This column focuses on Henry I. Miller Forbes piece “ The Nuking Of Japan Was A Tactical And Moral Imperative!“ and the Shockley’s analysis of large-scale participation by Japanese civilians in repelling a U.S. invasion.
Physicist William Shockley was on the staff of Secretary of War Henry Stimson & estimated that the invasion of Japan would cost 1.7-4 million American casualties, including 400,000-800,000 fatalities, and five to ten million Japanese deaths.
This column looks at three different US Military chemical warfare back up plans for the invasion of Japan including the use of German nerve gas, Recoilless rifle shells with CK gas and MacArthur's plan.
This post includes video links to presentations by the leading historians of the period including Craig Symonds, Richard Frank, D.M. Giangreco, and John Kuehn
2015 — Hiroshima, Nagasaki & The Invasion That Never Was (+70)
This column is on Operation Downfall -- the cancelled invasion of Japan -- and includes a video link and reviews of four counter-factual Invasion history story from 1971 - 2015.
1. The Small City Target Plan — Bombing out the smaller, 100,000 person or less, Japanese cities within range of Saipan to ‘induce’ a surrender;
(Planned B-29 bomb tonnage table attached)
2. The Transportation Plan — A massive two month (1 Oct – 30 Nov 1945) long campaign intended to destroy Japan’s rail system; and
3. Beach Preparations on Kyushu — The proposed B-29 carpet bombing of Kyushu beaches on 29, 30 and 31 October with 100 B–29 w-10 ton loads per plane.
2017 — Happy VJ-Day, Plus 72 Years
This column traces the rise of “Atomic Diplomacy” from Paul Henry Nitze USSBS, through P.M.S. Blackett with his 1948 book “Fear, War and the Bomb: Military and Political Consequences of Atomic Energy” to...
...it's it's post 1994-95 ENOLA GAY Smithsonian Exhibit Controversy take down by the likes of books like 1995’s "Truman and the Hiroshima Cult" by Robert P. Newman, 1999’s "Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire "by Richard Frank, and Robert P. Newman’s 2004 book...
..."Enola Gay and the Court of History."
Particularly damning in this regard was military historian Robert P. Newman found, and publicized in his books, that Paul Nitze lied in the USSBS report about the state of Japanese resistance in August 1945.
2018 -- Happy VJ-Day, Plus 73 Years
This column goes into the IJA Ni-Go & IJN F-Go Genzai Bakuden (atomic bomb) programs and how physicists on those programs enabled the Japanese military surrender via recognizing plutonium at Nagasaki.
"Between Ultra code breaking and radio direction finding the American military had pinpointed all the major Area Army (AKA Army Group), Army (AKA Corps) and Divisional HQ on Kyushu. With that and and SHORAN guided photo reconnaissance..
..MacArthur and 20th Air Force were in a position to use nukes to decapitate all Japanese high command on Kyushu near-simultaneous with the invasion landings to keep the Japanese reinforcements against the landings disorganized for the 3-to-5 days they needed to get established."
2019 -- The Collapse of Atomic Diplomacy…Again?
This months delayed column was on a 2011 NHK documentary titled as follows:
“Atomic bombing – top secret information that was never utilized”
原爆投下 活(い)かされなかった極秘情報
The NHK documentary answers questions that “Atomic Diplomacy” has never bothered to ask. Specifically “What did the Imperial Japanese Military & Government know about the American nuclear weapon program, when did it know it, and what did it do about it.”
1/This is a tweet thread on the drone campaign inside the on-going Azeri-Armenian War.
Most have focused on the drone strike videos, myself included, but it is the C4ISR system behind it that makes it the Spanish Civil War of the 21st Century.
C4ISR is this thread's subject
2/Too appreciate the Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) portion of the Azeri drone campaign requires some background.
"This Sixth Army mass deployment of cableway and tramway devices would amount to a large technological surprise to the Imperial Japanese Army as American logistical units would be able to both move large amounts of men and material...
1/ This is is a thread on the implications on the proliferation of armed medium altitude long endurance (MALE) drones based on the on-going Azeri-Armenian war.
2/ A Russian language channel on youtube called "Lost Armor" has a "best hits" compilation of the Azeri drone strikes on Armenian military assets.
3/ The main killer in those videos are the Turkish Roketsan MAM-L and MAM-C laser guided munitions fired from the Bayraktar TB2 drone.
You have no idea how useful that Japanese search sector map is in understanding SWPA radar deployments and especially putting Operation Chronicle in context.
Status of medium tanks, M4, with 75 and 76 millimeter guns in this command as of 16 December 1944 was as follows:
a. Table of Equipment authorization - 2,702
b. Authorized 30 day reserve – 298
@SiriusAstro@BO3673@IdleMrBridle@BuddNicholas@bermicourt@crusaderproject c. Table of Equipment authorization plus authorized reserve - 3,000
d. Serviceable tanks on hand - 135
e. Unserviceable tanks on hand – 59
f. Estimated combat losses from 16 December 1944 to 1 February 1945 - 600
These facts indicate a total requirement to 1 February 1945...