planned soviet invasion of japan planned soviet invasion of japan

The Americans considered Okinawa a dress rehearsal for the invasion of the Japanese home islands, for which the United States was finalizing a two-stage plan. Operation Downfall, the codename for the invasion of Japan, was scheduled to begin on Nov 1, 1945. [1] Dropping or spraying the herbicide was deemed most effective; a July 1945 test from an SPD Mark 2 bomb, originally crafted to hold biological weapons like anthrax or ricin, had the shell burst open in the air to scatter the chemical agent. An hour later, the Soviets began their advance simultaneously on three fronts: to the east, west, and north of Manchuria. 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. 50 "land attack planes," 50 seaplane bombers, and 50 torpedo bombers flown by highly trained pilots for night attacks on convoy escorts. Initially, US planners also did not plan to use any non-US Allied ground forces in Operation Downfall. [22][23] The Allied forces would then have driven north and inland, encircling Tokyo and pressing on toward Nagano. Opposition from the United States and doubts within the Soviet high command caused the plans to be canceled before the invasion could begin. The Soviet declaration of war also changed the calculation of how much time was left for maneuver. They also considered skipping the preliminary invasion and going directly at Tokyo. Barton, Charles A. There is strong evidence that Marshall remained committed to an invasion as late as 15 August. In the Pacific, Japanese expansion had been checked by US forces in a costly island-hopping campaign. At the Tehran Conference in Nov 1943 and at the Yalta Conference in Feb 1945, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin had agreed declare war on Japan three months after Germany would be defeated. [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. [49][50] One mobilized high school girl, Yukiko Kasai, found herself issued an awl and told, "Even killing one American soldier will do. One of the. With the apparent rejection of the Potsdam Declaration, Truman and his advisers went ahead with the atomic attack on the Japanese mainland. The Japanese command intended to organize its Army personnel according to the following plan:[52], Total mobilized: 3,150,000 Japan's rejection of the demand led to final order to proceed with atomic bombing. The counteroffensive forces were still farther back, prepared to move against the largest landing. Seeking raw materials to fuel its growing industries, Japan invaded the Chinese province of Manchuria in 1931. 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. [citation needed], In March 1945, there was only one combat division in Kysh. ET, April 24, 2023 China respects sovereign state status of ex-Soviet Union countries, foreign ministry spokeswoman says. A destroyed hotel in Kyiv after a . [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. 9 Aug 1945 - 2 Sep 1945. Mutual support was essential in defence and attack by either side. This declaration was made by Soviet Foreign Prime Minister Vyacheslav Molotov to Japanese ambassador Naotake Sat at 11pm Trans-Baikal time. 'Every precaution must be taken not to give the enemy cause for a pretext to use gas,' the commanders were warned. Airbases would be established, which would give cover for Operation Coronet, the attack on Tokyo Bay. On 10 August Japan offered to surrender unconditionally under the terms of the Potsdam Declaration as long as the emperor remained sovereign ruler. Reinforcements would have been available from those countries, as well as other parts of the Commonwealth. 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. This included the planned invasion of Japanese territory in Sakhalin. Before the main invasion, the offshore islands of Tanegashima, Yakushima, and the Koshikijima Islands were to be taken, starting on X-5. Japanese holdouts, especially on . The defending forces of 77,000 troops (and 20,000 Okinawan militia) largely hid in the caves during the bombardment which withstood all but a direct hit to the entrance, with the resulting raising of Japanese morale. 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). 10:11pm: EU, Japan resist US plan to ban all G7 exports to Russia, FT reports The European Union and Japan have pushed back against a US proposal for G7 countries to ban all exports to Russia . [citation needed]. "[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. Surprise resort trips and empty hotel rooms reveal how Russia's plan for an easy victory in Ukraine fell apart. It consisted of more than 120,000 people working on 37 different sites across 19 states in the US and in Canada, at a cost of more than $2 billion. Soviet soldiers in front of Harbin railway station. 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 . About 400,000 Japanese died as a result of these raids plus the dropping of the atomic bombs. [58], Allied counter-kamikaze preparations were known as the Big Blue Blanket. A devastating typhoon in October 1945 would have delayed Allied invasion preparations, while bad weather in the winter and spring of 1946 would have hampered operations and logistics. For Operation Downfall, the US military envisaged requiring more than 30 divisions for a successful invasion of the Japanese home islands. [29][pageneeded] The war ended before the details of the corps were finalized. For comparative purposes, about 1,300 Western Allied ships deployed during the Battle of Okinawa (AprilJune 1945). Even when rounded down to a conservative 200,000, this figure implied a total of nearly 500,000 all-causes losses, of whom perhaps 50,000 might return to duty after light to moderate care. United States Naval Institute. Soviet declaration of war. Only Kysh (the southernmost island of Japan) and the beaches of the Kant Plain (both southwest and southeast of Tokyo) were realistic invasion zones. That changed in July, with the discovery of four new divisions and indications of more to come. Ultimately, the Navy partially conceded, and MacArthur was to be given total command of all forces if circumstances made it necessary. ", "That approximately three (3) hostile divisions will be disposed in Southern Kyushu and an additional three (3) in Northern Kyushu at initiation of the Olympic operation. Since Japan and the Soviet Union maintained a state of wary neutrality until the Soviet declaration of war on Japan in August 1945, Japanese observers based in Japanese-held territories in Manchuria, Korea, Sakhalin, and the Kuril Islands constantly watched the port of Vladivostok and other seaports in the Soviet Union. 