Hell to Pay: Operation DOWNFALL and the Invasion of Japan, 1945-1947 [Hardcover]

D. M. Giangreco (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 23, 2009

Hell To Pay: Operation Downfall and the Invasion of Japan, 1945-1947 is a comprehensive and compelling examination of the myriad complex issues that comprised the strategic plans for the American invasion of Japan. U.S. planning for the invasion and military occupation of Imperial Japan was begun in 1943, two years before the dropping of atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In its final form, Operation Downfall called for a massive Allied invasion--on a scale dwarfing D-Day--to be carried out in two stages. In the first stage, Operation Olympic, the U.S. Sixth Army would lead the southern-most assault on the Home Island of Kyushu preceded by the dropping of as many as nine atom bombs behind the landing beaches. Sixth Army would secure airfields and anchorages needed to launch the second stage, Operation Coronet, 500 miles to the north in 1946. The decisive Coronet invasion of the industrial heartland of Japan through the Tokyo Plain would be led by the Eighth Army, as well as the First Army, which had previously pummeled its way across France and Germany to defeat the Nazis. These facts are well known and have been recounted, with varying degrees of accuracy, in a variety of books and articles. A common theme in these works is their reliance on a relatively few declassified high-level planning documents. An attempt to fully understand how both the U.S. and Japan planned to conduct the massive battles subsequent to the initial landings was not dealt with in these books beyond the skeletal U.S. outlines formulated nine months before the initial land battles were to commence, and more than a year before the anticipated climactic series of battles near Tokyo. On the Japanese side, plans for Operation Ketsu-go, the decisive battle in the Home Islands, have been unexamined below the strategic level and seldom consisted of more than a list of the units involved and a rehash of U.S. intelligence estimates of Kamikaze aircraft available for the defense of Kyushu. Hell to Pay examines the invasion of Japan in light of the large body of Japanese and American operational and tactical planning documents unearthed by the author in both familiar and obscure archives, as well as postwar interrogations and reports that senior Japanese commanders and their staffs were ordered to produce for General MacArthur's headquarters. Hell to Pay clarifies the political and military ramifications of the enormous casualties and loss of material projected by both sides in the climatic struggle to bring the Pacific War to a conclusion through a brutal series of battles on Japanese soil. This groundbreaking history counters the revisionist interpretations questioning the rationale for the use of the atom bomb and shows that President Truman's decision was based on very real estimates of the truly horrific cost of a conventional invasion of Japan.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Giangreco, a longtime former editor for Military Review, synthesizes years of research in a definitive analysis of America's motives for using atomic bombs against Japan in 1945. The nuclear bombing of Japan, he concludes, was undertaken in the context of Operation Downfall: a series of invasions of the Japanese islands American planners estimated would initially cause anywhere from a quarter-million to a million U.S. casualties, plus millions of Japanese. Giangreco presents the contexts of America's growing war weariness and declining manpower resources. Above all, he demonstrates the Japanese militarists' continuing belief that they could defeat the U.S. Japan had almost 13,000 planes available for suicide attacks, and plans for the defense of Kyushu, the U.S.'s initial invasion site, were elaborate and sophisticated, deploying over 900,000 men. Japanese and American documents presented here offer a chillingly clear-eyed picture of a battle of attrition so daunting that Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall considered using atomic and chemical weapons to support the operation. Faced with this conundrum, in Giangreco's excellent examination, President Truman took what seemed the least worst option. 44 b&w photos, 12 maps. (Oct. 15)
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Review

A former editor at Military Review provides us with one of the first books to detail the planned U.S. invasion of the Japanese home islands in October 1945 and the Japanese preparations for that invasion. Drawing on solid research in both countries, Giangreco lays out the U.S. planning and the whole scenario of what would have happened: millions of casualties, prolongation of the Pacific war, possibly past 1947, and manpower shortages and war weariness in the United States, with Japanese militarists and their no-surrender policy in control in Japan. The two-pronged invasion would have begun on the island of Kyushu, preceded by no fewer than nine atom-bomb drops behind the landing beaches. Illustrative of just how much the war with Japan was a close-run thing, this is essential reading. --Library Journal

