planned soviet invasion of japan

[15], Tactical air support was to be the responsibility of the Fifth, Seventh, and Thirteenth Air Forces. As to the movement of ground forces I do not credit the heavy strengths reported to you in southern Kyushu. The remaining Imperial Japanese Navy was wiped out at Leyte Gulf off the Philippines, which was liberated in early 1945. These were responsible for attacking Japanese airfields and transportation arteries on Kyushu and Southern Honshu (e.g. [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). Towards the end of the war about 100,000 Allied prisoners were in Japanese custody. 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 . The Twentieth Air Force was to have continued its role as the main Allied strategic bomber force used against the Japanese home islands, operating from airfields in the Mariana Islands. Share. For the Decisive Battle Operation Downfall, the codename for the invasion of Japan, was scheduled to begin on Nov 1, 1945. 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. 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. [9][10], The United States Navy urged the use of a blockade and airpower to bring about Japan's capitulation. 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). They were to be armed with contact-fuzed mines, and to dive under landing craft and blow them up. ", "That approximately twenty-one (21) hostile divisions, including depot divisions, will be on Honshu at the initiation of [Coronet] and that fourteen (14) of these divisions may be employed in the Kanto Plain area. It should be noted that this invasion occurred 2 days after the United States atomic bombing of Hiroshima. "[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. On 10 August Japan offered to surrender unconditionally under the terms of the Potsdam Declaration as long as the emperor remained sovereign ruler. 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. 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. Remaining major warships numbered four battleships (all damaged), five damaged aircraft carriers, two cruisers, 23 destroyers, and 46 submarines. 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. However dismantling the Japanese defence, built on taking one cave at a time, resulted in almost 8,000 American deaths. . [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. As for the second bomb on Nagasaki, that was just as unnecessary as the . This raid burned 15.8 square miles of Tokyo, killing almost 100,000 Japanese. Korea 247,000 An inventory of mines was anchored to the sea bottom off each potential invasion beach for their use by the suicide divers, with up to 10,000 mines planned. 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. Alternatively, search more than 1 million objects from (U.S. Army) The assault on Japan was expected to take 18 months, starting with an intense blockade and air bombardment of Japan. [57] The United States Strategic Bombing Survey subsequently estimated that if the Japanese managed 5,000 kamikaze sorties, they could have sunk around 90 ships and damaged another 900, roughly triple the Navy's losses at Okinawa. Kysh was to be invaded by the Sixth United States Army at three points: Miyazaki, Ariake, and Kushikino. [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. The most transformative conflict in history, World War II impacted the entire globe and set the stage for the Cold War. Richard B. Frank states that when the proposal reached Truman in June 1945, he vetoed the use of chemical weapons against personnel; their use against crops, however, remained under consideration. On the other hand, no agreement envisaged Soviet participation in the invasion of Japan itself. In February, with the first anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine days away, officials in Kyiv were busy making plans to attack Moscow. The Japanese staged a furious defence, which included kamikaze suicide attacks (c. 1900 sorties) against the invasion fleet. Some 1,200 suicide divers had been trained before the Japanese surrender. the Kanmon Tunnel) and for gaining and maintaining air superiority over the beaches. A World War II history many have seemed to have forgotten - Russia was getting ready to invade Japan: On April 10, 1945 a Soviet freighter slipped up to a quay at a frozen military base on a remote tip of Alaska aptly named Cold Bay. On August 8, 1945, the Soviet Union officially declares war on Japan, pouring more than 1 million Soviet soldiers into Japanese-occupied Manchuria, northeastern China, to take on the. 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. At the Yalta Conference (February 1945), the Allies had agreed that the Soviet Union would take the southern part of the island of Sakhalin, which Japan had invaded during the 19041905 Russo-Japanese War, and which Russia had ceded in the Treaty of Portsmouth after the war (the Soviets already controlled the northern part), and the Kuril Islands, which had been assigned to Japan in the 1875 Treaty of St. Petersburg. The Soviets invaded Japan-held Manchuria on Aug. 9. As president, it was Harry Truman's decision if the weapon would be used with the goal to end the war. Kanto 1,280,000, US military intelligence initially estimated the number of Japanese aircraft to be around 2,500. Soviet declaration of war. 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. 