The invasion of Japan : alternative to the bomb

Resource Information

The work The invasion of Japan : alternative to the bomb represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Boston University Libraries. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

The invasion of Japan : alternative to the bomb

Title remainder

alternative to the bomb

Statement of responsibility

by John Ray Skates

Creator

• Skates, John Ray

Subject

• Geschichte 1940-1945
• Invasies
• Invasion
• Japan
• Japan
• Military campaigns
• 1939 - 1945
• Tweede Wereldoorlog
• USA
• World War, 1939-1945
• World War, 1939-1945 -- Campaigns -- Japan
• World War, 1939-1945 | Campaigns | Japan
• World | Campaigns | Japan
• Militärische Planung

Language

eng

Summary

• While scholars and non-scholars alike have debated the ethics of dropping the atomic bomb for more than half a century, rarely have they questioned the decision not to invade Japan as a means of ending World War II. Widely held beliefs about the strength of Japanese forces and the projected loss of American lives have justified the course of action taken by the United States. John Ray Skates, how ever, argues that the invasion plan, code named Operation DOWNFALL, has never been adequately studied to draw such a conclusion. In The Invasion of Japan, he remedies that oversight and, in doing so, disputes many myths that have grown up around the invasion strategy
• Beginning with a brief overview of DOWNFALL, Skates analyzes the evolution of the invasion plan. He describes in detail the two phases of the plan, Operations OLYMPIC and CORONET; he assesses the strength of Japanese defenses; and discusses other topics that would influence an invasion - redeployment from Europe, Allied participation in the invasion, and the possible use of special weapons, especially gas. Among other revisionist findings, his research reveals a weaker state of Japanese preparedness than historians have commonly presumed and he demonstrates that the joint chiefs never objectively compared the bombing and the invasion. Significantly, Skates finds no evidence suggesting that military strategists projected casualty figures as high as those cited after the bomb's use
• Rather than attributing the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to the supposed shortcomings of the invasion plan, Skates contends that the Allied policy of unconditional surrender was at the heart of the decision to drop the atomic bomb

Cataloging source

DLC

Government publication

government publication of a state province territory dependency etc

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

index present

LC call number

D767.2

LC item number

.S56 1994

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography