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. They hoped that at least 15 to 20% (or even up to a half) of the US transport ships would be destroyed before disembarkation. Southern Kysh would offer a staging ground and a valuable airbase for Operation Coronet. 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. American support included Sherman tanks armed with flamethrowers. Soviets declare war on Japan; invade Manchuria - History "[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. 20 Steps in Planning for the Invasion of Japan in 1945 The key assumption was large-scale participation by civilians in the defense of Japan. Apr 30, 2023, 2:37 PM PDT. [1] Truman's Options By September 1944, those plans . On 1 April 1945, four US divisions landed on Okinawa;the fighting became a war of attrition that lasted almost three months for an island the size of 485 square miles. [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". [5], The Pacific War was not under a single Allied commander-in-chief (C-in-C). 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. The Postwar World After World War II - ThoughtCo 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. Japan holds the G-7 presidency this year, and Kyodo News reported last week that such a step is being . "Underwater Guerrillas". 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. Based on intelligence available early in 1945, their assumptions included the following:[13]. Over 14 million Chinese died during the war, of which 2 million were battlefield casualties. What if Hiroshima and Nagasaki never happened? Russia planned to attack Japan in 2021 according to leaked FSB letters On 6 August the lead bomber of three B-29s, Enola Gay, piloted by Colonel Paul Tibits, commander of 509th Composite Group, dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Contributor: C. Peter Chen. 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 Soviet invasion of Manchuria and other Japanese colonies began at midnight on August 8, sandwiched between the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In 2003, there were still 120,000 of these Purple Heart medals in stock. Share. (1983). Zaloga, Steven (2011). [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. History of Planning Division, ASF vol. On Dec. 7, 1941, Japan staged an attack on Pearl Harbor, severely damaging the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Ultimately, the Army's viewpoint prevailed. Japanese intelligence predicted fairly closely where the invasion would take place: southern Kysh at Miyazaki, Ariake Bay and/or the Satsuma Peninsula. Japanese military directives ordered the execution of all POWs being held if Japan was ever invaded. NEMURO, Japan Soviet soldiers barged into Hirotoshi Kawata's home on Sept. 4, 1945, searching for hidden Japanese soldiers and valuables. About 400,000 Japanese died as a result of these raids plus the dropping of the atomic bombs. General Arthur MacArthur and the army planners urged an early assault on Kyushu followed by an invasion of the main island of Honshu. The rise in . Mutual support was essential in defence and attack by either side. Operation Downfall - Wikipedia Operation Downfall was the proposed Allied plan for the invasion of the Japanese home islands near the end of World War II. 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. At this juncture, the key interaction would likely have been between Marshall and Truman. General Umezu Yoshijiro signs the surrender on behalf of the Imperial Japanese Army onboard the USS MISSOURI in Tokyo Bay, 2nd September 1945. [93] Up to 2,000 kamikaze planes launched attacks during the Battle of Okinawa, achieving approximately one hit per nine attacks. By August, they had 14 divisions and various smaller formations, including three tank brigades, for a total of 900,000 men. . The Soviet invasion of the Kuril Islands (18 August 1 September 1945) took place after Japan's capitulation on 15 August. 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. "[101], The Battle of Okinawa was one of the bloodiest in the Pacific, with an estimated total of over 82,000 direct casualties on both sides: 14,009 Allied deaths and 77,417 Japanese soldiers. Soviet forces invaded the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo (Manchuria) under the command of Marshal Aleksandr Vasilevsky with 1.6 million soldiers. 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. Operation Olympic, the invasion of Kysh, was to begin on "X-Day", which was scheduled for 1 November 1945. [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. Japan's rejection of the demand led to final order to proceed with atomic bombing. Why were Atomic Bombs Dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Leaked documents reveal Russia's plan to invade Japan Debate over the Bomb: An Annotated Bibliography On 14 August Japan surrendered. 100 transport planes carrying 1,200 commandos for a raid on the US airbases on Okinawa, following the success of earlier smaller-scale operations. The atom bombs dropped on Japan in 1945 killed by some estimates more than 200,000 people. China respects sovereign state status of ex-Soviet Union countries However the reality of the atomic bomb made some US leaders question whether Soviet intervention in Asia was indeed needed or even desirable. 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. 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. In it, they estimate that during the 18 month period after June 1945 (that is, through December 1946), the Army would be required to furnish replacements for 43,000 dead and evacuated wounded every month. 9 Aug 1945 - 2 Sep 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. 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. Why America shouldn't have nuked Japan - Asia Times Britain and Decolonisation in South East and South Asia, 1945-1948. Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Soviet soldiers in front of Harbin railway station. 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.) Here's what the U.S. Army had planned in case that didn't happen. [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]. In 1941, Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union, formerly a partner. The decision to use the atomic bomb | Britannica The Japanese planned an all-out defense of Kysh, with little left in reserve for any subsequent defense operations. In the Potsdam Declaration, issued on July 26, 1945, the United States made a call for the unconditional surrender of Japan. WW2 Debate: Was The US Right To Drop Atomic Bombs On Hiroshima Also, by the end of that year, the United States entered the war after Japan (an ally of Germany) attacked the American base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The Americans lost 36 ships. IWM collections. 