Posted on 11/04/2007 12:58:23 PM PST by CHEE
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, are 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 homeislands. Even fewer today are aware of the defenses the Japanese had prepared to counter the invasion had it been launched.
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No. Thank God for Trumans right decision in 1945. But don’t forget that in 1950 he withdrew the American troops in Korea, which made it possible for Communist North Korea to invade. We had to fight and 30,000 dead Americans later the borders between South Korea and North Korea were the same. Now there are still US troops there keeping the ceasefire. Truman mightily screwed up then.
Actually these plans were declassified in 1947 per order of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Dwight D. Eisenhower, along with all most all WW2 classified except for those dealing with weapons systems, radar, the atomic bomb, and intelligence files like ultra and counter-intelligence.
4 decades. 61 years. Good article but strange math errors in it throughout...
I became friends with an old Japanese army soldier during the time when I lived in Japan. One day after a couple of biirus he broke out some old photographs. There were piles of bamboo spears that were ready for issue to the population at large and some rather attractive ceramic pots that were intended to be black-powder "grenades." He chuckled to relate that many of the latter had been sold to occupations troops as souvenirs without the latter knowing what they had really been made for.
I saw it corroborated in Victor Davis Hanson's writing many years later, but my friend told me then that both sides had based their planning on the events at Okinawa. That should send a shudder up the spine of anyone who has ever studied that horrific battle.
My father was on Okinawa during the battle. He was Army Engineer, building the first airfield, during the battle.
I don’t recall him saying which one it became, but it If I recall correctly, he said that it wasn’t too far from the coral ridge region where the worst of the battle happened.
I think the field was shelled by the Japanese a few times while under construction.
Thanks indcons. Lucky for us we got the Bomb in plenty of time to obviate the need.
For that matter, lucky for Japan that we got the Bomb in plenty of time.
They were always finding those ceramic grenades at Sasebo. The base COs would give them to visiting VIPs.
Wasn’t that on Saipan?
I saw that too, and it looked like a series of stills taken on Saipan after we took that island.
It happened on both Saipan and Okinawa.
On Okinawa it was at the southernmost tip of the island. Peace Prayer Park is now there with monuments to all the dead of both sides of the Okinawa battle. All their names are inscribed on marble slabs with Japanese on one side of the memorial and Americans on the other side.
A little further up the island is the Underground Naval Headquarters of the Imperial Japanese Navy. One room there has grenade shards still in the walls where Japanese Naval officers committed suicide rather than surrender. You can tell how high the bodies were piled as the pock marks are only above a certain level. While hiding in the massive underground caves, mothers would give their crying babies over to soldiers who would cut their throats to prevent their cries from alerting the Americans.
When the battle for Okinawa was over there was not one thing on the island, either living or man made, that was over 24 inches high.
No. Thank God for Trumans right decision in 1945. But don’t forget that in 1950 he withdrew the American troops in Korea, which made it possible for Communist North Korea to invade. We had to fight and 30,000 dead Americans later the borders between South Korea and North Korea were the same. Now there are still US troops there keeping the ceasefire. Truman mightily screwed up then.
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You can’t really blame Truman for that, like you can’t really blame Bush or Clinton for 9-11. Nobody had their crystal ball working.
One beachhead was to be developed each month beginning in Oct or Nov. Each beachhead would be prepared with three nuke detonations to reduce defenses and prevent enemy reinforcement.
I didn’t realize Col Tibbits passed away earlier this month. From the article he requested his grave be unmarked without head or footstone so as not to offer protesters a target.
SF.
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