It's late spring 1945. We're stationed at Naval Base Manila on the island of Luzon in the Philippines.

For months, American forces have been working hard liberating these Japanese occupied islands.

There is still resistance.

On May 8, 1945, we saw in the papers and the newsreels the celebrations of VE Day. Victory in Europe, a collapse and surrender of

German forces. But out here in the Blue Pacific, the war grinds on. The U.S. has slogged its way across half an ocean, from midway to Guadal Canal to Iwojima and Okinawa,

eventually landing troops in the Philippines, where we now prepare for the inevitable final conflict,

the invasion of the Japanese home islands.

If the Pacific War has been a bloody and hard-won campaign to this point, and it surely has.

It is predicted this upcoming operation will be worse, much, much worse. Hello folks, good to have you. This is American History yet and I am Don Wildman.

Today we are concerned with grave matters, the end of World War II in the Pacific and plans having been made for an Allied

invasion of Japan a secret two-phase endeavor called Operation Downfall scheduled

for November 1945 and March 1946.

It never happened.

Thankfully so.

But that doesn't minimize the historic and strategic

significance of Operation Downfall in more fully understanding the final phase of the war

and the subsequent Japanese surrender and American occupation.

It also figures in crucially when considering Truman's fateful decision to drop the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

What we'll discuss today is still a heavy matter of historical discussion and debate,

surely regarding the bombs.

But one thing is certain, the invasion of the Japanese Home Islands would have been a torturous

and horrifying campaign lasting months and likely years,

...