By spring of 1942, Japan controlled the western Pacific, the Philippines, and large parts of Indochina. America and her allies knew that final victory could only be achieved by unconditional surrender and that would involve occupation of the Japanese homeland. This is the story Operation Downfall, the plan to invade and occupy Japan that would dwarf the D-Day landings in Europe. According to the plan, on X-Day--November 1, 1945--General MacArthur would lead an invasion force onto the beaches of Kyushu, the southern most of the Japanese Islands. Y-Day would follow six months later when the largest beach landing in military history would take Tokyo. Politicians and military strategists knew that Japanese resistance would be ferocious. Plans for the invasion continued throughout 1945 until President Truman made the decision to drop the atom bomb. We trace the invasion plans from Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima and analyze why Truman chose the bomb over Operation Downfall.
Andy Webb
Director
Waldo Henrichs
Self - Author
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Self (archive footage)
Douglas MacArthur
Self (archive footage)
Winston Churchill
Self (archive footage)
Geoffrey Perret
Self - Author
Edward Desrosiers
Self - 1st Battalion, Iwo Jima
Chester W. Nimitz
Self (archive footage)
Alfred Cialfi
Self - 2nd Battalion, Iwo Jima
Daniel Vece Jr.
Self - Pioneer Battalion, Iwo Jima
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The Class of ‘9271%
A Plastic Ocean75%
Directed by John Ford70%
Public Speaking70%
Maternal Instinct71%
McQueen74%
Voyeur59%
Lionel Messi: Destiny78%
The Summers of It - Chapter Two: It Ends71%
Seduced and Abandoned62%
Room 23761%
Iron Maiden: Burning Ambition86%
The Secret65%
My Mom Jayne80%
In the Realms of the Unreal71%
The Cheshire Murders65%
180° South72%
The Captains63%
Avatar: The Deep Dive - A Special Edition of 20/2072%
