Book Review: Hell to Pay

Good day, this is the Angry Systems Administrator. Since this is a long holiday weekend, I decided I would read a book. Yes, I know you expected me to be buried inside a server or playing Duke Nukem, but once in a while I just want to get away from electronics.

Today I read a book called Hell to Pay, Operation DOWNFALL and the invasion of Japan, 1945-1947.

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I’ll be honest, at first I thought it was an alternative history novel which I am found of. I was pleasantly surprised to find that this was a scholarly tome on what the United States would have faced of the Japanese had not surrendered in 1945.

The book, by D.H. Giangreco, is a detailed analysis of the Imperial Japanese plans to resist and repel the U.S. Invasion of the home islands. The author went through both American and Japanese historical documents and lays out the potential order of battle.

To say it is horrifying is an understatement.

The Japanese had figured out where the United States was going to land it forces. It wasn’t hard to guess since there were only a few areas suitable for a massive invasion. The Japanese had transferred most of their forces from China with their equipment. They had also hidden thousands of Kamikaze aircraft and small boats loaded with explosives. They also had large amounts of fuel hidden away for the sole purpose of repelling the invasion.

The author also goes over the terrain the Allies would have had to deal with. Great tank country it wasn’t. There weren’t many good roads and the bridges over the many rivers would not support the tanks. This meant that every single bridge would have to be replaced. Ask any combat engineer how easy that is when you’re being shot at.

The Imperial Japanese military was also working to build up a civilian militia. These people, who, to put it mildly, were to be used as cannon fodder with the hope that a few would get close enough to the Americans to do damage. They would have been backed up in many cases by regular Imperial forces. Children as young as 9 were being trained in thrusting bamboo spears into American Marine bellies.

The Japanese were fully expecting up to 20 million dead in the battles of Kyushu, (Operation Olympic) and Honshu, (Operation Coronet). Their goal was simple. Kill so many Americans that the United States would offer terms more conducive to the Japanese.

Aside from the civilian militia, the Japanese also had thousands of obsolete planes along with the fuel needed to attack the American invasion anchorages. Unlike previous Kamikaze attacks, the suicide pilots were trained to attack the American support and transport ships. They would have used the terrain of Kyushu to mask the aircraft from American radar.

The Japanese also had converted their instructor pilots into night qualified fighter pilots. They would have escorted the kamikaze’s in and given them the chance to hit their targets. There was little doubt that they would have inflicted huge losses on American and allied shipping. Troop transports and supply ships are not as well compartmentalized as warships and one or two hits would probably sunk them with who knows how many casualties. One of the things that the author mentions that I didn’t know about was the Japanese using antiquated wooden planes loaded with explosives. These planes couldn’t be seen on radar and combined with the mountains and the short range to the ships, would have insured a large number of successful attacks.

On the American side, there was the determination to “Just get this over with.” The American people were getting tired of the war and now that the Nazi’s had been crushed, wanted their sons and husbands home. Most of the people involved in planning Downfall had no idea about the Manhattan Project or atomic bombs. There was serious discussions about using chemical weapons.

From what I read, the American planners were underestimating how much resistance they could expect. There were estimates of American casualties of over 1 million with anywhere between 400,000 to 800,000 dead. From my reading, I think it would have been even higher. By this point in the war, the Japanese weren’t using their radio links as much since they had internal land lines. This meant that the American code breakers had nothing to break.

There were a number of planners who did know about the Manhattan Project and under direction of General Marshall, looked into the tactical use of the Atomic bombs rather than blasting cities. (At this point in the war, there weren’t that many intact cities left) No one really understood the effects of radioactive fallout and if the weapons had been used to support the ground forces, American casualties would have increased massively. Marines and soldiers would have been exposed and depending on the dosage, may have been walking dead men and not even know it.

Another thing that happened that would have had a huge effect was a couple of typhoons. The first one hit in October 1945 and basically wrecked everything on the island. Okinawa was to be used as the main supply point for DOWNFALL and if the invasion had gone ahead, this storm would have destroyed most of the supplies needed for the attack. This would have delayed the invasion for several months and as much as a year. A second typhoon hit the Philippines in 1946. Since the war was over, it wasn’t considered important. However, if the Japanese had held out, the Philippines would have been loaded with shipping.

The author doesn’t make any judgments other than to say that an invasion would have been a bloodbath. The total number of dead would have been in the millions. People today say we shouldn’t have used the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They fail to understand just how fanatical the Japanese were. The closest approximation are the Radical Islamic suicide bombers. Multiply that by orders of magnitude and add to it a highly trained regular military force. The odds are we would have won, but would have all but annihilated the Japanese people and culture. Every man, woman and child would have been considered an enemy and killed on sight.

One of the things people today don’t understand is that Japanese resistance increased the closer we got to the home islands. This was the opposite of what happened with Germany as the Allies drove on Berlin. The exception was the Eastern Front. That was fought tooth and nail since the Germans had committed so many atrocities. The Russians had revenge on their minds and once they crossed the German border were told to do whatever they wanted…And they did.

Ask any man who was scheduled to go in with the first wave. They didn’t expect to survive. 80-90% losses for the first divisions ashore were expected. Considering how well the Japanese were dug in, I think the casualties would have been astronomical. Even after we had dropped the Bombs, the Japanese were still planning on continuing the war. When Emperor Hirohito made the decision to surrender, fanatical members of the army tried to mount a coup and destroy the recording. Only the fact that they couldn’t find the recording is the only reason the war ended in August 1945.

I recommend this book for anyone who thinks we should have not dropped the Bombs. If you believe that and you have a brain in your head, (Which lets out Moonbats), you will come to understand that dropping the bombs was the only thing we could have done. Even then, if the Japanese hadn’t surrendered and we had invaded, the bombs that would have been built would have been used tactically and more than likely poisoned thousands of our own troops. It was a very near thing, and if Operation Downfall had occurred, the world as we know it would have been radically different.

~The Angry Systems Administrator~

(6 votes, average: 1.00 out of 5)

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