"Bo Raxo" <crimenewscenter@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in
news:B56dnYFXPvAgqhTVnZ2dnUVZ_jqdnZ2d@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> "John Wetton" <Asia@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
> news:4888bcf3$0$7363$607ed4bc@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>_ Prof. Jonez _ wrote:
>>
>>> Gray Ghost wrote:
>>>
>>>>So Italian murders don't count?
>>>
>>>
>>> What's that got to do with your repugnant amoral
>>> position that sup****ts dropping NUCLEAR Weapons
>>> of Mass Destruction upon CIVILIAN population
>>> centers, slaughtering 100,000+ innocent men, women
>>> and children in the process ?
>>>
>>> Does your family know what a repugant maggot you really are?
>>
>> They NEEDED to have the bombs dropped on them, you moron.
>>
>> JAPAN's Government talkd their own people into committing suicide so as
>> to "win at any cost!"
>>
>> Our GLORIOUS a-bombs made a wake-up call to the entire world, that
>> global domination will not be tolerated.
>
> Actually, Japan's government was making desperate overtures to the
> Americans trying to negotiate a surrender. The diplomatic cables make
> this quite clear.
>
> The problem was that the Japanese insisted on one condition - that the
> emperor be left in power. They needed this one face-saving item, and
> most likely the emperor wouldn't sign off on a surrender without that
> personal guarantee - otherwise he faced trial and execution as a war
> criminal.
>
> Truman had campaigned on a solemn promise to end the war with complete
> and unconditional surrender. Politically he couldn't back off from
that,
> so he couldn't accept the one condition on which the Japanese were
> insistent. Ironically, after the war the emperor was left in power
> anyway, it was needed to provide social stability and legitimacy to the
> post-war government.
>
> So the dropping of the atomic bombs wasn't to avoid a land invasion, the
> false dichotomy that most people assume was the case. It was to prevent
> Truman's Republican opponents from having a powerful political point
with
> which to savage him. The dead of Hiro****ma and Nagasaki were
sacrificed
> for the interests of Truman and his fellow Democrats in Congress. It
> worked, too, as he barely squeaked through to re-election in '48.
>
>
> Bo Raxo
>
>
>
>
Yeah it was all about the emperor. That's why there was a coup attempt
against the emperor the night before his recording was played to the
Japanese. A coup attempt that was only stopped by the actions of a single
man.
Operation Ketsugo
Meanwhile, the Japanese had their own plans. Initially, they were
concerned
about an invasion during the summer of 1945. However, the Battle of
Okinawa
went on 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. Japanese intelligence predicted
fairly closely where the invasion would take place: southern Kyushu at
Miyazaki, Ariake Bay, and/or the Satsuma Peninsula.[16]
While Japan no longer had a realistic prospect of winning the war, it
could
perhaps raise the cost of conquering Japan too high for the Allies to
accept,
leading to some sort of armistice. The Japanese plan for defeating the
invasion was called Operation Ketsugo (????, ketsugo sakusen?) ("Operation
Codename Decision").
Kamikaze
Admiral Matome Ugaki was recalled to Japan in February 1945 and given
command
of the Fifth Air Fleet on Kyushu. The Fifth Air Fleet was assigned the
task
of kamikaze attacks against ****ps involved in the invasion of Okinawa,
Operation Ten-Go and began training pilots and assembling aircraft for the
defense of Kyushu where the Allies were likely to invade next.
The Japanese defense relied heavily on kamikaze planes. In addition to
fighters and bombers, they reassigned almost all of their trainers for the
mission, trying to make up in quantity what they lacked in quality. Their
army and navy had more than 10,000 aircraft ready for use in July (and
would
have had somewhat more by October) and were planning to use almost all
that
could reach the invasion fleets. Ugaki also oversaw building of hundreds
of
small suicide boats that would also be used to attack any Allied ****ps
that
came near the shores of Kyushu.
Fewer than 2,000 kamikaze planes launched attacks during the Battle of
Okinawa, achieving approximately one hit per nine attacks. At Kyushu,
given
the more favorable cir***stances, they hoped to get one for six by
overwhelming the U.S. defenses with large numbers of kamikaze attacks in a
period of hours. The Japanese estimated that the planes would sink more
than
400 ****ps; since they were training the pilots to target trans****ts rather
than carriers and destroyers, the casualties would be dispro****tionately
greater than at Okinawa. One staff study estimated that the kamikazes
could
destroy a third to a half of the invasion force before its landings.[17]
Naval forces
By August 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) had ceased to be an
effective fighting force. The only Japanese major war****ps in fighting
order
were six aircraft carriers, four cruisers, and one battle****p, none of
which
could be adequately fueled. The navy still had quite a large number of
minor
war****ps, but their use would also be limited by the lack of fuel. They
could
"sustain a force of twenty operational destroyers and perhaps forty
submarines for a few days at sea."[18]
The IJN also had about 100 Koryu-class midget submarines, 250 smaller
Kairyu-
class midget submarines, 1,000 Kaiten manned torpedoes, and 800 ****n'yo
suicide boats.
Ground forces
In any amphibious operation, the defender has two options for defensive
strategy — strong defense of the beaches, or defense in depth. Early in
the
war (such as at Tarawa) the Japanese employed strong defenses on the
beaches
with little or no manpower in reserve. This tactic proved to be very
vulnerable to pre-invasion shore bombardment. Later in the war, at
Peleliu,
Iwo Jima, and Okinawa, the Japanese switched strategy and dug in their
forces
in the most defensible terrain. Fighting evolved into long battles of
attrition, with very high American casualties, but no hope of victory for
the
Japanese.
For the defense of Kyushu, the Japanese took an intermediate posture, with
the bulk of their defensive forces a few kilometres inland from the shore
—
back far enough to avoid complete exposure to naval gunnery, but close
enough
that the Americans could not establish a secure foothold before engaging
them. The counteroffensive forces were still further back, prepared to
move
against whichever landing seemed to be the main effort.
In March 1945, there was only one combat division in Kyushu. Over the next
four months the Japanese Army transferred forces from Manchuria, Korea,
and
northern Japan, while raising other forces in place. By August, they had
fourteen divisions and various smaller formations, including three tank
brigades, for a total of 900,000 men.[19] Although the Japanese were able
to
raise large numbers of new soldiers, equipping them was more difficult. By
August, the Japanese Army had the equivalent of 65 divisions in the
homeland
but only enough equipment for 40 and only enough ammunition for 30.[20]
The Japanese did not formally decide to stake everything on the outcome of
the Battle of Kyushu, but they concentrated their assets to such a degree
that there would be little left in reserve. By one estimate, the forces in
Kyushu had 40% of all the ammunition in the Home Islands.[21]
=======================================================================
In addition, the Japanese had organized the Patriotic Citizens Fighting
Corps
— which included all healthy men aged 15–60 and women 17–40 — to perform
combat sup****t, and ultimately combat jobs. Weapons, training, and
uniforms
were generally lacking: some men were armed with nothing better than
muzzle-
loading muskets, longbows, or bamboo spears; nevertheless, they were
expected
to make do with what they had.[22]
One mobilized high school girl, Yukiko Kasai, found herself issued an awl
and
told, "Even killing one American soldier will do. … You must aim for the
abdomen."[23]
=======================================================================
Does this really sound like they were getting ready to surrender? I do not
doubt for a minute that Hirohito "got it" and wanted to save his people.
But
the military that got Japan into the war, despite the obvious dangers to
Japan, were ready to fight to the last Japanese.
Frank
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