Decisive Darkness: Part One – Majestic

by Paul Hynes

  The Japanese had hoped to destroy over half of the American invasion with the Kamikaze attacks, but despite the vast casualties on both sides they had failed to annihilate the American first wave as it stormed ashore onto southern Kyushu, with two for every ten craft now wreckage and bodies floating out to sea, turning the water a deep red as they spread out.

  In less than an hour, the Decisive Battle had already claimed over fifteen thousand lives.

  In the run-up towards Operation Majestic, a debate had raged over the number of casualties American troops may endure in achieving the stated objective, namely the capture of the islands southern third to enable air cover for the invasion of the Kanto Plain. Though these varied rapidly, the estimate of Douglas Mac Arthur, in overall command of the campaign, was relatively optimistic, 51,000 American casualties in the first month of fighting, with a further 54,000 in the next two months it was expected to take to reach the objective. Those these were criticised as being ridiculously conservative, to the point of being naïve, Mac Arthur defended his analysts, claiming that they had based their figures on the highest American casualty scenarios from both the European and Pacific campaigns, namely the invasions of Normandy and Okinawa.

  However, Majestic differed from Operation Overlord in more ways than scale. Prior to Normandy the Allied had successfully blinded the German enemy to their preparations, making them believe instead that a landing in Pas De Calais was their primary goal. This had worked so well that even after the landings in Normandy took place, Hitler had refused to move vital reserves, wary that the Allied landings might be a feint before the real invasion took place. On Kyushu, this was not the case, despite feigning attacks against Formosa, Korea, Shikoku, or even the Kanto Plain, the Japanese were not fooled, the Americans would not continue to waste lives on secondary operations when they already had Japan effectively surrounded, and neither would they dare invade Tokyo without the land based air cover on which all their previous major operations had relied. If a major attack was coming, it had to be Kyushu.

  It was also clear that the Americans would want major air and naval bases in southern Kyushu, especially in view of a subsequent operation against the Kanto Plain. Southern Kyushu was particularly vulnerable to an attack from Okinawa, and the installations would provide an excellent basis to prepare for such an attack. The layout of the south left few places the Americans could land, and as such the Japanese had based their defences accordingly. Unlike Normandy, there would be no dithering as to where the Allies were coming, and furthermore, the Japanese had amassed a fleet of aircraft largely untouched by American bombing, one which, unlike the Luftwaffe, did not care about casualties.

  Okinawa had seemed like a more accurate basis for comparison, with Kamikazes and mountainous fighting that could be expected on Kyushu but it was also an optimistic analysis. On Okinawa the initial landing force had outnumbered the defenders by almost three-to-one overall, on Kyushu it was less than two-to-one. On Okinawa the American and Commonwealth navies could bombard every point in the island, on Kyushu they could only hope to go so far inland, before they would have to rely on land based artillery and mortars. On Okinawa there had been hundreds of Kamikazes attacking in seven large raids, on Kyushu there were thousands, and they attacked unremittingly, against the 9 divisions that made up the first wave, against the 5 divisions that made up the second, and against the convoys that attempted to supply the beaches directly, accompanying the screech of hundreds of carefully hoarded Igo-1-B guided bombs that cratered the embarkation areas of the supply ships.

  The Japanese had carefully constructed their positions to be beyond the effective range of enemy naval bombardment, usually based in caves or on inaccessible high ground were they would not be vulnerable to flame throwing tanks against flame throwing tanks. From these vantage points they were able to submit the US forces on the beaches, who by the second and third days found themselves bogged down by a constant volley of artillery and mortar fire. Over those painful days the advance was sluggish, or completely static, reliant on superior firepower and horrific casualties. It would be at this moment that the Japanese reserves would smash the American beach heads, and wait for their leaders to acquiesce to more honourable terms. Unfortunately the core of these reserves, and their railway lines, had been destroyed by the two Atomic attacks, coupled with the vast conventional raids over the area. Those left had been scattered in the event of another Atomic attack, and would take several days to regroup and be transported, days that would take their toll, as the American beach heads hardened, and began to advance and achieve their initial objectives.

  For the Anami government, who based all of their confidence on the ‘Decisive Battle’ strategy, this was a serious blow to morale. The Americans had been allowed to establish themselves, and the time for a counter-attack had now passed. Now Japan’s hopes rested on a very different strategy, one that had been feared but also logically considered. If the Americans could not be forced off the island then they could be bled off. In the first two weeks alone, 30,000 Americans were estimated to have been killed, and thousands more wounded, pictures confirmed the tales of the great piles of bodies and lines of stretchers waiting to be taken off the island. If such a casualty rate could be maintained, then the Americans would be forced to halt their advance until reinforcements could arrive in significant enough numbers, time for the Japanese themselves to bring more forces onto the island, more Kamikaze’s, and perhaps even a Bomb of their own. An onslaught large enough to finally drive the Americans off the island and bring them towards the negotiating table.

  Time, the factor that had been against Japan from the very beginning, would now have to be their saviour.

