C). Victory over JapanDay marked the end of the Second World War in August 1945. [89] If not checked, this threatened "to grow to [the] point where we attack on a ratio of one (1) to one (1) which is not the recipe for victory. [33], While Japan no longer had a realistic prospect of winning the war, Japan's leaders believed they could make the cost of invading and occupying the Home Islands too high for the Allies to accept, which would lead to some sort of armistice rather than total defeat. Proceedings. IWM collections. [47], The Japanese did not formally decide to stake everything on the outcome of the Battle of Kysh, but they concentrated their assets to such a degree that there would be little left in reserve. Zaloga, Steven (2011).
America Had Plans to Help Russia Invade Japan During World War II During the Soviet-Japanese War in August 1945, the Soviet Union made plans to invade Hokkaido, the northernmost of Japan's four main Home Islands. Once the atomic bomb became available, General Marshall envisioned using it to support the invasion if sufficient numbers could be produced in time. The Americans lost 36 ships. More than 10,000 aircraft were ready for use in July (with more by October), as well as hundreds of newly built small suicide boats to attack Allied ships offshore. In Hell To Pay, military historian D.M. Japan holds the G-7 presidency this year, and Kyodo News reported last week that such a step is being . their plan for an all-out ground invasion of Japan. Admiral Chester Nimitz agreed with MacArthur. The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 brought an end to the Second World War, but at a terrible cost to the Japanese civilian population, and signalling the dawn of the nuclear age. One compound designated LN-8 performed best in tests and went into mass production. Beach Organization for Operation against Kyushu; from COMPHIBSPAC OP Plan A11-45, August 10, 1945. 9 Aug 1945 - 2 Sep 1945.
Japan's Plan | American Experience | Official Site | PBS The Soviet invasion of Manchuria and other Japanese colonies began at midnight on August 8, sandwiched between the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It consisted of more than 120,000 people working on 37 different sites across 19 states in the US and in Canada, at a cost of more than $2 billion. The US had successfully tested the first atomic bomb in New Mexico 10 days earlier.
Osprey Publishing. [39] However, General George Marshall argued that forcing surrender this way might take several years, if ever. In 2003, there were still 120,000 of these Purple Heart medals in stock.
Macron slams Chinese ambassador to France for remarks on ex-Soviet states [19] Coronet would have been even larger than Olympic, with up to 45 U.S. divisions assigned for both the initial landing and follow-up. [86][pageneeded], In evaluating these estimates, especially those based on projected Japanese troop strength (such as General MacArthur's), it is important to consider what was known about the state of Japanese defenses at the time, as well as the actual condition of those defenses (MacArthur's staff believed Japanese manpower on Kyushu to be roughly 300,000). Kamikaze: Japanese Special Attack Weapons 194445. The Army began experimenting with compounds to destroy crops in April 1944, and within one year had narrowed over 1,000 agents to nine promising ones containing phenoxyacetic acids. [71], Ken Nichols, the District Engineer of the Manhattan Engineer District, wrote that at the beginning of August 1945, "[p]lanning for the invasion of the main Japanese home islands had reached its final stages, and if the landings actually took place, we might supply about fifteen atomic bombs to support the troops.
Why Was the Decision Made to Use the Atomic Bomb on Japan? - ThoughtCo [55] Ketsu plans for Kyushu envisioned committing nearly 9,000 aircraft according to the following sequence:[56], The Japanese planned to commit the majority of their air forces to action within 10 days after the Allied fleet's arrival off Kysh. The Japanese would have lost at least 12 million men killed, due to the enormous losses fighting, from the nuclear bomb, and the mass of Kamikaze attacks. The Fifth Air Fleet was assigned the task of kamikaze attacks against ships involved in the invasion of Okinawa, Operation Ten-Go, and began training pilots and assembling aircraft for the defense of Kysh, the first invasion target.
Ukraine war dashes hopes of elderly Japanese on returning to Kuril . Stalin had agreed to enter the war against Japan at the Teheran Conference in 1943. In planning for Operation Ketsugo, IGHQ overestimated the strength of the invading forces: while the Allied invasion plan called for fewer than 70 divisions, the Japanese expected up to 90.[37]. Historians and the public continue to debate if the bombings were justified, the causes of Japan's surrender, the casualties that would have resulted if the U.S. had invaded Japan, and more. Kysh was to be invaded by the Sixth United States Army at three points: Miyazaki, Ariake, and Kushikino. The capital Rangoon was retaken in May 1945. In 1944, early planning proposed a force of 5001,000 aircraft, including units dedicated to aerial refueling.