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. The capture of the Mariana Islands in November 1944 meant that air bases could be established to bomb Japan. In China, Operation Ichigo started in April 1944. Share. A July Navy estimate, abandoning any distinction between training and combat aircraft, was 8,750; in August, 10,290. In 1944, early planning proposed a force of 5001,000 aircraft, including units dedicated to aerial refueling. In early 1945, Miyazaki was virtually undefended, while Ariake, with its good nearby harbor, was heavily defended. It was Germany's largest invasion force. Admiral Matome Ugaki was recalled to Japan in February 1945 and given command of the Fifth Air Fleet on Kysh. [26][27] He also recommended that the corps be organized along the lines of a U.S. corps, should use only U.S. equipment and logistics, and should train in the U.S. for six months before deployment; these suggestions were accepted. In my opinion, there should not be the slightest thought of changing the Olympic operation.[75]. Emperor Hirohito summoned an Imperial Council asking that his ministers accept the terms forthwith and surrender unconditionally. [90] Contributor: C. Peter Chen. The battle lasted one day, with minor combat actions going on for four more after the official surrender of Japan and the garrison, during which the attacking Soviet forces lost over 516 troops and five of the 16 landing ships (many of these formerly belonged to the US Navy and were later given to the Soviet Union) to Japanese coastal artillery, and the Japanese lost over 256 troops. 330 Navy bombers flown by highly trained pilots to attack the Allied carrier task force to prevent it from supporting the invasion convoys. In early 1946 would come Operation Coronet, the planned invasion of the Kant Plain, near Tokyo, on the main Japanese island of Honshu. Invasion of the Soviet Union, June 1941. The B-29 Superfortresses were then withdrawn from China to bomb Japan from the Marianas. NEMURO, Japan Soviet soldiers barged into Hirotoshi Kawata's home on Sept. 4, 1945, searching for hidden Japanese soldiers and valuables. "Underwater Guerrillas". "[72] An air burst 1,8002,000ft (550610m) above the ground had been chosen for the (Hiroshima) bomb to achieve maximum blast effects, and to minimize residual radiation on the ground, as it was hoped that American troops would soon occupy the city. [39] However, General George Marshall argued that forcing surrender this way might take several years, if ever. But the war in the east still raged on and Japanese surrender seemed a long way off. If not checked, this threatened "to grow to [the] point where we attack on a ratio of one (1) to one (1) which is not the recipe for victory. The same day, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki. Stalin had agreed to enter the war against Japan at the Teheran Conference in 1943. 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. Proceedings. The offensive was finally halted in December. 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. Once the atomic bomb became available, General Marshall envisioned using it to support the invasion if sufficient numbers could be produced in time. 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. [citation needed], The Japanese had kamikaze aircraft in southern Honshu and Kyushu which would have opposed operations Olympic and Coronet. Chitrapu 1 CHAPTER 25 Operation Downfall: Proposed invasion of Japan that was replaced by atomic bombs Manhattan Project: Top Secret plan to convert nuclear power into a weapon Divine Wind: Japanese kamikaze pilots Yalta: Where Big Three met to discuss postwar plans D-Day: invasion of Normandy to liberate France from Germans Relocation centers: Prison camps where Japanese-Americans r detained . Victory over JapanDay marked the end of the Second World War in August 1945. Tiger Force, a joint Commonwealth long-range heavy bomber unit, was to be transferred from RAF, RAAF, RCAF and RNZAF units and personnel serving with RAF Bomber Command in Europe. . 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. The invasion was not intended to conquer the entire island, just the southernmost third of it, as indicated by the dashed line on the map labeled "general limit of northern advance". [42] Unlike the larger ships, these, together with the destroyers and fleet submarines, were expected to see extensive action defending the shores, with a view to destroying about 60 Allied transports. 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 . In addition, Japan had about 100 Kry-class midget submarines, 300 smaller Kairy-class midget submarines, 120 Kaiten manned torpedoes,[41] and 2,412 Shin'y suicide motorboats. [43], The Navy trained a unit of frogmen to serve as suicide bombers, the Fukuryu. [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. 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. However, the Japanese forces in those islands resisted quite fiercely although some of them proved unwilling to fight after Japan's surrender on 15 August. [97] Early in the war (such as at Tarawa), the Japanese employed strong defenses on the beaches with little or no manpower in reserve, but this tactic proved vulnerable to pre-invasion shore bombardment. [66] While large quantities of gas munitions were manufactured and plans were drawn, it is unlikely they would have been used. 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). Estimated troop strength in early July was 350,000,[59] rising to 545,000 in early August. [57] The United States Strategic Bombing Survey subsequently estimated that if the Japanese managed 5,000 kamikaze sorties, they could have sunk around 90 ships and damaged another 900, roughly triple the Navy's losses at Okinawa. This raid burned 15.8 square miles of Tokyo, killing almost 100,000 Japanese. [82], According to Thomas B. Allen and Norman Polmar, the Soviets had carefully drawn up detailed plans for the Far East invasions, except that the landing for Hokkaido "existed in detail" only in Stalin's mind and that it was "unlikely that Stalin had interests in taking Manchuria and even taking on Hokkaido. Over the next four months, the Imperial Japanese Army transferred forces from Manchuria, Korea, and northern Japan, while raising other forces in place. 