[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. 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 the last days of World War II, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan, as Stalin secretly agreed at . 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. This page was last edited on 30 April 2023, at 20:51. The battle resulted in 72,000 US casualties in 82 days, of whom 12,510 were killed or missing (this figure excludes the several thousand US soldiers who died after the battle indirectly, from their wounds). 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. However, as reported Japanese strength in the Home Islands continued to climb and Japanese military performance increased, so too did the casualty estimates. 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. These flamethrowers were used to drive Japanese defenders from their caves and pillboxes. Japan holds the G-7 presidency this year, and Kyodo News reported last week that such a step is being . 6 part 1. The rise in . "[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. For the failed Mongol invasion attempts, see, "Soviet invasion of Japan" redirects here. The transferred vessels included amphibious assault ships. Soviet declaration of war. Over the next four months, the Imperial Japanese Army transferred forces from Manchuria, Korea, and northern Japan, while raising other forces in place. [25] Following negotiations, it was decided that Coronet would include a joint Commonwealth Corps, made up of infantry divisions from the Australian, British and Canadian armies. Manchurian Strategic Offensive. 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. In the Allied party were Generals Percival and Wainwright who had surrendered to the Japanese in 1942 at Singapore and in the Philippines respectively. Ultimately, the Navy partially conceded, and MacArthur was to be given total command of all forces if circumstances made it necessary. President Harry Truman received news of itwhilst at the Potsdam Conference. [citation needed]. It was followed by a second bomb on 9 August on Nagasaki. An hour later, the Soviets began their advance simultaneously on three fronts: to the east, west, and north of Manchuria. With the apparent rejection of the Potsdam Declaration, Truman and his advisers went ahead with the atomic attack on the Japanese mainland. 12 The Eastern Front: The German War against the Soviet Union. As to the movement of ground forces I do not credit the heavy strengths reported to you in southern Kyushu. They were to be armed with contact-fuzed mines, and to dive under landing craft and blow them up. [102] [28] However, the Australian government questioned the appointment of an officer with no experience in fighting the Japanese, such as Keightley and suggested that Lieutenant General Leslie Morshead, an Australian who had been carrying out the New Guinea and Borneo campaigns, should be appointed. This implied a total of 70,000 American casualties in the battle of Kyushu using the June projection of 350,000 Japanese defenders. Soviet soldiers in front of Harbin railway station. [68], Fear of Japanese retaliation [to chemical weapon use] lessened because by the end of the war Japan's ability to deliver gas by air or long-range guns had all but disappeared. 330 Navy bombers flown by highly trained pilots to attack the Allied carrier task force to prevent it from supporting the invasion convoys. So fearful were the Japanese leaders that they planned to ignore isolated tactical use of gas in the home islands by the US forces because they feared escalation. [36] The Japanese were secretly constructing an underground headquarters in Matsushiro, Nagano Prefecture, to shelter the Emperor and the Imperial General Staff during an invasion. Mutual support was essential in defence and attack by either side. Soviet-Japanese War 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. The Japanese plan for defeating the invasion was called Operation Ketsug (, ketsug sakusen) ("Operation Codename Decisive"). Yalta Conference, (February 4-11, 1945), major World War II conference of the three chief Allied leadersPres. They also considered skipping the preliminary invasion and going directly at Tokyo. The task of strategic bombing fell on the United States Strategic Air Forces in the Pacific (USASTAF)a formation which comprised the Eighth and Twentieth air forces, as well as the British Tiger Force. Allied grave registration forces counted 110,071 dead bodies of Japanese soldiers, but this included conscripted Okinawans wearing Japanese uniforms. About 39,000 were killed. [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. ", 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. Surprise resort trips and empty hotel rooms reveal how Russia's plan for an easy victory in Ukraine fell apart. . Japans surrender in Manchuria. In the Battle of Shumshu (1823 August 1945), the Soviet Red Army had 8,821 troops that were not supported by tanks and without back-up from larger warships. 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. More than seventy years after the end of World War II, the decision to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki remains controversial. [42] Unlike the larger ships, these, together with the destroyers and fleet submarines, were expected to see extensive action defending the shores, with a view to destroying about 60 Allied transports. It should be noted that this invasion occurred 2 days after the United States atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Why were Atomic Bombs Dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki? [34] The main message of "The Glorious Death of One Hundred Million" campaign was that it was "glorious to die for the holy emperor of Japan, and every Japanese man, woman, and child should die for the Emperor when the Allies arrived". 