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. In the days following the bombings Japan surrendered. [12], Physically, Japan made an imposing target, distant from other landmasses and with very few beaches geographically suitable for sea-borne invasion. Kawata, then 11, remembers understanding only two. The first firebombing attack was on Wuhan, the Imperial Japanese Army headquarters in China, on 18 December 1944. [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. With the British Pacific Fleet, August 1945. Japanese surrender negotiations at Rangoon, A US Marine Corps machine gun crew watches flame throwing tanks fire a Japanese pillbox during the Battle of Okinawa, March - June 1945. An hour later, the Soviets began their advance simultaneously on three fronts: to the east, west, and north of Manchuria. Then in February 1945, US Marines assaulted the tiny island of Iwo Jima, midway between the Marianas and Japan. This implied a total of 70,000 American casualties in the battle of Kyushu using the June projection of 350,000 Japanese defenders. This would have been the Pacific equivalent of D-Day. At this juncture, the key interaction would likely have been between Marshall and Truman. [5], The Pacific War was not under a single Allied commander-in-chief (C-in-C). [74] Attacking northern Honshu would have the advantage of a much weaker defense but had the disadvantage of giving up land-based air support (except the B-29s) from Okinawa. You must aim for the abdomen. IWM collections. In early 1946 would come Operation Coronet, the planned invasion of the Kant Plain, near Tokyo, on the main Japanese island of Honshu. The capital Rangoon was retaken in May 1945. Japanese military directives ordered the execution of all POWs being held if Japan was ever invaded. As at Hiroshima, thousands more were to die from their injuries or the after-effects of radiation. At Potsdam the Soviets informed their Allied counterparts that they would be ready to move against Japan in mid-August. [98] [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. The operation for the occupation of Japan following the landing may be a very long, costly and arduous struggle on our part. The capitulation followed three days of heated debate amongst Japanese leaders. 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. Commemorate75 years since the end of the Second World War in Europe and remember the personal stories of people who stood together during a time of national crisis. [60], The intelligence revelations about Japanese preparations on Kyushu emerging in mid-July transmitted powerful shock waves both in the Pacific and in Washington. Maj. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, the head of the . The Cold War Notes. The Soviet plan of attack called for an invasion of Hokkaido from the west. In 2003, there were still 120,000 of these Purple Heart medals in stock. [66] While large quantities of gas munitions were manufactured and plans were drawn, it is unlikely they would have been used. Yet the conflict did not end on this day, particularly in Asia. "[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. From the middle of May, when fighters based on the island of Ie Shima first attacked targets on southern Japan, the scale of. These would have included spearheads of the war in Europe such as the US First Army (15 divisions) and the Eighth Air Force. 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 preparation for the invasion, an air campaign against Japanese airfields and transportation arteries had commenced before the Japanese surrender. Japans surrender in Manchuria. Outside the government, well-informed civilians were also making guesses. Pushing back against U.S. attempts to limit Japan's aggressive expansion, Japan launched a . The military leaders were for outright rejection of the Allied surrender, as it did not guarantee the Emperors sovereignty. 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. President Harry Truman received news of itwhilst at the Potsdam Conference. To attack the ships off Okinawa, Japanese planes had to fly long distances over open water; to attack the ships off Kysh, they could fly overland and then short distances out to the landing fleets. Members of the imperial family were despatched across China, Manchuria and South East Asia to convey the Emperors desire for an orderly surrender at his personal behest. 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. Background Fourteen U.S. divisions and a "division-equivalent" (two regimental combat teams)[14] were scheduled to take part in the initial landings. The G-7 consists of the United States, Japan, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Canada. 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. Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Ending the war quickly would prevent Russian participation in the fighting and expansion into parts of Asia. The advancing Soviets claimed to have killed 84,000 Japanese soldiers and captured almost 600,000. If Downfall had taken place, it would have been the largest amphibious operation in history, surpassing D-Day. 50 "land attack planes," 50 seaplane bombers, and 50 torpedo bombers flown by highly trained pilots for night attacks on convoy escorts. 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. United States Naval Institute. 109 (8): 4647, History of Planning division, ASF. ", "Are New Purple Hearts Being Manufactured to Meet the Demand? On 8 May 1945, the Allies celebrated VE Day, marking the end of the war in Europe. 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. The offensive was finally halted in December. 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. Inside her were over 500 sailors of the Soviet Navy. [93] Seeman advised that American troops not enter an area hit by a bomb for "at least 48 hours"; the risk of nuclear fallout was not well understood, and such a short time after detonation would have exposed American troops to substantial radiation. Kamikaze: Japanese Special Attack Weapons 194445. For Operation Downfall, the US military envisaged requiring more than 30 divisions for a successful invasion of the Japanese home islands. They also considered skipping the preliminary invasion and going directly at Tokyo. And it was, indeed, the death blow U.S . The Allies decided to launch a two-stage invasion. 