Alternatives to OLYMPIC. JWPC 397, 4 August 1945.

Some interesting comments were handwritten on the document by unidentified readers. One such reader wrote, "Sec'y told we non-concur." Two other handwritten notes that appeared to accompany this document reflect concern at the senior level of the military planning groups. One of these is addressed to General Lincoln, the senior Army representative on the Joint War Plans Committee. The other refers to the views of General Cabell, the Army Air Force representative on the Joint Planning Staff.

Despite all the advance planning that had been done on the invasion of Kyushu, things were subject to changing conditions. The more the Allies learned, the more they realized that any such invasion was going to be a lot harder than they originally thought.

This part of the document alludes to their being more ground forces and more planes in Kyushu then originally thought. The end result is that there is a suggestion that alternatives to the invasion be considered.

Basically the same general idea; there's a lot more of the enemy then had originally been figured on, and some forms of alternatives were worth considering.

This part spells out just what the Japanese have been doing.

1. They have expanded their ground forces considerably.

2. They have conserved their aircraft, built airfields, and are ready to field more aircraft than originally expected.

3. The Japanese are putting out a lot of mines, and they have a lot of suicide boats ready.

4. The Japanese are developing some form of coordinated ground and air action, mixed with liberal use of suicide tactics.

The Japanese are building up their forces in the Kyushu area.

More on Japanese building up their forces.

Japanese defensive activities in Shikoku.

The Kanto Plain area is being built up.

The basic overall message from this is that the Japanese had made a lot of preparations for the invasion, and there were more troops and planes than expected, and there was going to be a very liberal use of suicide tactics, including boats and planes both. In plain words, the invasion of Kyushu was going to be a lot harder than expected, which would mean there would be a lot more casualties than expected.



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