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Harry Stimson Operation Downfall Analysis

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On April 24, 1945, U.S. Secretary of War Henry Stimson wrote to then-president Harry S. Truman: “I think it is highly important that I should have a talk with you as soon as possible about a highly secret matter.” In this confidential War Department file, Stimson would go on to explain that he had briefly mentioned this “secret matter” after Truman took office but had not pursued it because of the pressures on the new president in the context of the death of the previous president—Theodore Roosevelt—and the raging events of World War II. However, Stimson would go on to assert that this matter “has such a bearing on our present foreign relations and has such an important effect upon all my thinking in this field” that it was necessary that …show more content…

However, despite Japan’s losing of its imperial territories and a large portion of its military force, it still had several million soldiers and thousands of planes. In order to achieve victory, it was becoming increasingly clear that a land invasion would be necessary. The proposed plan—codenamed Operation Downfall—was a full-scale, costly invasion of the Japanese mainland that consisted of two parts. The first of these was Operation Torch, an invasion of the southern island of Kyushu scheduled for November 1, 1945. The second was Operation Coronet, the invasion of the main island of Honshu scheduled for spring 1945. As they demonstrated in the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa, the Japanese forces had a capacity for strong resistance with U.S. forces suffering nearly a combined total of one-hundred thousand casualties in these two battles. Invading the Japanese mainland would undoubtedly be worse. Additionally, the Japanese had recognized several optimal landing sites and would assign high concentrations of troops in those places. With these factors in mind, casualty estimations, despite being varied, were grim. A study by the Joint Chiefs of Staff placed estimates at 1.2 million casualties, and former president Herbert Hoover made conservative estimates of five-hundred thousand to one million. Furthermore, additional allied deaths would occur upon invasion; Hisaichi Tesuachi, a Japanese Army Marshall, had promised the execution of all one-hundred thousand allied prisoners of war if the Americans invaded. Finally, Operation Downfall would further draw out the length of the war. The war-weary Americans—in their fourth year of total—were eager for the end of the war and wanted victory as soon as possible. With these factors in mind, the use of the atomic bomb presented a viable alternative. In contrast with the planned Operation Downfall, the atomic bomb was quicker, less costly, and could

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Hundreds of Japanese troops destroyed 8 of the biggest battle ships and over 300 airplanes. More than 2,000 American Troops died and over 1,000 were hurt. The day after the assault, “President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan” ( History.com/Staff, 2009). Executive order 9066 On February 19, 1942 Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Executive Order 9066, this meant that all Japanese citizens no matter how loyal they were to the U.S to leave the West Coast.

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Before landing, the United States Navy did an excellent job of adding suppress fire towards Iwo Jima which would cause the Japanese Army to fall back slightly. Just enough for the American Marines to come in and rush the island of Iwo Jima. Meeting little resistance, the American troops could storm the beaches of Iwo Jima and delayed the Japanese troops attack for a bit as the Japanese were waiting for the Americans to attack. Which allowed American troops to gather more troops on the beaches than they thought. 6,000 marines dead and over 18,000 Japanese troops were dead just days after the landing of Iwo

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In the early morning Japanese planes had flown out of the clouds and began sinking ships, either by raining fire on the soldiers, or flying their planes straight into the ships. By the end of the attack, 2,400 Americans were dead. The attack was unexpected and unnecessary. The sunken ships are still left at the bottom of the harbor, as a memorial to the soldiers who lost their lives to the tragic events of Pearl Harbor. President Harry S. Truman announced that “The Japanese began the war from the air at

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1978 Words | 8 Pages

Operation Torch was a plan designed to open up another side of Europe and force the Axis to fight on multiple fronts (“Remembering Operation Torch”). Operation Torch consisted of many different Allied forces and required the use of most branches

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For example, others feel that the nukes dropped on Japan were necessary to finishing the war before millions of japanese were killed. One common piece of evidence opposer's use is the Joint Chief Staff in April 1945 “estimat[ing] of 1,200,000 casualties, with 267,000 fatalities” (historyonthenet). However, the atomic bomb killed nearly 300,000 civilians, according to multiple sources, the bombings killed more civilians than both countries armies combined. President Truman’s famous statistic of 300,000 to 500,000 american men would have been killed in the invasion of Japan. However, according to the New York Times this statistic was completely “false and grossly oversimplified” (NYT).