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. Up to 2,000 kamikaze planes launched attacks during the Battle of Okinawa, achieving approximately one hit per nine attacks. 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. Despite the shattering damage it had absorbed by this stage of the war, the Imperial Japanese Navy, by then organized under the Navy General Command, was determined to inflict as much damage on the Allies as possible. This article appears in: . On 8 May 1945, the Allies celebrated VE Day, marking the end of the war in Europe. Victory over JapanDay marked the end of the Second World War in August 1945. General Douglas MacArthur dismissed any need to change his plans: I am certain that the Japanese air potential reported to you as accumulating to counter our OLYMPIC operation is greatly exaggerated. The same day, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki. Yet the conflict did not end on this day, particularly in Asia. The United States detonated two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, killing 210,000 peoplechildren, women, and men. Casualty predictions varied widely, but were extremely high. Opposition from the United States and doubts within the Soviet high command caused the plans to be cancelled before the invasion could begin. (1983). On 29 July, MacArthur's intelligence chief, Major General Charles A. Willoughby, was the first to note that the April estimate allowed for the Japanese capability to deploy six divisions on Kyushu, with the potential to deploy ten. [90] On the other hand, no agreement envisaged Soviet participation in the invasion of Japan itself. [43], The Navy trained a unit of frogmen to serve as suicide bombers, the Fukuryu. Background On 8 August the Soviet Union entered the war against Japan at midnight. You must aim for the abdomen. The operation for the occupation of Japan following the landing may be a very long, costly and arduous struggle on our part. 372-374, 391, atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, United States Strategic Air Forces in the Pacific, debate over the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, U.S. Army, Sixth Army Field Order 74, 28 July 1945, Staff Study Operations "Coronet" 15 August 1945, Combined Arms Research Laboratory: Downfall, "USSBS Report 62, Military Analysis Division, Japanese Air Power | PDF p. 25", "Okinawa, Harry Truman, and the Atomic Bomb", "By any means necessary: the United States and Japan", "World War II plan to poison Japanese crops revealed", "America Nearly Attacked Japan With Chemical Weapons in 1945", "Did Hiroshima Save Japan From Soviet Occupation? The Japanese defense relied heavily on kamikaze planes. It was Germany's largest invasion force. However dismantling the Japanese defence, built on taking one cave at a time, resulted in almost 8,000 American deaths. Seeking raw materials to fuel its growing industries, Japan invaded the Chinese province of Manchuria in 1931. As with the fact that it was the Soviet Union's defeat of Nazi Germany at Moscow, Stalingrad and Kursk that crushed Nazi Germany, not D-Day which came when Hitler's defeat was already inevitable, the truth about World War II against Japan is also gradually being admitted - even if it took 70 years to do it. Kawata, then 11, remembers understanding only two. The Soviets had arrived to train on the first of 149 vessels the U.S. Navy was transferring to the Soviet Union. [62] The total strength of the Japanese military in the Home Islands amounted to 4,335,500, of whom 2,372,700 were in the Army and 1,962,800 in the Navy. 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. Kyushu 900,000 On 10 August Japan offered to surrender unconditionally under the terms of the Potsdam Declaration as long as the emperor remained sovereign ruler. [11] The Army, on the other hand, argued that such a strategy could "prolong the war indefinitely" and expend lives needlessly, and therefore that an invasion was necessary. [93] On 9 August, the Soviet Union repudiated the Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact and launched a full-scale invasion of Manchuria in the Soviet-Japanese War of 1945. Japan's rejection of the demand led to final order to proceed with atomic bombing. [38], Admiral Ernest King, Commander-in-Chief of the U.S Navy, was so concerned about losses from kamikaze attacks that he and other senior naval officers argued for canceling Operation Downfall, and instead continuing the fire-bombing campaign against Japanese cities and the blockade of food and supplies until the Japanese surrendered. Estimated troop strength in early July was 350,000,[59] rising to 545,000 in early August. [16] The Eighth was to upgrade their B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-24 Liberators to B-29 Superfortresses (the group received its first B-29 on 8 August 1945).[16]. A destroyed hotel in Kyiv after a . Widespread chemical warfare was considered against Japan's population[65] and food crops. However, the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 forced the suspension of this plan: the Soviets had to divert most of their resources to fighting the Germans and their allies, primarily on land, throughout most of the war, leaving their navy relatively poorly equipped. 