planned soviet 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. By August, the Japanese Army had the equivalent of 65 divisions in the homeland but only enough equipment for 40 and ammunition for 30. [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. [86][pageneeded] In April 1945, the Joint Chiefs of Staff formally adopted a planning paper giving a range of possible casualties based on experience in both Europe and the Pacific. Widespread chemical warfare was considered against Japan's population[65] and food crops. The transferred vessels included amphibious assault ships. 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. This declaration was made by Soviet Foreign Prime Minister Vyacheslav Molotov to Japanese ambassador Naotake Sat at 11pm Trans-Baikal time. 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). Japanese military directives ordered the execution of all POWs being held if Japan was ever invaded. After the name Operation Olympic was compromised by being sent out in unsecured code, the name Operation Majestic was adopted. Unknown to the Americans, the Soviet Union also considered invading a major Japanese island, Hokkaido, by the end of August 1945,[77] which would have put pressure on the Allies to act sooner than November. [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. Initially the US undertook daylight precision bombing raids, but on the nights of 9-10 March,a change of strategy began with low level mass incendiary attacks on Japanese cities. The Allies decided to launch a two-stage invasion. An hour later, the Soviets began their advance simultaneously on three fronts: to the east, west, and north of Manchuria. Up to 2,000 kamikaze planes launched attacks during the Battle of Okinawa, achieving approximately one hit per nine attacks. In the days following the bombings Japan surrendered. 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.) 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? These would have included spearheads of the war in Europe such as the US First Army (15 divisions) and the Eighth Air Force. 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. [100] The Soviet invasion of Manchuria and other Japanese colonies began at midnight on August 8, sandwiched between the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Why were Atomic Bombs Dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki? The atom bombs dropped on Japan in 1945 killed by some estimates more than 200,000 people. In 1944 Ultra revealed that the Japanese doubted their ability to retaliate against United States use of gas. 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. [44][45], The two defensive options against amphibious invasion are strong defense of the beaches and defense in depth. [20] (The Overlord invasion of Normandy, by comparison, deployed 12 divisions in the initial landings.) 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. On Dec. 7, 1941, Japan staged an attack on Pearl Harbor, severely damaging the U.S. Pacific Fleet. 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. Kyushu 990,000 A unified command was deemed necessary for an invasion of Japan. By the time the war ended, the Army was still trying to determine the optimal dispersal height to cover a wide enough area. Opposition from the United States and doubts within the Soviet high command caused the plans to be cancelled before the invasion could begin. The ensuing Operation Downfall envisaged two main assaults Operation Olympic on Kyushu, planned for early November and Operation Coronet, the invasion of Honshu in March 1946. 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. The key assumption was large-scale participation by civilians in the defense of Japan. In the Potsdam Declaration, issued on July 26, 1945, the United States made a call for the unconditional surrender of Japan. Casualties were high, but the island provided another useful staging post for the bombers. Victory over JapanDay marked the end of the Second World War in August 1945. In 2003, there were still 120,000 of these Purple Heart medals in stock. [54] By the time the war ended, the Japanese actually possessed some 12,700 aircraft in the Home Islands, roughly half kamikazes. With the British Pacific Fleet, August 1945. [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). Contributor: C. Peter Chen. [34] While this was not realistic, both American and Japanese officers at the time predicted a Japanese death toll in the millions. 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. Allied invasion planners in the Pacific were unaware that the Soviets were planning to keep that promise with an invasion of Hokkaido. Invasion of the Soviet Union, June 1941. These redeployments would have been complicated by the simultaneous demobilization and replacement of highly experienced, time-served personnel, which would have drastically reduced the combat effectiveness of many units. Top Image: Remains of a Shinto Shrine, Nagasaki, Japan, October 1945. 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. 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. Ultimately, the Army's viewpoint prevailed. [63] The buildup of Japanese troops on Kysh led American war planners, most importantly General George Marshall, to consider drastic changes to Olympic, or replacing it with a different invasion plan. [67], Although chemical warfare had been outlawed by the Geneva Protocol, neither the United States nor Japan was a signatory at the time. Plan 2 has the Japanese invading the West Coast of America via Pearl Harbor and then California. 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. According to Edward J. Drea, the strategic use of chemical weapons on a massive scale was not seriously studied or proposed by any senior American leader; rather, they debated the tactical use of chemical weapons against pockets of Japanese resistance. 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. [citation needed], The main defense against Japanese air attacks would have come from the massive fighter forces being assembled in the Ryukyu Islands. 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. 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. There is strong evidence that Marshall remained committed to an invasion as late as 15 August. The advancing Soviets claimed to have killed 84,000 Japanese soldiers and captured almost 600,000. On 5 Apr 1945, the Soviet Union informed Japan that the Soviet Union would . Only Kysh (the southernmost island of Japan) and the beaches of the Kant Plain (both southwest and southeast of Tokyo) were realistic invasion zones. [25] The first official "plans indicated that assault, followup, and reserve units would all come from US forces".[25]. 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. [2], Japan's geography made this invasion plan quite obvious to the Japanese as well; they were able to accurately predict the Allied invasion plans and thus adjust their defensive plan, Operation Ketsug, accordingly. [102] 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. 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. ", "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. ET, April 24, 2023 China respects sovereign state status of ex-Soviet Union countries, foreign ministry spokeswoman says. 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.

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