Marshall experienced qualms about OLYMPIC even from the spring. This was challenged on the basis that it would be too late to assist the current invasion strategy starting in November 1945, and because “indigenous food supplies may be very important to the commander charged with the occupation.” If the war dragged on, this option was already on the table for a return visit. Since rice was the staple food of the Japanese diet, such a measure could kill Japanese indiscriminately by the millions. Planners had proposed to destroy the Japanese rice crop with a chemical (TN8), though this might not be feasible before 1946. This background takes us to a review of American strategic options against Japan in 1945 apart from invasion-it is a nightmare scroll of “horribles.” This revelation only appeared about five decades after the war and never achieved widespread public understanding. Courtesy of the US National Archives.Īs set out in prior parts of the series, communications intelligence revealed the massive Japanese build up on southern Kyushu, the planned target for an initial invasion of Japan in November 1945 (Operation OLYMPIC.) This propelled the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) into a convulsive confrontation over the viability of any invasion just as the war ended in August 1945. Top Image: Remains of a Shinto Shrine, Nagasaki, Japan, October 1945.
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