In 1945, on Sept. 2nd , The Japanese government surrenders to the Allies.

Operation Downfall was the overall Allied plan for the invasion of Japan at the end of World War II. My friend Bob Wamaster, Commander Catholic War Veterans Post 1166 Middletown, told me about this. The allies did not know if the nuclear bombing of Japan would end the war, so the next plan was Operation Downfall.

Planning for Downfall:
Responsibility for planning Operation Downfall fell to the U.S. commanders: Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz (LEFT), General of the Army Douglas MacArthur (RIGHT) and the Joint Chiefs of Staff — Fleet Admirals Ernest King and William D. Leahy, and Generals of the Army George Marshall and Hap Arnold (the latter had a background in the U.S. Army Air Forces). At the time, the development of the atomic bomb was a very closely guarded secret known only to a few top officials outside the Manhattan Project, and planning for the invasion of Japan did not take its existence into consideration.

The picture on this article is a map outlining the Japanese and U.S. (but not other Allied) ground forces scheduled to take part in the battle for Japan.
Two landings were set to begin in November 1945:
(1) Operation Olympic — the invasion of the southern island, Kyushu.
(2) Operation Coronet — the invasion of the main island, Honshu. (Tokyo)

Casualty predictions were extremely high for both sides: depending on the degree to which Japanese civilians resisted the invasion, estimates ran into the millions for American casualties and the tens of millions for Japanese casualties. THIS INFORMATION WAS STAMPED AS “TOP SECRET” and kept from the public, until 1987!
For all the Operation Downfall information visit: http://www.ww2pacific.com/downfall.html

(Thank You Bob Wamaster! Former Catholic War Vets National Commander, and Now Commander Catholic War Veterans Post 1166 Middletown.)