"Operation
Downfall"
The American
Invasion of
Japan in 1945
The American
Plan
(Part One of
Three)
I want to sincerely thank my dear
friend, Dave Nall
of Wilmington, North Carolina, for sending us this fascinating story
of "what could have been", had the Atomic Bomb not
been dropped on Japan to end the Second World War in
1945.
Ironically, the same information was
also forwarded to Anthem Opinions by Sun City Anthem Board
Director, Don Schramski.
To both of those
individuals, without their input, this story could not have been told
!
It will chill you as you read the
detailed planning of a potential invasion of Japan in 1945....and how, and with
what, the Japanese would have defended their
homeland.
And
at the end, you will say...thank God it never took place
!
Deep in the recesses of the National Archives in Washington, D.C., hidden for nearly four decades lie thousands of pages of yellowing and dusty documents stamped "Top Secret".
These documents, now
declassified, were the plans for "Operation
Downfall", the invasion of Japan during World War
II.
Only
a few Americans in 1945 were aware of the elaborate plans that had been prepared
for the Allied Invasion of the Japanese home islands.
Even
fewer today are aware of the defenses the Japanese had prepared to counter the
invasion had it been launched.
In
this first of three articles, the "American Plan" will be discussed.
Part Two will
cover the Japanese plans for defense.
Part Three will be
an Epilogue,
reflecting the potential ramifications of the plan....to both sides.
From Dorothy Yu...to...Anthem Opinions
ReplyDeleteI would have chosen the same way to end the second world war!
First of all, Japan invaded other countries!!!
Countless cruelties events took place in China!
If we were consider country stands for defending the world's righteousness, of course, we needed to end this overly long Second World War in the most effective way !!!
There a saying that if you do the crime, you need to do the time!
Secondly, we need to protect our own people!
There were many innocent people in Japan who suffered tremendous loss, but how about the Chinese people?
They were just trying to build a new country!!!
Dick, you know how painful I feel every time this subject comes up !!!
Thanks for bringing this topic up to so many unaware readers!!!
Dorothy,
DeleteWords can not describe my reaction to reading a book entitled "The Rape of Nanking" by Iris Chang.
The atrocities suffered by the Chinese people in 1937 at the hands of the Japanese before Pearl Harbor in 1941, seemed every bit, if not worse, than what the Jews suffered at the hands of the Nazis in the Second World War.
Two countries who had world domination as their goal,had to be defeated....and I feel as you do, it had to end....no matter what the price to the innocent people of those nations.
The difference between Germany and Japan....Germany subsequently apologized the world for those wrongs...and...we have yet to receive any such apology from Japan.
Sadly, within our lives the words "ethnic cleansing" still remain in the vocabularies of some...70 years after the beginning of the atomic age.
We can only pray that barbaric belief will never result in another nuclear catastrophe.
From Mary Lee Duley...to...Anthem Opinions
ReplyDeleteA continuing awesome job!
Great editorials !
From Tim Stebbins...to...Anthem Opinions
ReplyDeleteBy July of 1945 the US had produced enough Uranium 235 for one bomb and enough Plutonium 239 for two bombs.
They were confident the Uranium 235 bomb would work so they decided not to test that design.
They were not as sure the Plutonium 239 bomb would work so they used half of the plutonium for a test bomb. That test bomb is the one exploded in New Mexico in July 1945.
They constructed the Uranium 235 bomb into "Little Boy" and that was dropped on Hiroshima August 6, 1945
After the successful test in July the rest of the Plutonium 239 was constructed into "Fat Man" and dropped on Nagasaki July 9, 1945.
We had no more materials after that. It would have taken many months to construct more bombs but the Japanese did not now that. Almost no one knew that.