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X-Day Japan: Front Line Reporting at the Greatest Invasion and the Dawn of Nuclear Warfare

This is a fascinating book in that it is written entirely from the viewpoint of a reporter who was with the American forces during their invasion of the Japanese mainland during World War II. This is an alternative-reality book where there was no atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki for some reason, although it seems that the atomic bombs were not yet ready.

The book is very realistic and could have been something that would have been broadcast as radio reports at the time.

One fascinating thing is the very first entry which was for July 16, 1945, which refers to "an explosion at an old weapons dump" near "Los Alamos." This, we know, was the first test of an atomic bomb but the reporter was told the "official" line about the explosions at the old weapons dump.

An interesting quote from the book: "People have a funny way of thinkings about history as a string of inevitable consequences. " This is the basis for most alternate history types of works. Some detail changes and this ends up changing everything else. (For example, if Hitler had been killed during World War I would the Nazi party have ever arisen?)

During the war money used in Hawaii had Hawaii stamped on it.

One of the good things that book does is show how major the kamikaze attacks would have been if the U.S. had tried to invade Japan proper. There is historical proof that they had a lot more forms of kamikaze available than we thought (planes, oka flying bombs, miniature submarines, guys with explosives fastened to their chests, etc.) and that would have upped the American casualty account tremendously.

Another good thing the book does is show how the Japanese civilians would have actively tried to attack American soldiers. They had been effectively brainwashed to believe that it was their duty to use bamboo spears and anything else they could to attack the soldiers. This would have run the American casualty up some but would have massively upped the number of civilians that died. All this would also have lengthened the war and allowed the Soviet Union to take over part of Japan on its own.

The book then shows that atomic bombs would have been used in the invasion to attack Japanese soldiers, in this cause using five or six bombs at once. There was really a plan to use nine atomic bombs during the invasion, three on the beaches, three behind the beaches and three held in reserve to bomb any attempt at massive Japanese reinforcements.

An excellent, very realistic book.



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