Stalin's War on Japan - Army University Press On Dec. 7, 1941, Japan staged an attack on Pearl Harbor, severely damaging the U.S. Pacific Fleet. The G-7 consists of the United States, Japan, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Canada. The Japanese estimated that the planes would sink more than 400 ships; since they were training the pilots to target transports rather than carriers and destroyers, the casualties would be disproportionately greater than at Okinawa.
At U.S. behest, Ukraine held off anniversary attacks on Russia Kyle Palmer, war correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, said half a million to a million Americans would die by the end of the war. [43], The Navy trained a unit of frogmen to serve as suicide bombers, the Fukuryu. [66] While large quantities of gas munitions were manufactured and plans were drawn, it is unlikely they would have been used.
Russia switching to defensive positions in all areas of combat except [6], The primary considerations that the planners had to deal with were time and casualtieshow they could force Japan's surrender as quickly as possible with as few Allied casualties as possible.
Project Hula: How Russia Planned to Invade Japan (With - 19FortyFive [41] However, the IJN lacked enough fuel for further sorties by its capital ships, planning instead to use their anti-aircraft firepower to defend naval installations while docked in port. Following the surrender and demobilization of Japan, vast amounts of war matriel were turned over to the US occupation forces in the Japanese Home Islands and South Korea. They proposed operations to capture airbases in nearby Shanghai, China, and Korea, which would give the United States Army Air Forces a series of forward airbases from which to bombard Japan into submission. By the time the war ended, the Army was still trying to determine the optimal dispersal height to cover a wide enough area. Japanese intelligence predicted fairly closely where the invasion would take place: southern Kysh at Miyazaki, Ariake Bay and/or the Satsuma Peninsula. Invasion Planning, and the A-Bomb Decision", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Operation_Downfall&oldid=1152535827, "That operations in this area will be opposed not only by the available organized military forces of the Empire, but also by a fanatically hostile population. 5:03 a.m.
A U.S. Invasion of Japan Would Have Left Maybe Millions Dead These would have included spearheads of the war in Europe such as the US First Army (15 divisions) and the Eighth Air Force. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, was the impetus for the United States' entrance into World War II.
Operation Barbarossa: Date & Significance - HISTORY The rise in . Yalta Conference, (February 4-11, 1945), major World War II conference of the three chief Allied leadersPres. [15], Tactical air support was to be the responsibility of the Fifth, Seventh, and Thirteenth Air Forces. [24] This was rejected by U.S. commanders and even the initial plans for Coronet, according to U.S. historian John Ray Skates, did not envisage that units from Commonwealth or other Allied armies would be landed on the Kant Plain in 1946. Through April, May, and June, Allied intelligence followed the buildup of Japanese ground forces, including five divisions added to Kysh, with great interest, but also some complacency, still projecting that in November the total for Kysh would be about 350,000 servicemen. Casualty predictions varied widely, but were extremely high. President Truman authorized the use of the atom bombs in an effort to bring about Japan's surrender in the Second World War. [67], Although chemical warfare had been outlawed by the Geneva Protocol, neither the United States nor Japan was a signatory at the time. This raid burned 15.8 square miles of Tokyo, killing almost 100,000 Japanese. They hoped that at least 15 to 20% (or even up to a half) of the US transport ships would be destroyed before disembarkation. With the defeat of Germany and Japan, their plans were put into action. Answer (1 of 4): When Stalin agreed to join the war against Japan, he presented the US with a considerable wish list of Lend-Lease materials. Further blockade and urban destruction would have produced a surrender in August or September at the latest, without the need for the costly anticipated invasion or the atomic bomb. [citation needed], While the geography of Japan was known, the U.S. military planners had to estimate the defending forces that they would face. While decolonisation across South and South East Asia seemed inevitable, the territory of the British Empire was at its apogee in 1945 and the journey to independence for countries in this region was not simple. War with Japan. This also includes Soviet losses from the planned Soviet invasion of Hokkaido.
