Operation DownfallWe are all aware that the atomic bombings of August 1945 on Hiroshima and Nagasaki precipitated the Japanese surrender at the end of World Ward II. But what would have happened if the Manhattan Project has failed or known such delays that the bombs could not be made ready in time?
Operation Downfall was the codename for the Allied plan of invasion of the Japanese home islands. The operation had two parts: Operation Olympic and Operation Coronet. Set to begin in November 1945, Operation Olympic was intended to capture the southern third of the southernmost main Japanese island, Kyūshū, with the recently captured island of Okinawa to be used as a staging area. In early 1946 would follow Operation Coronet, the planned invasion of the Kantō Plain, near Tokyo, on the main Japanese island of Honshu. Airbases on Kyūshū captured in Operation Olympic, and possibly other captures on nearby Shikoku, would allow land-based air support for Opera...
