What were the Japanese preparations for the eventual allied invasion of Japan?
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Did the Japanese have anything in store for the allies, if the Allies carried out operation Olympic.
And how many tanks, aircrafts and other weapons were readied for combat, also how many men did they mobilize in the motherland.
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My impression was that the mainland was actually in pretty bad shape by the time the allies were preparing to invade. Their navy was virtually destroyed, and I don’t think they had any real infantry presence on the mainland whatsoever – all their armed forces and equipment had been lost in trying to defend Japan’s colonies around the Pacific.
Most of Japan’s largest cities had already been badly damaged due to previous bombing attacks, so they couldn’t really build any new tanks or planes. In addition, there were shortages of food everywhere.
If the allies were going to invade, it would have probably been a massacre like Okinawa, with women and children armed with sharpened bamboo sticks literally throwing themselves at the invading armies, and later, off cliffs to commit suicide rather than allow themselves to be captured.
However, the allies had no real information about the state of the mainland. They figured it would be even more heavily defended than Okinawa had been – and that invasion was a bloodbath for both sides. There was also concern about Russia arriving and trying to take Japan as they had done with Germany. Based on these predictions, the decision to drop a nuclear bomb on Hiroshima was made in hopes of bringing the war to a quick, decisive end with no more US causalities, fewer Japanese civilians deaths, and without the help of the Russians.