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The American colonies needed to form a national government to represent them and to bring all the colonies together to stand up against British Parliament. They did this by assembling the First Continental Congress with representatives from each colony. These representatives became the decision makers for all the people. Those decisions led to the battles of Concord and Lexington, which started the American Revolution in 1775. After these battles occurred, a feeling of a major showdown was brewing between the colonies and Britain.

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On December 7, 1941, the United States was attacked by Japan at Pearl Harbor, and a day later, our president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt responded with a speech to influence the people to enlist in the draft and support for America joining World War II. At a time when America felt defeated, hopeless, and attacked, FDR responded with hope and determination to let the American people know that the United States would do everything in its power to defend themselves and obtain victory. As the president of the United States of America, it was Roosevelt’s job to lead and make the best decisions for the US based on what happened. He had to appeal to his audience with emotion, logic, and his authority.

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Although the attack was intended to calm down the Pacific Fleet, it gave the Americans the feeling that they wanted to go to war with them. In response to the attack, the U.S. came back with antiaircraft guns, ships, and submarines. The war took place for two hours. At the end of the war, Japan ended up losing 29 planes and 64 men. On the other hand, the United States lost 188 planes, 21 ships, 2,390 servicemen.

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There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory, and our interests are in grave danger.” Americans now have someone they can look at as the ultimate threat to their safety. They can rally around the fact that Japan has attacked their mainland and has provoked a previously unforeseen war. These people are now impassioned, which makes it seemingly impossible for Congress to not vote to go to war against the villainous Japanese Empire. FDR’s pathos led to a full backing from the American people and a very strong vote from the Congress to go to war, with only one person from the House of Representatives voting against the war and the entire Senate approving of FDR’s

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Japanese Imperial Navy only had a rough estimate of 21,000 men. Japan was outnumbered by many, many soldiers. Japan lost around 20,000 of their men, which was almost their whole army (Andrews). Americans had around 5,900 people killed and 17,400 wounded (Cowley). This was the only battle in which the United States Marine Corps had more casualties than Japan (10).

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886 Words | 4 Pages

Not only did they bring the Americans unwillingly into the war at Pearl Harbour, but the atrocities committed by the Japanese throughout wartime were horrific. The Alexandra Hospital Massacre for example, where the Japanese slaughtered majority of a hospital including those being operated on, or the Massacre of Manila, where two Japanese Generals disobeyed orders and made their men fight to the death in order to make a ‘final stand’. When the Americans arrived the Japanese started killing any civilians inside the city, a total of 100,000 civilians killed, a similar number to those killed in Hiroshima. Although most of Truman's decisions were based on facts, figures and politics, also taking the atrocities the Japanese committed into account, he knew full well the horrific consequences of the bomb. He states in a diary entry after the bomb; "Nobody is more disturbed over the use of Atomic bombs than I am but I was greatly disturbed over the unwarranted attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor and their murder of our prisoners of war.

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This was the start of the long invasion of Iwo Jima. The Battle of Iwo Jima was fought between the Japanese army and the United States Marine Corps (USMC). The battle, known to the USMC as "Operation Detachment", started on February 19, 1945 and lasted until March 26, 1945 when the last Japanese soldiers were captured or killed. Japan knew that the importance of defending Iwo Jima as its loss would facilitate American air raids against Japanese Home Islands. However Imperial Japanese Navy had already lost almost all of its power and could not prevent U.S. from landing.

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“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.”

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1297 Words | 6 Pages

The US was suffering from many casualties in their island hopping military strategy, and the naval blockade of Japan was causing hundreds of thousands of deaths due to malnutrition, famine, and dehydration. The US already had a high amount of deaths from invading Iwo Jima and Okinawa in February and April 1945. It is under debate, but if they followed through with the proposed two stage invasion, Operation Olympic and Coronet, the US casualties could range from 125,000 to over 400,000 to the War Department's estimate of millions. While the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki had highest-end estimates of 140,000 and 74,000 victims (Tomonaga). As well as the invasions, incendiary bombs were previously dropped on Japan, but did not stop Japanese attacks.

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431 Words | 2 Pages

FDR’s accomplishment strengthening the power of the Executive Office by signing over 3,720 executive orders is absent (Peters n.d.). More importantly the executive order directly after Pearl Harbor rounding up citizens into internment camps is missing in his analyzes. Or, President’s Truman’s decision to drop two atomic bombs is not a factor in Truman’s presidential analysis. The greatest achievement of all is the strength these two Presidents brought to this office, whether one likes it or

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