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]. 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. Barton, Charles A. 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). This page was last edited on 30 April 2023, at 20:51. The Soviets had arrived to train on the first of 149 vessels the U.S. Navy was transferring to the Soviet . [39] However, General George Marshall argued that forcing surrender this way might take several years, if ever. Yalta Conference | Summary, Dates, Consequences, & Facts 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. In a conference with President Truman on June 18, Marshall, taking the Battle of Luzon as the best model for Olympic, thought the Americans would suffer 31,000 casualties in the first 30 days and ultimately 20% of Japanese casualties, which he estimated would include the entire Japanese force. 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. 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 preparation for the invasion, an air campaign against Japanese airfields and transportation arteries had commenced before the Japanese surrender. ", "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. [102] 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. Operation Olympic would attack southern Kysh. With the defeat of Germany and Japan, their plans were put into action. For the Decisive Battle By one estimate, the forces in Kysh had 40% of all the ammunition in the Home Islands.[48]. 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.". [7][8] The American Joint Chiefs of Staff believed that prolonging the war to such an extent was dangerous for national morale. Stalin's War on Japan - Army University Press [73], The Joint Staff planners, taking note of the extent to which the Japanese had concentrated on Kysh at the expense of the rest of Japan, considered alternate places to invade such as the island of Shikoku, northern Honshu at Sendai, or Ominato. That changed in July, with the discovery of four new divisions and indications of more to come. Stavros Atlamazoglou. 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. Using Okinawa as a staging base, the objective would have been to seize the southern portion of Kysh. Outside the government, well-informed civilians were also making guesses. By August, the Japanese Army had the equivalent of 65 divisions in the homeland but only enough equipment for 40 and ammunition for 30. 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. Allied grave registration forces counted 110,071 dead bodies of Japanese soldiers, but this included conscripted Okinawans wearing Japanese uniforms. For comparative purposes, about 1,300 Western Allied ships deployed during the Battle of Okinawa (AprilJune 1945). 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. Macron slams Chinese ambassador to France for remarks on ex-Soviet states The casualty rate on Okinawa was 35%;with 767,000 men scheduled to participate in taking Kyushu, it was estimated that there would be 268,000 casualties. 'Hell To Pay' Sheds New Light On A-Bomb Decision : NPR In the planned invasion of Japan, the US navy planners favoured the blockade and bombardment of Japan to instigate its collapse. Yalta Conference, (February 4-11, 1945), major World War II conference of the three chief Allied leadersPres. Manchurian Strategic Offensive. The race to produce the first atomic weapon before Germanywas headed by the Manhattan project. Giangreco argues that the alternative, a land invasion of . 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 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. Later at Peleliu, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa, they switched strategies and dug in their forces in the most defensible terrain. 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. Thankfully, Japan surrendered, unconditionally on Aug 15, 1945, some 77 days before the invasion was set to take place. Soviet Invasion of Manchuria: Finishing the Japanese Army The Soviet Union declared war on Japan and invaded Japanese-held Manchuria on the night of August 8. During World War II, the Japanese had a naval base at Paramushiro in the Kuril Islands and several bases in Hokkaido. "It is an awful responsibility that has come to us," the president wrote. intensified to pave the way for the planned invasion of Kyushu. The Allies decided to launch a two-stage invasion. The Soviets invaded Japan-held Manchuria on Aug. 9. 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]. 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. [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. [54] By the time the war ended, the Japanese actually possessed some 12,700 aircraft in the Home Islands, roughly half kamikazes. Stalin had agreed to enter the war against Japan at the Teheran Conference in 1943. However dismantling the Japanese defence, built on taking one cave at a time, resulted in almost 8,000 American deaths. Plan 1 (shown below) detailed a German-Japanese invasion with each faction attacking an American coast. In the early years of World War II, the Soviets had planned on building a huge navy to catch up with the Western world. There were two unsuccessful Japanese counterattacks which ultimately weakened the capability of the defending forces to resist the American onslaught. In the last days of World War II, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan, as Stalin secretly agreed at . Allied command was divided into regions: by 1945, for example, Chester Nimitz was the Allied C-in-C Pacific Ocean Areas, while Douglas MacArthur was Supreme Allied Commander, South West Pacific Area, and Admiral Louis Mountbatten was the Supreme Allied Commander, South East Asia Command. 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. Chapter 14: Japan's Surrender - United States Army Center of Military 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. 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. The next day a reply was drafted by the US which insisted that any imperial authority would be in the hands of the Supreme Commander of the Allied powers.