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. In early 1945, Miyazaki was virtually undefended, while Ariake, with its good nearby harbor, was heavily defended. (U.S. Army) The assault on Japan was expected to take 18 months, starting with an intense blockade and air bombardment of Japan. Some 1,200 suicide divers had been trained before the Japanese surrender. 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. Admiral Matome Ugaki was recalled to Japan in February 1945 and given command of the Fifth Air Fleet on Kysh. On Dec. 7, 1941, Japan staged an attack on Pearl Harbor, severely damaging the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Their surrender was caused by the dropping of two nuclear bombs by the United States on Aug 6 and Aug 9, on the cities of . Even after the bombs and the Soviet invasion, some of Japan's hawks. Operation Downfall was the proposed Allied plan for the invasion of the Japanese home islands near the end of World War II. Kanto 1,280,000, US military intelligence initially estimated the number of Japanese aircraft to be around 2,500. From the middle of May, when fighters based on the island of Ie Shima first attacked targets on southern Japan, the scale of. The capture of the Mariana Islands in November 1944 meant that air bases could be established to bomb Japan. Later at Peleliu, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa, they switched strategies and dug in their forces in the most defensible terrain. ", "That total hostile forces committed against Kyushu operations will not exceed eight (8) to ten (10) divisions and that this level will be speedily attained. The US Sixth Army, the formation tasked with carrying out the major land fighting on Kyushu, estimated a figure of 394,859 casualties serious enough to be permanently removed from unit roll calls during the first 120 days on Kyushu, almost enough to outstrip the planned replacement stream. This would have been the Pacific equivalent of D-Day. Courtesy of the US National Archives. [84] From analysis of the replacement schedule and projected strengths in overseas theaters, it suggested that Army losses alone in those categories, excluding the Navy and Marine Corps, would be approximately 863,000 through the first part of 1947, of whom 267,000 would be killed or missing. The first firebombing attack was on Wuhan, the Imperial Japanese Army headquarters in China, on 18 December 1944. A study done by General MacArthur's staff in June estimated 23,000 US casualties in the first 30 days of Olympic and 125,000 after 120 days, fighting an assumed Japanese force of 300,000[91] (in actuality some 917,000 Japanese troops were on Kyushu,[92]). Based on intelligence available early in 1945, their assumptions included the following:[13]. By 1937 Japan controlled large sections of China, and war crimes against the Chinese became commonplace. Opposition from the United States and doubts within the Soviet high command caused the plans to be cancelled before the invasion could begin. The Soviets had arrived to train on the first of 149 vessels the U.S. Navy was transferring to the Soviet . 1940s 1945 - US USES ATOMIC BOMBS ON JAPAN TO END WWII In an attempt to end the war in the Pacific without a costly invasion of Japan, the US dropped two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945 respectively. [citation needed], In March 1945, there was only one combat division in Kysh. [25] The first official "plans indicated that assault, followup, and reserve units would all come from US forces".[25]. The race to produce the first atomic weapon before Germanywas headed by the Manhattan project. A July Navy estimate, abandoning any distinction between training and combat aircraft, was 8,750; in August, 10,290. IWM collections. [citation needed], While the geography of Japan was known, the U.S. military planners had to estimate the defending forces that they would face. Herbert Hoover, in memorandums submitted to Truman and Stimson, also estimated 500,000 to 1,000,000 fatalities, which were believed to be conservative estimates; however, it is not known if Hoover discussed these specific figures in his meetings with Truman. Ending the war quickly would prevent Russian participation in the fighting and expansion into parts of Asia. But the war in the east still raged on and Japanese surrender seemed a long way off. In the wee hours of Aug. 24, 1945, Soviet long-range bombers would take off from their air base not far from the Far Eastern port of Vladivostok and fly east, across the Sea of Japan, dropping. [citation needed], Fears of "an Okinawa from one end of Japan to the other"[64] encouraged the Allies to consider unconventional weapons, including chemical warfare. 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". In 1941, Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union, formerly a partner. As president, it was Harry Truman's decision if the weapon would be used with the goal to end the war. The most transformative conflict in history, World War II impacted the entire globe and set the stage for the Cold War. 