13 . The Japanese estimated that the planes would sink more than 400 ships; since they were training the pilots to target transports rather than carriers and destroyers, the casualties would be disproportionately greater than at Okinawa. At Potsdam the Soviets informed their Allied counterparts that they would be ready to move against Japan in mid-August. 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. The Allies decided to launch a two-stage invasion. [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. By the time the war ended, the Army was still trying to determine the optimal dispersal height to cover a wide enough area. 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. Opposition from the United States and doubts within the Soviet high command caused the plans to be cancelled before the invasion could begin. They were to be armed with contact-fuzed mines, and to dive under landing craft and blow them up. Meanwhile, the Japanese had their own plans. Japanese military directives ordered the execution of all POWs being held if Japan was ever invaded. In Hell To Pay, military historian D.M. If Downfall had taken place, it would have been the largest amphibious operation in history, surpassing D-Day. Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson stated "We shall in my opinion have to go through an even more bitter finish fight than in Germany. 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. By the end of the war, these bombing raids burned 66 cities, destroying 20% of the housing and leaving about 15 million homeless. What Russia's Invasion of Ukraine Portends for Japan's Northern Territories Tokyo appears to have finally realized that Putin has no intention of ever handing any of the disputed islands back. The first firebombing attack was on Wuhan, the Imperial Japanese Army headquarters in China, on 18 December 1944. 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. [5], The Pacific War was not under a single Allied commander-in-chief (C-in-C). It was followed by a second bomb on 9 August on Nagasaki. [41] Despite its inability to conduct large-scale fleet operations, the IJN still maintained a fleet of thousands of warplanes and possessed nearly 2 million personnel in the Home Islands, ensuring it a large role in the coming defensive operation. From the middle of May, when fighters based on the island of Ie Shima first attacked targets on southern Japan, the scale of. One compound designated LN-8 performed best in tests and went into mass production. 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. And it was, indeed, the death blow U.S . [citation needed] The Australian government had asked at an early stage for the inclusion of an Australian Army infantry division in the first wave (Olympic). Casualties were high, but the island provided another useful staging post for the bombers. That fleet's secret mission: to transport the Red Army for an invasion of Japan . [46] Although the Japanese were able to muster new soldiers, equipping them was more difficult. Operation Coronet, the invasion of Honshu at the Kant Plain south of the capital, was to begin on "Y-Day", which was tentatively scheduled for 1 March 1946. They achieved complete surprise, outgunning and outflanking the defending Japanese Kwantung Army of 713,000 troops, commanded by General Otozo Yamada. Militarily Japan was finished (as the Soviet invasion of Manchuria that August showed). [102] 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. Planning was later scaled back to 22 squadrons and, by the time the war ended, to 10 squadrons: between 120 and 150 Avro Lancasters/Lincolns, operating out of airbases on Okinawa. [12], Physically, Japan made an imposing target, distant from other landmasses and with very few beaches geographically suitable for sea-borne invasion. [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. Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. In the wee hours of Aug. 24, 1945, Soviet long-range bombers would take off from their air base not far from the Far Eastern port of Vladivostok and fly east, across the Sea of Japan, dropping. During World War II, the Japanese had a naval base at Paramushiro in the Kuril Islands and several bases in Hokkaido. Japan holds the G-7 presidency this year, and Kyodo News reported last week that such a step is being . Casualty predictions varied widely, but were extremely high. [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. 2,500 Army aircraft (conventional as well as suicide), together with 2,900 Naval trainers for, 2,000 Army and Navy "air superiority" fighters to escort the. 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. 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. [16] The Eighth was to upgrade their B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-24 Liberators to B-29 Superfortresses (the group received its first B-29 on 8 August 1945).[16]. Using Okinawa as a staging base, the objective would have been to seize the southern portion of Kysh. The 35 landing beaches were all named for automobiles: Austin, Buick, Cadillac, and so on through to Stutz, Winton, and Zephyr. At Kysh, because of the more favorable circumstances (such as terrain that would reduce the Allies' radar advantage, and the impressment of wood and fabric airframe training aircraft into the kamikaze role which would have been difficult for Allied radar systems of the time to detect and track), they hoped to raise that to one for six by overwhelming the US defenses with large numbers of kamikaze attacks within a period of hours. p. 43. On July 26, the leaders of the US, Britain and China issued the Potsdam Declaration, demanding unconditional Japanese surrender and vowing "prompt and utter destruction" if Japan refused. If a clock were drawn on a map of Kysh, these points would roughly correspond to 4, 5, and 7 o'clock, respectively.