It was followed by a second bomb on 9 August on Nagasaki. In early 1945, Miyazaki was virtually undefended, while Ariake, with its good nearby harbor, was heavily defended. [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. That fleet's secret mission: to transport the Red Army for an invasion of Japan . By August, the count was up to 600,000, and Magic cryptanalysis had identified nine divisions in southern Kyshthree times the expected number and still a serious underestimate of the actual Japanese strength. Even after the bombs and the Soviet invasion, some of Japan's hawks. 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. "These [six] divisions have since made their appearance, as predicted," he observed, "and the end is not in sight." 6 part 1. [54] By the time the war ended, the Japanese actually possessed some 12,700 aircraft in the Home Islands, roughly half kamikazes. 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. 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. If a clock were drawn on a map of Kysh, these points would roughly correspond to 4, 5, and 7 o'clock, respectively. 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. the Kanmon Tunnel) and for gaining and maintaining air superiority over the beaches. Kyushu 990,000 . [citation needed], While the geography of Japan was known, the U.S. military planners had to estimate the defending forces that they would face. This area would then be used as a further staging point to attack Honshu in Operation Coronet. Before the main invasion, the offshore islands of Tanegashima, Yakushima, and the Koshikijima Islands were to be taken, starting on X-5. 330 Navy bombers flown by highly trained pilots to attack the Allied carrier task force to prevent it from supporting the invasion convoys. What had led to the fateful decision to deploy these new weapons of mass destruction? But the war in the east still raged on and Japanese surrender seemed a long way off. 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 Soviets had arrived to train on the first of 149 vessels the U.S. Navy was transferring to the Soviet . 11 World War II in Eastern Europe, 1942-1945. In 1944, early planning proposed a force of 5001,000 aircraft, including units dedicated to aerial refueling. [18] With one corps assigned to each landing, the invasion planners assumed that the Americans would outnumber the Japanese by roughly three to one. For the failed Mongol invasion attempts, see, "Soviet invasion of Japan" redirects here. According to a newly leaked email from a whistleblower with Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), months before Vladimir Putin began his disastrous invasion of Ukraine he was . This would have been the Pacific equivalent of D-Day. The Soviets informed the Japanese in April that their neutrality pact was at an end. 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. As to the movement of ground forces I do not credit the heavy strengths reported to you in southern Kyushu. 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. [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). [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. The Japanese plan for defeating the invasion was called Operation Ketsug (, ketsug sakusen) ("Operation Codename Decisive"). Plan 2 has the Japanese invading the West Coast of America via Pearl Harbor and then California. 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. By one estimate, the forces in Kysh had 40% of all the ammunition in the Home Islands.[48]. 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. [4], At the time, the development of the atomic bomb was a very closely guarded secret (not even then-Vice President Harry Truman knew of its existence until he became President), known only to a few top officials outside the Manhattan Project (and to the Soviet espionage apparatus, which had managed to infiltrate agents into, or recruit agents from within the program, despite the tight security around it), and the initial planning for the invasion of Japan did not take its existence into consideration. The combined Allied naval armada would have been the largest ever assembled, including 42 aircraft carriers, 24 battleships, and 400 destroyers and destroyer escorts. Japanese holdouts, especially on . 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. In comparison, the Soviet Union had about 11 divisions available, comparable to the 14 divisions the US estimated that it would require to invade southern Kyushu. By August, the Japanese Army had the equivalent of 65 divisions in the homeland but only enough equipment for 40 and ammunition for 30. 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. Invasion of the Soviet Union, June 1941. 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). 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. The estimated casualty figures later became a crucial point in postwar debate over the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In July MacArthur's Intelligence Chief, Maj. Gen. Charles A. Willoughby, warned of between 210,000 and 280,000 battle casualties in the push to the "stop line" one-third of the way up Kyushu. Japanese intelligence predicted fairly closely where the invasion would take place: southern Kysh at Miyazaki, Ariake Bay and/or the Satsuma Peninsula. Over 14 million Chinese died during the war, of which 2 million were battlefield casualties. 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. Prior to the First Quebec Conference, a joint CanadianBritishAmerican planning team produced a plan ("Appreciation and Plan for the Defeat of Japan") which did not call for an invasion of the Japanese Home Islands until 194748. [22][23] The Allied forces would then have driven north and inland, encircling Tokyo and pressing on toward Nagano. 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. The Soviets invaded Japan-held Manchuria on Aug. 9. Inside her were over 500 sailors of the Soviet Navy. Japan's rejection of the demand led to final order to proceed with atomic bombing. [9][10], The United States Navy urged the use of a blockade and airpower to bring about Japan's capitulation. [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. Only Kysh (the southernmost island of Japan) and the beaches of the Kant Plain (both southwest and southeast of Tokyo) were realistic invasion zones. The Cold War Notes. That changed in July, with the discovery of four new divisions and indications of more to come. 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). For Operation Downfall, the US military envisaged requiring more than 30 divisions for a successful invasion of the Japanese home islands. 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 . "Underwater Guerrillas". The remaining Imperial Japanese Navy was wiped out at Leyte Gulf off the Philippines, which was liberated in early 1945. [86][pageneeded] As time went on, other US leaders made estimates of their own: In a letter to General Curtis LeMay when LeMay assumed command of the B-29 force on Guam, General Lauris Norstad told LeMay that if an invasion took place, it would cost the US "half a million" dead. U.S. plans for the invasion of Kyushu in Operation Olympic, the first phase of the planned invasion of Japan. 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. [15], Tactical air support was to be the responsibility of the Fifth, Seventh, and Thirteenth Air Forces. intensified to pave the way for the planned invasion of Kyushu. Kamikaze: Japanese Special Attack Weapons 194445. Plan 1 (shown below) detailed a German-Japanese invasion with each faction attacking an American coast. 