Invading Japan
Studying different ‘what if’ scenarios or actual plans which were not put in action provides valuable opportunity to broaden military officers’ scope of thinking. Familiarizing with different military operations both materialised and not materialised prepares officer to be more flexible enabling him or her to understand better contemporary highly volatile environment and adapt his or her behaviour according to the changes happening. The aim of the paper is to give brief overview of U.S. plan to invade Japanese archipelago, and how the Japanese were planning to repel U.S. attempts to attack Kyushu Island. The Essay endeavours answering the following research question – would the U.S. had been successful invading Japan? Initial research indicates that even when the U.S. plan is a good example of joint operation and included sufficient resilience to be successful, it is difficult to claim that U.S. would prevail over
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For example, Japanese expected the invasion to home islands in October 1945 or after (Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff, 1945 p. 1); United States had planned to invade Southern Kyushu on 1st of November 1945 (Joint Chiefs of Staff, 1945, annex 3a). Japanese precise prediction of U.S. invasion was based on various strategic information that Imperial Headquarters had access to. From these information deductions were made (Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff, 1945 p. 2). The significant event that happen which supported Japanese making valid deductions was the fall of Okinawa Island. Battle of Okinawa tuck place from 24th of March 1945 to 22nd of June 1945 (Alex, 2014). After the loss of Okinawa Island South from Kyushu Island logical sequel would be invasion to Japanese main Islands. Imperial Headquarters presumably had to calculate the feasible time for operational pause needed to make the necessary
But yet they still failed. “First, the Japanese missed their prime targets:the aircraft carriers Lexington and Enterprise (both of which were at sea), and Saratoga. Second, the Japanese failed to destroy the huge oil storage facilities, without which the Pacific Fleet would have been forced to retire to the West Coast.” Many historians argue if they should have attacked us. It was only a matter of time before the U.S was going to be sent into World war II it was a great reason to start early.
While the Imperial Navy’s Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto, who was also known as the “chief architect of the attack on Pearl Harbor, stated that he believed it was impossible for Japan to win such a war but Japan had to gain the upper hand at the very beginning so that the United States just might be enticed to the negotiating table” (Timms). Hotta revealed her own interpretation by reviewing relevant published primary sources and the reasons why Japan decided to attack the Pearl Harbor. In addition, everyone talked about going to war such as the “Japan’s top brass referring to the prime minister, the foreign minister, the army and navy ministers, and the chiefs of the army and navy general staff”
A huge breakthrough came when a man named Joseph Rochefort broke the Japanese code and foretold of an attack on the two islands of midway that the Japanese were interested in. Japans goal in this was to lure out the rest of Americas pacific fleet and destroy them. Luckily for Americans they had no idea that we knew what they were going to do. The Pacific Fleet Including the USS Enterprise, USS Hornet, USS Yorktown, and all of the supporting ships went to Midway and waited for the Japanese to get there. The battle began on June 4th, 1942 approximately 6 months after the devastation of Pearl
However, this conflicted relationship prevented a solidified military strategic vision, with both leaders working against each other to sway the Emperor. By the spring of 1942, Japan had attacked the US bases in Hawaii and in the Philippines, controlled the Dutch Indies, Wake Island, Guam, Thailand, and Burma. The Japanese intended to establish control over the Pacific region and were successful in the execution of their offensive through the late winter of 1942. During the operational pause in early 1942, there were several options the Japanese could have taken to avoid the defeats suffered over the remainder of the war.
December 7, 1941 is considered one of the most impactful days in United States’ history: the day Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Despite their size, Japan left an incredible amount of damage with their 5 submarines and 408 planes. President Roosevelt had been avoiding scuffling with Japan since their pact with Germany and Italy; war with Germany was sure to erupt soon enough. However, soon after the ambuscade, the United States’ declared war on Japan and launched their involvement in World War II. Japan’s leaders recognized the risks of invading one of America’s naval bases; yet they persisted.
The development of carrier-based air power was vital to the outcome of the battle and the war. The use of intelligence and surprise attacks also became the standard for future naval operations. The U.S. was able to use its intelligence to anticipate the enemy’s movements and launch a successful attack. Furthermore, the use of surprise attacks allowed the United States to catch the Japanese off guard, leading to the United States Navy’s success. The U.S. emerged victorious, and the battle marked the beginning of the end for Japan's empire.
