In June, my partner Dwight and I will be traveling to Japan with our 15-year-old nephew and his dad. Neither of them has been to Japan, so I’m excited to show them around. Earlier this year they visited Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. We now have a chance to build our understanding of how the Pacific War ended.
An Alternate End to the Pacific War
By the summer of 1945, many Japanese leaders knew the war was lost; however, they were not prepared to surrender. They accepted that when the Allied forces invaded Japan’s main islands, there would be a fanatical fight to the death.
By June 1945, about 500 miles south of Japan’s main islands, the United States had won the Battle of Okinawa.
The battle was the bloodiest in the Pacific, with around 50,000 Allied and 84,166–117,000 Japanese casualties, including Okinawans conscripted into the Japanese Army. According to local authorities, at least 149,425 Okinawan people were killed, died by coerced suicide or went missing, roughly half of the estimated pre-war population of about 300,000. [Source]
Subsequently, the Allies planned to invade Japan’s main islands in two waves.
In November 1945, the Allies, including the Sixth United States Army, would invade southern Kyushu. In March 1946, the Allies would invade central Honshu then surround Tokyo. Casualties on both sides would be unimaginable.
In August 1945, Dwight’s uncle “Junior” was a soldier in the Sixth United States Army stationed in the Philippines. The Philippines had been liberated from the Japanese the previous year. Soon, he would have been repositioned to Okinawa in preparation for the next major battle, the invasion of Kyushu.
None of the military planners knew about the plan to use atomic bombs. The secret had not even been shared with Vice-President Truman. On August 6 and 9, 1945, bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
On August 15, 1945, Emperor Hirohito announced Japan’s surrender.
Uncle Junior’s War
As a result of the atomic bombings, Junior was spared from fighting in southern Kyushu. Instead, he found himself in a comfortable job as a military telephone operator in Kyoto, Japan. He arrived in Kyoto in October or November 1945 and remained there for about a year.
Junior is somewhere in the following photo, taken in Kyoto.
Kyoto was a desirable place to be stationed immediately after the war. Most Japanese cities had been heavily firebombed, but Kyoto had been spared because of its cultural importance.
Junior (center) got to explore an intact city where the civilians had accepted the surrender.
June 2023
In June 2023, the day after we arrive in Tokyo, we’ll fly down to Kagoshima on the south of Kyushu. Had the Pacific War taken a different path, Uncle Junior would have been part of the invasion of this area in November 1945.
We’ll first explore Kagoshima Prefecture. Later, we’ll visit Nagasaki, also on Kyushu. I love this city, there are so many stories to explore here. Of course we’ll visit Ground Zero, but we’ll also explore Nagasaki’s wonderful history as a gateway to the world.
Normally, I avoid over-loved Kyoto, but we will spend a day or two there to look at a couple cultural sites, and retrace some of Junior’s steps. I’ve geotagged a few of his photographs, so we’ll compare “then and now.”
Sadly, I wasn’t able to locate his beer hall. I suspect it’s long gone.