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 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. 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). ", 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. 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. p. 43. 13 . "[61], By the time of surrender, the Japanese had over 735,000 military personnel either in position or in various stages of deployment on Kyushu alone. [105] There were so many left that combat units in Iraq and Afghanistan could keep Purple Hearts on hand for immediate award to soldiers wounded in the field.[105]. [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. On 8 August the Soviet Union entered the war against Japan at midnight. 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. In the planned invasion of Japan, the US navy planners favoured the blockade and bombardment of Japan to instigate its collapse. 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. Opposition from the United States and doubts within the Soviet high command caused the plans to be cancelled before the invasion could begin. The Japanese staged a furious defence, which included kamikaze suicide attacks (c. 1900 sorties) against the invasion fleet. 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. The Soviets, however, had fewer than 400 ships, most of them not equipped for amphibious assault, when they declared war on Japan on 8 August 1945.[81]. The Soviet invasion of the Kuril Islands (18 August 1 September 1945) took place after Japan's capitulation on 15 August. More than 170,000 US servicemen took part in the islands capture, it was the most costly operation in the Pacific war. Plan Your Visit Current Exhibitions Calendar of Events . Operation Downfall was the proposed Allied plan for the invasion of the Japanese home islands near the end of World War II. [60], The intelligence revelations about Japanese preparations on Kyushu emerging in mid-July transmitted powerful shock waves both in the Pacific and in Washington. ET, April 24, 2023 China respects sovereign state status of ex-Soviet Union countries, foreign ministry spokeswoman says. 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. And it was, indeed, the death blow U.S . 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. 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. [66] While large quantities of gas munitions were manufactured and plans were drawn, it is unlikely they would have been used. Soviet soldiers in front of Harbin railway station. Casualty predictions varied widely, but were extremely high. "[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. [97] The entry of the U.S. into the Alliance meant the scope of the planned cross-Channel invasion would grow. That under such circumstances he can possibly amass from 2,000 to 2,500 planes in that area by exercising a rigid economy, and that this force can operate against Kyushu landings by staging through homeland fields.". Barton, Charles A. 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. The fighter-bombers from 40 aircraft carriers made 3000 trips to bomb the island and the big guns of ten battleships and nine cruisers fired 13,000 shells. The Chief of the Army Operations Division thought them "entirely too high" under "our present plan of campaign. They achieved complete surprise, outgunning and outflanking the defending Japanese Kwantung Army of 713,000 troops, commanded by General Otozo Yamada. In the Potsdam Declaration, issued on July 26, 1945, the United States made a call for the unconditional surrender of Japan. Kyushu 900,000 This also includes Soviet losses from the planned Soviet invasion of Hokkaido. In addition to fighters and bombers, they reassigned almost all of their trainers for the mission. The race to produce the first atomic weapon before Germanywas headed by the Manhattan project. The Japanese planned an all-out defense of Kysh, with little left in reserve for any subsequent defense operations. [5], The Pacific War was not under a single Allied commander-in-chief (C-in-C). 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]. "[99] From D-Day to V-E Day, the Western Allies alone suffered some 766,294 casualties. General Arthur MacArthur and the army planners urged an early assault on Kyushu followed by an invasion of the main island of Honshu. Top Image: Remains of a Shinto Shrine, Nagasaki, Japan, October 1945. In the days following the bombings Japan surrendered. 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. Stalin had agreed to enter the war against Japan at the Teheran Conference in 1943. Truman's Nightmare: U.S. Remaining major warships numbered four battleships (all damaged), five damaged aircraft carriers, two cruisers, 23 destroyers, and 46 submarines. On 26 July, the United States, China and Great Britain issued the Potsdam Declaration calling for the unconditional surrender of all Japanese armed forces and the occupation of Japan by the Allies. Apr 30, 2023, 2:37 PM PDT. [citation needed], For the defense of Kysh, the Japanese took an intermediate posture, with the bulk of their defensive forces a few kilometers inland, back far enough to avoid complete exposure to naval bombardment, but close enough that the Americans could not establish a secure foothold before engaging them. 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. Korea 247,000 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. 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. Victory over JapanDay marked the end of the Second World War in August 1945. The Japanese command intended to organize its Army personnel according to the following plan:[52], Total mobilized: 3,150,000 They and their soldiers had endured three years of harsh captivity. They also considered skipping the preliminary invasion and going directly at Tokyo. 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. Widespread chemical warfare was considered against Japan's population[65] and food crops. In preparation for the invasion, an air campaign against Japanese airfields and transportation arteries had commenced before the Japanese surrender. The Japanese defense relied heavily on kamikaze planes. Once the atomic bomb became available, General Marshall envisioned using it to support the invasion if sufficient numbers could be produced in time. [78][79][80] As a result, in Project Hula (1945), the United States transferred about 100 naval vessels out of the 180 planned to the Soviet Union in preparation for the planned Soviet entry into the war against Japan. In preparation for Operation Olympic, the invasion of southern Kyushu, various figures and organizations made casualty estimates based on the terrain, strength, and disposition of known Japanese forces. The Soviet plan of attack called for an invasion of Hokkaido from the west. The capitulation followed three days of heated debate amongst Japanese leaders. General Umezu Yoshijiro signs the surrender on behalf of the Imperial Japanese Army onboard the USS MISSOURI in Tokyo Bay, 2nd September 1945. 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. [58], Allied counter-kamikaze preparations were known as the Big Blue Blanket. 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. For Soviet invasion of Manchuria under Japanese rule, see, Allied re-evaluation of Operation Olympic.