Hell to Pay

Operation Downfall and the Invasion of Japan, 1945-1947

De: D. M. Giangreco

Narrado por: Danny Campbell

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 began 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 to light 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.

©2009 D.M. Giangreco (P)2010 Tantor

Reseñas de la Crítica

"A chillingly clear-eyed picture of a battle of attrition so daunting that Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall considered using atomic and chemical weapons to support the operation." ( Publishers Weekly)

Good information; needs editing

This book describes a part of military history that is interesting, important and not adequately covered by other books. Nonetheless, the book is a bit tedious to get through due to both its organization (meandering) and its narration (humdrum). This would be an excellent book if it were half the length and reorganized.

Precise, painstakingly all-encompassing.

This is a very detailed, no a precise accounting of the planning, and preparation for the American invasion and the defense by Imperial Japan of the home islands during the Summer of 1945.

This book lays to rest the long standing supposition that the Japanese Empire was going to surrender before the dropping of the Atomic Bombs.

A good, informative, important. and very necessary read.

Poor choice for a audio book

The presenter doesn’t have the most pleasant voice especially when heard on earbuds.
The story is figure-dense, listening to the presenter recite numbers became tedious and then eventually lost meaning.
Also, redundant! Facts and figures and phrases repeated so often I was distracted wondering if I’d somehow jumped chapters.
All that said, a important story thoroughly reported. I just think this was better left to actually reading.

A good telling of the moments in time.

The story here tells what the current thinking was near the end of the war, and of the great many choices and decisions that were being discussed and decided in order to defeat Japan.

Great if you actually like military history

I am the 11th generation to serve in the United States Navy and a great great niece of a man that never made it of the USS Arizona so I enjoy military history tremendously. I also prefer lectures because I don't need the literally equivalent of glitter and puppets to pay attention. This work is a fantastic overview of Operation Downfall and chilling to think what could have happened if the nuclear bombs had not been used.