Quote:
Originally Posted by JoeCorrado
Think about it- for them, they still had a chance. Their Emperor, they believed- was after all, a living God.
Know what I mean?
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Actually I do. There was even a name for the chance they thought they still had.
Ketsu Go. It's basic premise was that American morale at home was wavering with the huge casualty lists from Luzon, Iwo Jima and Okinawa and could be shattered by inflicting staggering losses in the initial landings in Japan. The reasoning among Japanese leaders was that American politicians would balk at the prospect of enormous causalities to continue the conquest.
Although we had virtually destroyed the Japanese navy and merchant marine by 1945, the bulk of the Imperial Japanese Army was largely intact. The garrison on Kyushu, the first island due to be invaded had been raised to 14 field divisions, three tank brigades and eight mixed brigades totaling 900,000 men by August 1945. Far larger than the three divisions the US Army and Marines had faced in Okinawa.
Which is why I don't much regret the decision to use the atomic bombs. If they had not been used, it is by no means certain that the Emperor would have finally spoken up to provide the first step of an organized surrender of the Japanese government and armed forces. The Emperor always gave the bomb credit for his decision along with his break of faith with the Imperial Army and the spectre of starvation and civil disorder as his reasons for ending the war. He didn't see how Ketsu Go was going to work if Japanese cities were being obliterated in a flash with just one bomb.