[ProtectOurFreedom]

Thanks for doing this, Homer. It has been so enlightening to read the real-time stories and news from the war. Today’s paper is obviously especially important because tomorrow “the curtain goes up.”

I’m participularly interested in the discussion of the upcoming invasion because my Dad was somewhere in the Pacific 70 years ago today as part of the invasion force being amassed. The planned invasion of Japan was going to be much larger than the invasion of Normandy. Where was all the materiel being stored? There seems to be little written about the invasion plans and preparations because it was all eclipsed by the event of Aug. 6.

[colorado tanker]

The invasion of Japan was called operation Downfall. The first stage was Operation Olympic, the invasion of Southern Kyushu. The southern third of Kyushu was to be used for air bases, logistics facilities and staging areas for Operation Downfall, landings on the Kanto Plain around Tokyo. We have seen for weeks references to Olympic planning documents in the Graybook. The operation would have been gigantic, with staging areas on Okinawa, the Philippines, Guam and Hawaii.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Downfall