Kyushu Invasion Plans

[Mil-tech Bard]

In pages 51 and 52 of "The Entry of the Soviet Union into the War Against Japan: Military Plans, 1941-1945," we have note 14 with Col. Freeman. Basically it was Freeman getting MacArthur's reactions to the Yalta Conference and MacArthur gave Freeman his concept of operations to invade Japan after the Philippines in light of that information. Those boiled down to the following:

1. MacArthur did not want to invade Japan without the Soviets in Manchuria first, AKA no three month wait After German surrender.

2. MacArthur, like Marshall, thought blockade/bombardment wouldn't work and that it would take an invasion of Japan and

3. MacArthur greatly feared facing the main force of the Japanese Army and he he wanted to go straight at the Konto Plains around Tokyo, with the Japanese Manchurian Army tied up with the Russians, without any Kyushu or Hokkaido operations first. MacArthur told Freeman that doing Konto without a previous operation was the only way to get a strategic surprise and avoid fighting the majority of the Japanese Army.