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.
#391331 in Books NYRB Classics 2011-06-07 2011-06-07Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 8.00 x 1.26 x 5.27l; 1.40 #File Name: 1590174461624 pages
Review
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Helpful HistoryBy Sibyl GoernerThis is an interesting book which cleared up some falacies that I had learned earlier. However I was not interested in the amount of detail that the author used to describe which person was in charge of each of the army divisions etc. in the Union Army.. and where the battles were. I suppose a true historian would find that very helpful. I had not known that John Wilkes Booth had first intended to Kidnap Pres. Lincoln; and appreciated the amount of research the author did to tell the story. Her analysis of Mary Todd Lincoln was helpful.17 of 18 people found the following review helpful. Weep; wretched man; I'll aid thee tear for tearBy LlonyaAnd let our hearts and eyes; like civil war;Be blind with tears; and break o'ercharg'd with grief.The Third Part of King Henry the Sixth; Act II. Scene VOn March 4; 1861; President Lincoln; in his First Inaugural Address; expressed the hope that the "mystic chords of memory; stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land; will yet swell the chorus of the Union; when again touched; as surely they will be; by the better angels of our nature." Exactly; four years later; on March 4; 1865; President Lincoln; in his Second Inaugural Address; called on all Americans to go forward with "malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right; let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan; to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations." Those two stirring pleas to our better natures serve as ironic bookends for an American Civil War which unleashed carnage and bloodshed on American soil the likes of which had never been before; and hopefully never will be seen again.Margaret Leech's magisterial "Reveille in Washington: 1860-1865" was originally published in 1941. As James McPherson notes in his brief Introduction; Leech wrote and published the book just before WWII transformed a rather provincial capital city (aptly described by JFK as "a city of Southern efficiency and Northern charm") into a world capital. As the book opens; Washington; D.C. barely qualified as a city; let alone a nation's proud capital. As the Civil War began there was no dome on the Capitol and the Washington Monument was not much more than a pile of granite. The streets were dirty and unkempt; open drainage ditches carried raw sewage across most of the avenues; and the town was filled with bawdy houses and transients. The book highlights not just the progress of the war but also the transformation of the city into a true national Capital.I was captivated by Reveille for a number of reasons. Leech's research seemed very thorough and her writing was excellent. She has an exceedingly fine eye for detail and was able to convey those details to the reader. This is particularly true when she describes the city itself. I've worked in Washington for the last 20 years and my office sits right in the middle of "old Washington." I see the old General Post Office and Ford's Theatre from my office. Every day I walk the streets and look up and see remnants of Civil War era Washington. As Leech tells her story those streets and buildings came alive for me with almost a fresh set of eyes. That is a rare feeling for me; that sense of living and walking though history. Leech's book invoked those feelings throughout.In addition to her ability to bring a city to life; Leech has also done an admirable job of bringing the city's characters to life. Leech has a sharp eye not just for Lincoln; Seward; McClellan Grant and the larger than life big players in the war; but also casts a sharp and detailed eye on lesser-known figures. Washington was a southern city in those days and sympathy for secession and slavery was more the norm than the exception. Leech is able to weave these characters; large and small; seamlessly into her narrative while also providing a wealth of information of the war that was waged in the Virginia countryside within `spitting' distance of the capital.Written in 1941; some contemporary readers may find Leech's prose-style a bit dated and perhaps a bit too florid. Some have even suggested (elsewhere) that Leech's prose-style seemed to almost channel what may have been the prose style in fashion during the Civil War. I did not have any such problem and in fact Leech's writing had the same page-turning effect on me that some of the best fiction has. The only jarring notes I heard involved her use of common terms for slaves and freemen (`colored' for example) which while they may have been perfectly acceptable in 1942 seem quite out of place in 2011. Again; that is a reflection on our national evolution and not a criticism of Ms. Leech and I set it out for the benefit of potential readers who may have qualms about such things; even in period pieces.I think Leech's "Reveille in Washington" is a tremendous addition to accounts of the Civil War. One may despair that we have never consistently acted upon the better angels of our nature or lived our lives with malice toward none; but Leech's book brings to life a time in our nation's history where much blood was shed to swell the chorus of our union. In that sense this book is one that bespeaks a mighty hope.Highly recommended. L. Fleisig0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Anecdotes about Washington during the Civil WarBy Beans NevadaI was interested in reading this book as one that would give me a feeling for the 'home front' during the Civil War. Drawing on newspaper accounts; memoirs etc; it does do that. Much of what Leech presents is quite interesting. Some sections as; for example; descriptions of the tent hospitals prisons were engrossing. In other places; however; Leech goes on about particular people in a way that seemed gossipy. Her presentation of the way various battles affected the mood in Washington was moving ; but I felt that I needed more information about the battles to appreciate these changes in mood. Obviously the author couldn't do both. Perhaps someone with more familiarity with the events of the war wouldn't have had this problem. For my tastes; the book was simply too anecdotal. It lacked a narrative line or an argument.
