Question

By the summer of 1945, American military strategists were planning “Operation Olympia”, a full-scale invasion of the Japanese home islands. Based on the map above, what would be difficult in conducting an invasion of Japan to force its surrender?

Answer 1

Operation Olympic was the first phase of Operation Dawnfall which was designed to occupy Japan, It was supposed to take place in November 1945 on the Kyushu island in southern Japan.  The plan included 14 army divisions in the initial landings alone, an armada of 400 destroyers, 24 battleships and a staggering 42 aircraft carriers. It was all based on an aphibious landing in three diferent beaches: at Miyazaki, Ariake and Kushikino. The weakness of this operation was the location, Kyushu island was the only one that was in conditions for an invasion of these characteristics. So the japanese succesfully predicted it, they were ready to use all of their force to defend the island with the Ketsugo plan. As a result, both sides had estimated that the casualties would be huge. Finally the invasion never took place as the atomic bombs were dropped in Nagasaki and Hiroshima making Japan surrender.