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Operation Downfall was the proposed Allied plan for the invasion of the Japanese home islands near the end of ... Civilian casualties were also expected to be high ...
Operation Downfall was the proposed Allied plan for the invasion of the Japanese home islands near the end of World War II.. The operation had two parts, Operation Olympic, intended to capture the southern third of the southernmost main Japanese island, Kyūshū, and Operation Coronet, the planned invasion of the Kantō Plain, near Tokyo, on the main Japanese island of Honshu.
Even before the surrender of Nazi Germany on 8 May 1945, plans were underway for the largest operation of the Pacific War, Operation Downfall, the Allied invasion of Japan. [10] The operation had two parts: set to begin in October 1945, Operation Olympic involved a series of landings by the U.S.
March 1946's Operation Coronet was planned to take Tokyo with a landing of 25 divisions, compared to D-Day's 12 divisions. Those who argue in favor of the decision to drop the atomic bombs on enemy targets believe massive casualties on both sides would have occurred in Operation Downfall, the planned Allied invasion of Japan. [9]
However, other scholars have argued that the atomic bombings shocked the Japanese government into surrender and helped avoid Operation Downfall, or a prolonged blockade and conventional bombing campaign, any of which would have exacted much higher casualties among Japanese civilians. [206]
In the aftermath, Operation Downfall had cost an additional 150,000 Allied casualties. Hirohito is reinstated as emperor and Japan's transition to democracy begins. Despite the Kuomintang's defeat and retreat to Taiwan, the Chinese Communist Party and Soviet Union failed to secure a Sino-Soviet alliance.
Okinawa was to be a staging area for Operation Downfall, the Allied invasion of the Japanese Home Islands. [2] Following Germany's defeat , the Soviet Union began quietly redeploying its battle-hardened forces from the European theatre to the Far East, in addition to about forty divisions that had been stationed there since 1941 , as a ...
In late June 1945, as the U.S. wrapped up the two-and-a-half-month Battle of Okinawa (which cost the lives of 260,000 people, including 150,000 civilians), [46] [47] it was faced with the prospect of invading the Japanese home islands in an operation codenamed Operation Downfall. Based on the U.S. casualties from the preceding island-hopping ...