Audiobook16 hours
Hell to Pay: Operation Downfall and the Invasion of Japan, 1945-1947
Written by D.M. Giangreco
Narrated by Danny Campbell
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
Hell to Pay is a comprehensive and compelling examination of the many complex issues that encompassed the strategic plans for the proposed 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 southernmost assault on the Home Island of Kyushu preceded by the dropping of as many as nine atom bombs behind the landing beaches and troop concentrations inland. Sixth Army would secure airfields and anchorages needed to launch the second stage, Operation Coronet, five hundred 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. In contrast, 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 brings 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.
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. In contrast, 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 brings 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.
Related to Hell to Pay
Related audiobooks
Tidal Wave: From Leyte Gulf to Tokyo Bay Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Whirlwind: The Air War Against Japan 1942-1945 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Morning Star, Midnight Sun: The Early Guadalcanal-Solomons Campaign of World War II August–October 1942 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Pacific Thunder: The US Navy's Central Pacific Campaign, August 1943–October 1944 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Measureless Peril: America in the Fight for the Atlantic, the Longest Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Storm Clouds over the Pacific, 1931-1941 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5One Damned Island After Another: The Saga of the Seventh Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Clash of the Carriers: The True Story of the Marianas Turkey Shoot of World War II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5MiG Alley: The US Air Force in Korea, 1950-53 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Dawn Like Thunder: The True Story of Torpedo Squadron Eight Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jutland: The Unfinished Battle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5War at the End of the World: Douglas MacArthur and the Forgotten Fight for New Guinea 1942-1945 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5December 1941: Twelve Days that Began a World War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHubris: The Tragedy of War in the Twentieth Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5World War II: Carrier War Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Holding the Line: The Naval Air Campaign In Korea Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sea of Thunder: Four Commanders and the Last Great Naval Campaign 1941-1945 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Asian Armageddon, 1944-45 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Operation Chastise: The RAF's Most Brilliant Attack of World War II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Miracle at Midway Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5South Pacific Cauldron: World War II's Great Forgotten Battlegrounds Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Landing on the Edge of Eternity: Twenty-Four Hours at Omaha Beach Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Operation Pedestal: The Fleet That Battled to Malta, 1942 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rise of the G.I. Army, 1940-1941: The Forgotten Story of How America Forged a Powerful Army Before Pearl Harbor Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGuadalcanal Diary: 2nd Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Lions of Iwo Jima: The Story of Combat Team 28 and the Bloodiest Battle in Marine Corps History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Japan Runs Wild, 1942-1943 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Asian History For You
77 Days of February: Living and Dying in Ukraine, Told by the Nation’s Own Journalists Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Midnight in Chernobyl: The Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Dressed for a Dance in the Snow: Women's Voices from the Gulag Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hard Road Out: One Woman’s Escape From North Korea Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gulag Archipelago Volume 3: An Experiment in Literary Investigation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Gulag: A History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rape of Nanking: The History and Legacy of the Notorious Massacre during the Second Sino-Japanese War Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956: An Experiment in Literary Investigation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Countdown 1945: The Extraordinary Story of the Atomic Bomb and the 116 Days That Changed the World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Memoirs of a Wartime Interpreter: From the Battle for Moscow to Hitler's Bunker Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5African Samurai: The True Story of Yasuke, a Legendary Black Warrior in Feudal Japan Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ghosts of the Tsunami: Death and Life in Japan's Disaster Zone Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Spies: The Epic Intelligence War Between East and West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Short History of Russia: How the World's Largest Country Invented Itself, from the Pagans to Putin Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5When Hitler Took Cocaine and Lenin Lost His Brain: History's Unknown Chapters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Krakatoa Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Cold War: A New History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Spy Who Knew Too Much: An Ex-CIA Officer’s Quest Through a Legacy of Betrayal Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Red Roulette: An Insider's Story of Wealth, Power, Corruption, and Vengeance in Today's China Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Main Enemy: The Inside Story of the CIA's Final Showdown with the KGB Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Beijing Rules: How China Weaponized Its Economy to Confront the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Chernobyl 01:23:40: The Incredible True Story of the World's Worst Nuclear Disaster Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Japan's Infamous Unit 731: Firsthand Accounts of Japan's Wartime Human Experimentation Program Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Red Memory: The Afterlives of China's Cultural Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Days of the Romanovs: Tragedy at Ekaterinburg Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Hell to Pay
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
2 ratings1 review
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Having been driven to distraction by the so-called revisionist historians over the issue of whether the use of atomic weapons against Japan was justifiable, this author has two main aims. One is to demonstrate that the Japanese military was not operationally bankrupt when it came to the defense of the home islands. The other is to illustrate the American policy process which generated the horrendous potential casualty figures that are often used to justify the use of atomic weapons, and to demonstrate the validity of those figures. Giangreco seems to be successful on both these counts.Mind you, this book is best read as an analysis of military planning on either side of the hill. The best book on the policy twists and turns of how the Japanese surrender came about is still Frank's "Downfall," followed by cautious dip in Hasegawa's revisionist-flavored "Racing with the Enemy."As for criticisms, I'm not sure that Giangreco is well-served by his occasionally tendentious tone, though that is mostly reserved for the introduction and footnotes. Two, I miss the inclusion of a bibliography.
2 people found this helpful