A former editor at Military Review provides us with one of the first books to detail the planned U.S. invasion of the Japanese home islands in October 1945 and the Japanese preparations for that invasion. Drawing on solid research in both countries, Giangreco lays out the U.S. planning and the whole scenario of what would have happened: millions of casualties, prolongation of the Pacific war, possibly past 1947, and manpower shortages and war weariness in the United States, with Japanese militarists and their no-surrender policy in control in Japan. The two-pronged invasion would have begun on the island of Kyushu, preceded by no fewer than nine atom-bomb drops behind the landing beaches. Illustrative of just how much the war with Japan was a close-run thing, this is essential reading. --Library Journal

Giangreco, a longtime former editor for Military Review, synthesizes years of research in a definitive analysis of America's motives for using atomic bombs against Japan in 1945. The nuclear bombing of Japan, he concludes, was undertaken in the context of Operation Downfall: a series of invasions of the Japanese islands American planners estimated would initially cause anywhere from a quarter-million to a million U.S. casualties, plus millions of Japanese. Giangreco presents the contexts of America's growing war weariness and declining manpower resources. Above all, he demonstrates the Japanese militarists' continuing belief that they could defeat the U.S. Japan had almost 13,000 planes available for suicide attacks, and plans for the defense of Kyushu, the U.S.'s initial invasion site, were elaborate and sophisticated, deploying over 900,000 men. Japanese and American documents presented here offer a chillingly clear-eyed picture of a battle of attrition so daunting that Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall considered using atomic and chemical weapons to support the operation. Faced with this conundrum, in Giangreco's excellent examination, President Truman took what seemed the least worst option. 44 b&w photos, 12 maps. Starred Review PW (Oct. 15) --Publisher's Weekly

Arthur Goodzeit Award for Best Military History Book of 2009, New York Military Affairs Symposium
< br /> This book breaks new ground and is an important addition to previous works about war in the Pacific Theatre. It is thoroughly recommended.

--WARSHIP 2011's Naval Books of the Year

Arthur Goodzeit Award for Best Military History Book of 2009 --New York Military Affairs Symposium

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Naval Institute Press (October 23, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591143160
• ISBN-13: 978-1591143161
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 7 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #97,487 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #97 in Books > History > Asia > Japan

More About the Author

D. M. Giangreco, served as an editor at Military Review, US Army Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, for 20 years. Giangreco has lectured widely on national security matters. An award-winning author of 12 books on military and sociopolitical subjects, he has also written extensively for various national and international publications and news agencies. Giangreco was awarded the Society for Military History's 1998 Moncado Prize for his article "Casualty Projections for the US Invasions of Japan, 1945-1946: Planning and Policy Implications." Giangreco also won the Gerard Gilbert Award (1988 France and Colonies Philatelic Society) for his book Roosevelt, de Gaulle, and the Posts, and his article "The Truth About Kamikazes," was the principal nomination of US Naval Institute, Annapolis, for the Association of Naval Aviation's award for Best Article of 1997 on Naval Aviation. Giangreco's work has been translated into French, German, Spanish, Russian (pirated), Japanese, and Chinese. His most recent books are, Dear Harry on the correspondence of "Everyday Americans" with the Truman White House (2000), Artillery in Korea: Massing Fires and Reinventing the Wheel (2003), the Eyewitness series for Barnes & Noble Books -- Eyewitness D-Day (2004), Eyewitness Vietnam (2006), Eyewitness Pacific Theater (2008), and most recently, Hell to Pay (2009), and The Soldier from Independence (2009).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

96 of 103 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The plans for Operation Downfall and the planned invasion of Japan, October 18, 2009

By 

Susanna Hutcheson "Copywriting for the Discri... (Midwest U.S.A.) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Hell to Pay: Operation DOWNFALL and the Invasion of Japan, 1945-1947 (Hardcover)

I enjoy reading about WW11 and war strategy especially interests me.

D.M. Giangreco is a respected writer and has a deep knowledge of his subject. He has written an impressive account of what the United States planned to do had the war not ended when it did.

America planned an enormous invasion of Japan. The book gives us inside details of how both sides prepared for this invasion. Operation Downfall, as it was called, would have made D-Day look minute. Had the bombs not been dropped that ended the war, what would have happened, as described in this book, would have changed the course of history. It would have shed much more blood and the war been a much larger and deadlier war than it was.

If you ever questioned the correctness of the decision to drop the Atom bomb that ended the war, reading this book is likely to change your mind. That turned out to be a wise decision. The alternative would have been almost unthinkable --- yet it was going to happen between 1945 and 1947 as described in this book.

It has been said that Japan was trying to surrender in 1945. This book lays that, and other myths to rest. If you're interested in WW11 and if you want to know the truth about its end and the plans that were in place to demolish the enemy had it not ended as it did, when it did, you'll want to read this book. It's a valuable resource and a most interesting read.

Highly recommended.

- Susanna K. Hutcheson

73 of 80 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Extremely well researeched and referenced, October 25, 2009

By 

Terry Sofian "tsofian" (St Peters, MO United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Hell to Pay: Operation DOWNFALL and the Invasion of Japan, 1945-1947 (Hardcover)

The morality of the U.S. use of atomic weapons to end World War Two has been argued about since news of the destruction of the two Japanese cities was reported. In the current atmosphere of revisionist history this event and the men who decided to perform it have been castigated and defamed. This book sets the record of events leading up to that decision straight and provides the primary source material to show how the bombs came to be dropped. It also takes a very close look at events that did happen after the war ended (such as weather) and others that did not but might have (such as the assault landings on the Japanese Home Islands). The author describes how that informtion is important and how it would have affect the conflict in Japan. He quotes extensively from sources on both sides of the war. It is amazing to me that our current intellectuals have been so critical of American leaders who publically stated their remorse over the destruction of innocent human life in the form of citizens of a nation we were at war with, while giving a pass to the leaders of that nation who were entirely willing to sacrifice 20,000,000 of their own civilians to get a better deal in the treaty to end the war.

Every poorly constructed arguement of the revisionists is demolished with facts. No the Japanese military leadership was not about to surrender. No the invasion would not have been a walk over. No the horrific casualty projections were not made up after the war as a post facto justification for using the atomic weapons. Yes the civilians in Japan would have suffered even more in the event of a long drawn out blockage or even worse if the invasions had go in.

Nowhere in revisionist history have I seen mention of the massive humanitarian aid that the USA intended upon supplying in the areas of occupation immediately upon controlling those areas, but detailed information on those efforts is here. We were allocating and transporting food and medical supplies into a war zone for the citizens of the nation that had attacked us, a nation that killed millions of Chinese for purely economic gain.

This book should not only be read, it should be quoted, discussed and distributed. Well worth a read if you beleive that the use of the atomic weapons was justified. If you do not believe so read this book and its included references with an open mind and see if you still hold the position afterwards.

48 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderfully comprehensive and thorough -- a must-read, November 1, 2009

By 

James Meek (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Hell to Pay: Operation DOWNFALL and the Invasion of Japan, 1945-1947 (Hardcover)

As a Japanese-fluent American with an intense interest in the history of WWII in the Pacific, and of the war-end period in particular, I had long been frustrated by the unavailability of any definitive analysis of the Japanese preparations for defense against the invasions that might have been needed to end the war on terms acceptable to the democracies, and of the expectations of America's leaders regarding the casualties the invasion forces would incur.

Although I haven't time now to write the fuller review this excellent book so richly deserves, I am compelled to at least take the time to give it my very highest acclaim as a book that every serious student of the war-end period absolutely must read.