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. A destroyed hotel in Kyiv after a . [94] Admiral Leahy, more impressed by the Battle of Okinawa, thought the American forces would suffer a 35% casualty rate (implying an ultimate toll of 268,000). Opposition from the United States and doubts within the Soviet high command caused the plans to be cancelled before the invasion could begin. p. 43. The B-29 Superfortresses were then withdrawn from China to bomb Japan from the Marianas. Stalin brought forward the invasion of Manchuria due to the dropping of the atomic bomb. One staff study estimated that the kamikazes could destroy a third to half of the invasion force before landing. [citation needed]. They and their soldiers had endured three years of harsh captivity. They supported mounting a large-scale thrust directly against the Japanese homeland, with none of the side operations that the Navy had suggested. The US Army Fifth and Seventh Air Forces and US Marine air units had moved into the islands immediately after the invasion, and air strength had been increasing in preparation for the all-out assault on Japan. It was followed by a second bomb on 9 August on Nagasaki. 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. About 39,000 were killed. In my opinion, there should not be the slightest thought of changing the Olympic operation.[75]. [35] During the Battle of Okinawa, Japanese officers had ordered civilians unable to fight to commit suicide rather than fall into American hands, and all available evidence suggests the same orders would have been given in the home islands. "[87] To sustain the campaign on Kyushu, planners estimated a replacement stream of 100,000 men per month would be necessary, a figure achievable even after the partial demobilization following the defeat of Germany. 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 . [53] The Okinawa experience was bad for the USalmost two fatalities and a similar number wounded per sortieand Kysh was likely to be worse. [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. Ultimately, the Army's viewpoint prevailed. 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. The Soviet invasion of Manchuria and other Japanese colonies began at midnight on August 8, sandwiched between the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan and the Soviet Union formally made peace four years later, when they signed the Soviet-Japanese Joint Declaration of 1956. 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. However the reality of the atomic bomb made some US leaders question whether Soviet intervention in Asia was indeed needed or even desirable. [3] 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. In Hell To Pay, military historian D.M. 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. Using Okinawa as a staging base, the objective would have been to seize the southern portion of Kysh. Franklin D. Roosevelt of the United States, Prime Minister Winston Churchill of the United Kingdom, and Premier Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Unionwhich met at Yalta in Crimea to plan the final defeat and occupation of Nazi Germany. The key assumption was large-scale participation by civilians in the defense of Japan. [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". Operation Olympic would attack southern Kysh. 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]. [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. Based on intelligence available early in 1945, their assumptions included the following:[13]. Casualties were high, but the island provided another useful staging post for the bombers. 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. [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]. There were two unsuccessful Japanese counterattacks which ultimately weakened the capability of the defending forces to resist the American onslaught. Plan 2 has the Japanese invading the West Coast of America via Pearl Harbor and then California. These flamethrowers were used to drive Japanese defenders from their caves and pillboxes. November 26, 2022 Months before President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he was planning to attack Japan, according to an alleged letter from a whistleblower at Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB). [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. Truman's Options Japan's rejection of the demand led to final order to proceed with atomic bombing. Manchurian Strategic Offensive. More than 170,000 US servicemen took part in the islands capture, it was the most costly operation in the Pacific war. The Japanese command intended to organize its Army personnel according to the following plan:[52], Total mobilized: 3,150,000 President Truman authorized the use of the atom bombs in an effort to bring about Japan's surrender in the Second World War. An email sent by a whistleblower at FSB . 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. Over the next four months, the Imperial Japanese Army transferred forces from Manchuria, Korea, and northern Japan, while raising other forces in place. But tempering Marshall's personal commitment to invasion would have been his comprehension that civilian sanction in general, and Truman's in particular, was unlikely for a costly invasion that no longer enjoyed consensus support from the armed services.[76]. [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. This included the planned invasion of Japanese territory in Sakhalin. ", "That the enemy may withdraw his land-based air forces to the Asiatic Mainland for protection from our neutralizing attacks. Bombs filled with a new incendiary made of phosphorous and napalm were dropped on the city causing a firestorm that lasted several days causing tens of thousands of deaths. On 5 Apr 1945, the Soviet Union informed Japan that the Soviet Union would . Allied grave registration forces counted 110,071 dead bodies of Japanese soldiers, but this included conscripted Okinawans wearing Japanese uniforms. 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. [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 same day, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki. The US had successfully tested the first atomic bomb in New Mexico 10 days earlier. 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 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.

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