Russia planned to attack Japan in 2021 according to leaked FSB letters Harry Truman's Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb - National Park Service However dismantling the Japanese defence, built on taking one cave at a time, resulted in almost 8,000 American deaths. Nimitz planned a pre-invasion feint, sending a fleet to the invasion beaches a couple of weeks before the real invasion, to lure out the Japanese on their one-way flights, who would then find ships bristling with anti-aircraft guns instead of the valuable, vulnerable transports. The main attack was carried out by the Fourteenth Army, comprising 340,000 Indian troops, 100,000 British and 80,000 African soldiers, which defeated the Japanese defending forces in central Burma. [103] 149,425 Okinawans were killed, committed suicide, or went missing, which was one-half of the estimated pre-war local population of 300,000.
Invasion of South Sakhalin | Military Wiki | Fandom On June 22, 1941, more than 3 million German and Axis troops invaded the Soviet Union along an 1,800-mile-long front, launching Operation Barbarossa. Later at Peleliu, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa, they switched strategies and dug in their forces in the most defensible terrain. If Downfall had taken place, it would have been the largest amphibious operation in history, surpassing D-Day. Kyushu 900,000 Initially, they were concerned about an invasion during the summer of 1945. In 1939, the armies of Japan and the Soviet Union clashed . The Soviet Union declared war on Japan and invaded Japanese-held Manchuria on the night of August 8. The Americans considered Okinawa a dress rehearsal for the invasion of the Japanese home islands, for which the United States was finalizing a two-stage plan. The well-established Japanese garrison had 8,500 troops and fielded about 77 tanks. The planned operation was canceled when Japan surrendered following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Soviet declaration of war, and the invasion of Manchuria. What had led to the fateful decision to deploy these new weapons of mass destruction? 13 . Stavros Atlamazoglou. Initially, US planners also did not plan to use any non-US Allied ground forces in Operation Downfall.
Was the invasion of Okinawa even necessary? - Axis & Allies .org At 11 pm Trans-Baikal time on 8 August 1945, Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov informed Japanese ambassador . That fleet's secret mission: to transport the Red Army for an invasion of Japan . This involved adding more fighter squadrons to the carriers in place of torpedo and dive bombers, and converting B-17s into airborne radar pickets in a manner similar to present-day AWACS. [58], Allied counter-kamikaze preparations were known as the Big Blue Blanket.
Leaked documents reveal Russia's plan to invade Japan Allied invasion planners in the Pacific were unaware that the Soviets were planning to keep that promise with an invasion of Hokkaido. Japanese military directives ordered the execution of all POWs being held if Japan was ever invaded. The Soviets planned an invasion of Hokkaido in August 1945 At the Yalta Conference, Franklin Roosevelt secured a promise from Stalin to invade Japan, which was reiterated to Truman during the Potsdam Conference. Colonel Lyle E. Seeman reported that at least seven Fat Man-type plutonium implosion bombs would be available by X-Day, which could be dropped on defending forces. Widespread chemical warfare was considered against Japan's population[65] and food crops. The first phase, code-named Olympic , was scheduled for late October 1945, with a landing on Kyushu, defended by an estimated 350,000 Japanese troops backed by at least 1,000 kamikaze planes. Set to begin in November 1945, Operation Olympic was intended to capture the southern third of the southernmost main Japanese island, Kysh, with the recently captured island of Okinawa to be used as a staging area.
Soviet Invasion of Manchuria: Finishing the Japanese Army Figures for Coronet exclude values for both the immediate strategic reserve of 3 divisions as well as the 17 division strategic reserve in the U.S. and any British/Commonwealth forces. p. 43. The battle lasted one day, with minor combat actions going on for four more after the official surrender of Japan and the garrison, during which the attacking Soviet forces lost over 516 troops and five of the 16 landing ships (many of these formerly belonged to the US Navy and were later given to the Soviet Union) to Japanese coastal artillery, and the Japanese lost over 256 troops. They and their soldiers had endured three years of harsh captivity. Thankfully, Japan surrendered, unconditionally on Aug 15, 1945, some 77 days before the invasion was set to take place.