Navy. As shown by document C in 1940 Congress passed an act that promised to triple fleet size by 1944 and in document E, stated by Hideki Tojo the Prime minister and War minister of Japan, “When I think about the strengthening of American defences in the Southwest Pacific, the expansion of the American fleet, … I see no end of difficulties”. The evidence in document C shows that the U.S. was going to expand the Navy drastically to triple the size of the fleet, and as shown by document E Japan saw this fleet expansion as a big problem for their future plans, so an attack before the expansion of the expansion of the U.S. fleet can be seen as beneficial for
Pearl Harbor When considering knowledge on Pearl Harbor previous to the occurrence, there is substantial indication to justify that the US government clearly knew Japan intended to attack at some point. Despite the awareness of their potential threat, it would've been nearly impossible to have known the time and date it would take place, being one reason a multitude of people conceived this as a surprise attack. Contrary to this belief, FDR was well warned and cognizant of what was expected in response to his counteractions against the Japanese, being influenced by McCollum's eight point plan. One of the US Government's top experts on Japan was Lieutenant Commander Arthur McCollum.
Japan’s mail in December 1940 indicated they planned to attack the southwest, which was Singapore, the south, which was the Philippines, or the east, which was Pearl Harbor (Schweikart and Allen 617). However, they claim the attack was one of the sole reasons America declared
There were many codes that revisionist claim should have pointed in every way possible towards an impending war with the US. However, based on what we know today, there is little that the US could have done to prevent the Japanese from
knowledge with regards to the whereabouts of this attack, furthering the argument that the attack was a genuine surprise. American intelligence was unable to speculate or guess the Japanese nation’s intention (source B). This statement is supported by the fact that Japan had meticulously planned the attack, taking various precautionary measures to safeguard the security of their plan (source A). The United States would have found it tremendously difficult to completely decipher the Japanese plan. The messages that were recovered by American intelligence gave no indication that there would be an, “outbreak of hostilities” (Source B).
Rahul Bagga Mr.Campbell US History, Period 0 16 December 2015 Why did Japan attack Pearl Harbor? One day that will always be remembered by America is the date of December 7, 1941, which changed American history forever. December 7, 1941 was the day the Japanese warplanes attacked Pearl Harbor (Hawaii) which stationed many of American ships and airfields. Immediately after the bombings, United States President Franklin Roosevelt declared war on Japan, leading to a direct involvement into World War ll. Japan had many reason to do so but Japan attacked Pearl harbor for three reasons which were that they had a plan for a new world order, United States were expanding their number of naval ships rapidly, and an oil embargo was placed upon Japan
Also depleting air strength meant the remaining warplanes had to be hoarded to defend Japanese Home Islands. With no available means to defend Iwo Jima, Japan decided to rely on the established defensive equipment in the area and check U.S. by delaying tactics to gain time for defense of the mainland. Japanese Lieutenant General Tadamichi Kuribayashi was assigned the task of defending Iwo Jima. Knowing he couldn’t win the battle, he aimed at inflicting heavy casualties on American forces to force them to reconsider invasion of Mainland Japan. His strategy was radically different from Japan’s usual strategy of beach defense to face the landings directly.
“From December of 1941 to the spring of 1942, Japanese forces advanced virtually unimpeded throughout the Pacific and southeastern Asia while handing the Allies a string of humiliating defeats, first at Pearl Harbor, then at Guam, Wake Island, Singapore, and in the Philippines. By the spring of 1942, the outcome of the war was very much in doubt as Americans began to think that the Japanese military was invincible. "The Pacific situation is now very grave," cabled President Roosevelt to Winston Churchill in March of 1942, after the Japanese conquest of Java.”
Cmdr. Joseph Rochefort and the U.S.’s overall superior strategies of Nimitz and Fletcher was the true reason for why the U.S.’s seemingly impossible victory became possible. The two key themes that I will focus analysis on is the failures in the Japanese strategic planning and execution at Midway and U.S. determination and resilience to keep pushing on even after things, especially with USS carriers leading up to and during the actual war was falling apart. Symonds begins to argue his case by dissecting Japan’s plans for conquest and domination in the Pacific. He starts with looking at the Japanese failure by several of their military philosophies.