- Author
- Thomson, Max
- Subjects
- History - WW2
- Tags
-
- RAN Ships
- None noted.
- Publication
- September 1999 edition of the Naval Historical Review (all rights reserved)
All along the coast east of Tokyo, the American 1st Army would land the 5th, 7th, 44th, 86th and 96th Infantry Divisions along with the 1st, 4th and 6th Marine Divisions.
Sixty-six aircraft carriers would be loaded with 2645 naval and marine aircraft for close support of soldiers hitting the beaches.
Horrendous Defences
James Martin Davis, in his summarisation of it all, states that what the US military leaders did not know was that by the end of July 1945, the Japanese had been saving aircraft, fuel and pilots in reserve and feverishly build new planes for the decisive battle for their homeland.
Twenty suicide take-off strips had been built southern Kyushu with underground hangars for an all-out offensive and in Kyushu alone 35 camouflaged airfields and nine seaplane bases had been prepared. On the night of the invasion 50 seaplane bombers plus 100 former carrier and 50 land-based army planes would be used to attack the US fleet.
In August 1945, unknown to intelligence, the Japan still had 5651 army and 7074 navy aircraft for a total of 12,725 planes of all types, states Mr Davis in his summary of the documentation.
During July alone, 1131 planes had been built and new underground aircraft plants were in various stages of construction. Every village had some type of aircraft manufacturing hidden in mines, railway tunnels, under viaducts and even in basements of department stores.
The Japanese had devised a network of beach defences consisting of electronically-operated mines farthest offshore, three lines of suicide divers followed by magnetic mines and still other mines planted all over beaches.
In the mountains behind beaches were elaborate underground networks of caves, bunkers, command posts and hospitals connected by miles of tunnels with dozens of separate entrances. Some could hold up to 1000 troops. Some were equipped with steel doors that slid open to allow artillery fire, then snapped shut again.
In addition to the use of poison gas the most frightening of all was the prospect of meeting an entire civilian population that had been mobilised to meet invasion forces.
Had the invasion come about the Japanese population, inflamed by a national slogan “One Hundred Million Die for the Emperor and Nation” was prepared to engage and fight the American invaders to the death.
Twenty-eight million Japanese had become part of National Volunteer Combat Force. Every foot of Japanese soil would have been paid for twice over – by both Japanese and American lives.
Intelligence studies and realistic military estimates made over 40 years and not latter-day speculation, show quite clearly that the battle for Japan might well have resulted in the biggest bloodbath in the history of modern warfare. At best the invasion of Japan would have resulted in a long and bloody siege. At worst it would have be battle of extermination between two different civilisations.
In the fall of 1945, with the atomic bombs dropped the war over, few Americans would ever learn of elaborate TOP SECRET plan that had been prepare detail for the INVASION OF JAPAN.