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. Admiral Chester Nimitz agreed with MacArthur. The Allies decided to launch a two-stage invasion. Plan 2 has the Japanese invading the West Coast of America via Pearl Harbor and then California. For Operation Downfall, the US military envisaged requiring more than 30 divisions for a successful invasion of the Japanese home islands. General Umezu Yoshijiro, the army chief of staff, signed on behalf of the Imperial Japanese Army in front of the newly appointed Supreme Commander, Allied Powers in Japan, General Douglas MacArthur. President Truman had four options: 1) continue conventional bombing of Japanese cities; 2) invade Japan; 3) demonstrate the bomb on an unpopulated island; or, 4 . The last great island battle of Okinawa began with an onslaught of shells, rockets and bombs from 1300 ships (the British Pacific Fleet also took part). [citation needed] The Australian government had asked at an early stage for the inclusion of an Australian Army infantry division in the first wave (Olympic). The Soviet declaration of war also changed the calculation of how much time was left for maneuver. United States Naval Institute. The Cold War Notes. From CNN's Wayne Chang in Taipei [12], Physically, Japan made an imposing target, distant from other landmasses and with very few beaches geographically suitable for sea-borne invasion. In May, Admiral Nimitz's staff estimated 49,000 U.S casualties in the first 30 days of Operation Olympic, including 5,000 at sea. Indeed, the first day of the invasion would have been . Gradually, intelligence learned that the Japanese were devoting all their aircraft to the kamikaze mission and taking effective measures to conserve them until the battle. The Japanese staged a furious defence, which included kamikaze suicide attacks (c. 1900 sorties) against the invasion fleet. This declaration was made by Soviet Foreign Prime Minister Vyacheslav Molotov to Japanese ambassador Naotake Sat at 11pm Trans-Baikal time. In total, 368 ships, including 120 amphibious craft, were badly damaged, and another 28, including 15 landing ships and 12 destroyers, were sunk, mostly by kamikazes. [26] The British Government suggested that: Lieutenant-General Sir Charles Keightley should command the Commonwealth Corps, a combined Commonwealth fleet should be led by Vice-Admiral Sir William Tennant, and thatas Commonwealth air units would be dominated by the RAAF the Air Officer Commanding should be Australian. 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]. 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. Operation August Storm, the massive 1945 Soviet invasion of Manchuria, was Japan's death blow, and brought an end to World War II. 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. Thankfully, Japan surrendered, unconditionally on Aug 15, 1945, some 77 days before the invasion was set to take place. American support included Sherman tanks armed with flamethrowers. Countless more would have been wounded. Since Japan and the Soviet Union maintained a state of wary neutrality until the Soviet declaration of war on Japan in August 1945, Japanese observers based in Japanese-held territories in Manchuria, Korea, Sakhalin, and the Kuril Islands constantly watched the port of Vladivostok and other seaports in the Soviet Union. The entire island of Okinawa is 464sqmi (1,200km2). The war cabinet met to consider peace terms for the first time the next morning, learning. [9][10], The United States Navy urged the use of a blockade and airpower to bring about Japan's capitulation. While the US had promised never to initiate gas warfare, Japan had used gas against the Chinese earlier in the war. Plan 3 has the Japanese invading North America through the Panama Canal, then proceeding up through Mexico to the West Coast of the United States. The G-7 consists of the United States, Japan, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Canada. Stalin brought forward the invasion of Manchuria due to the dropping of the atomic bomb. Stalin had agreed to enter the war against Japan at the Teheran Conference in 1943. The advancing Soviets claimed to have killed 84,000 Japanese soldiers and captured almost 600,000. The well-established Japanese garrison had 8,500 troops and fielded about 77 tanks. Following the end of the war in Europe in May 1945, plans were also made to transfer some of the heavy bomber groups of the veteran Eighth Air Force to airbases on Okinawa to conduct strategic bombing raids in coordination with the Twentieth. The US had successfully tested the first atomic bomb in New Mexico 10 days earlier. The 35 landing beaches were all named for automobiles: Austin, Buick, Cadillac, and so on through to Stutz, Winton, and Zephyr. Stavros Atlamazoglou. Europe's military spending grew at a record pace in 2022, reaching a level unseen since the cold war following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, global security researchers said. 109 (8): 4647, History of Planning division, ASF. [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. A devastating typhoon in October 1945 would have delayed Allied invasion preparations, while bad weather in the winter and spring of 1946 would have hampered operations and logistics. The B-29 Superfortresses were then withdrawn from China to bomb Japan from the Marianas. [102] Invasion of Japan, 1945-46 by D.M. The counteroffensive forces were still farther back, prepared to move against the largest landing. In Hell To Pay, military historian D.M. 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. In China, Operation Ichigo started in April 1944. In my opinion, there should not be the slightest thought of changing the Olympic operation.[75]. 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. The Soviet Union declared war on Japan and invaded Japanese-held Manchuria on the night of August 8. The remaining Imperial Japanese Navy was wiped out at Leyte Gulf off the Philippines, which was liberated in early 1945. [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.
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