  By December 16th, 1945, Operation Majestic had been underway for almost a month, the bloodiest month in American history. As the infantry and marines had scrambled onto the beaches, the relentless Kamikaze and artillery attacks had killed or wounded enough men to make up almost 5 divisions of the original 14 that had landed. For the Japanese, who had expected over 7 whole divisions to be destroyed, these American losses were insufficient to eject the Americans from their beach heads, thanks especially to the destruction of much of their carefully hoarded reserves of men and material by two American atomic bombs on November 12th. However all was not lost, as news of mass protests against the war in America encouraged a rethinking in strategy, to cause as many American casualties as possible until support for the war collapsed amongst the American public. As they struggled to advance, the American troops found themselves facing line after line of entrenched Japanese who had forgone attempts to throw them off the island in favour of a rabid defence, one that was made disturbingly easy by the mountainous, cave ridden terrain of the island.

  By mid-December, the planned link-up of the three fronts of the Majestic landing had still not made joined hands at Kagoshima Bay, the well dug-in Japanese defenders had ensured only a crawling advance though the mountain’s with a worryingly high American casualty rate. This was only exacerbated by a general shortage of supplies, the Americans had not yet captured a major port and Japan’s remaining were increasingly directing their attacks against on American supply dumps. Many ships found themselves leaving with vast numbers of dead and injured

  To MacArthur’s frustration, he found himself having to reinforce the initial invasion force with forces earmarked for Operation [i]Coronet[/i], the invasion of the Kanto Plain. These were troops he knew he would have to replace with GI’s from the European theatre, most of whom had no experience fighting the Japanese. On the frontline, lacking sleep and subsisting on irregular meals, more and more American troops found themselves having to deal with the onset of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and other Mental Disturbances after weeks of uninterrupted combat. With no combat psychiatrists assigned to the operation, sufferers often only had each other to confide in. From Radio Tokyo, the voices in accented English pounded in relentless monotony throughout the ominous nights, “Every fifteen seconds an American soldier die
s. Kyushu: The mass grave!”, many found it hard to disagree.

  If the Americans could take consolation from anything, it was that their enemies to the north had it far worse. Whilst on paper the six Japanese divisions who had made up the first line of defence against the American offensive remained, they were ghosts of their former selves, having taken terminal casualties as they sacrificed increasing numbers of men in holding back the American advance, they were now reliant on reinforcements and supplies from the large number of Japanese troops in the north. The situation of Kyushu’s road net in August 1945 was incredibly Spartan, with only one two lane gravel road built along the coast, a road that had been damaged by the stress put upon it byt the constant movement of tanks and heavy trucks as the preparations for [i]Ketsu-Go[/i] The atomic attacks against Ijuin and Miyakonojo had further limited its usefulness, leaving it split into six different parts that had to be replaced by more primitive dirt roads which often became useless during heavy rain. The inland prefectural roads were, for the most part, one and a half lanes wide interspersed with frequent "passing" locations and suitable for light transport only, which often became a threat in itself as American planes ruthlessly targeted anything deemed to be of military importance, which bereft of targets had been expanded to include civilian cars and horse drawn carts. American bombing had rendered the rail network, overly reliant on weak bridges and tunnels, practically useless. Thus supply had been forced down to a trickle as the Japanese troops went hungry and cold in holding the line against the Americans, often going days without food or sleep and forced into wariness of the constant potential for death that could come from the sky at any moment.

  In charge of this vast and chaotic network of dirt roads and small bands of troops and supplies was Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, an experienced quartermaster who had helped facilitate the great victory that had been the Ichi-Go offensive in China. Despite the fact that large amounts of the countryside had been in the hands of the Chinese communists Yokoyama had continued to supply his troops to the great frustration of the Americans. At the time it had been America’s Chinese alliances who were suffering the consequences of his talent, now he had been directed against their own troops. The presumption that he was residing in the city would be the pivotal factor in determining Fukuoka as the target of the latest Atomic Bomb.

  Truman knew that Japanese resistance had to be broken fast, should public opinion in the US take a turn even further for the worse.

  Several senior officers had been secretly calling for him to allow the deployment of the thousands of American mustard gas bombs and artillery shells that had been produced during the war, on the basis that gas would effectively penetrate cave and tunnel defences were artillery and flamethrowers often failed. The tendency of Mustard Gas to linger for several days also made it an attractive weapon to be used against Japanese logistics in the north where it might continuously disrupt Japanese forces for long enough for American forces to decisively defeat those who lingering at the frontlines. However Truman had serious moral qualms about using Poison Gas, having experienced its horrors on the Western Front in the First World War, he also didn’t want America to be seen as the side to use gas first on the international stage, especially when the Japanese capacity to retaliate, and with what, was unknown.

  Thus America’s other extraordinary weapon would be used instead, targeted at the supposed location of Yokoyama’s headquarters in Fukuoka, the largest city on Kyushu, whose population had been swelled by the vast columns of refugees fleeing the fighting in the south, most of whom were staying in little more than makeshift tents. A large column of B-29’s headed towards the target, wary of sending out any further Silverplate's unescorted since the tragedy of the Jabbet they flew directly over Yokoyama as he planned below the ground, in the town of Chikushino. It would only be after the war that the OSS would admit that their intelligence had incorrectly identified the headquarters of the Japanese 57th division as that of the entire Sixteenth Army.

  As the target drew nearer the flock of bombers began to pull away to a remaining three as the Enola Gay dropped her payload on 350,000 people who had just realised to their horror that this was no conventional raid. Tents, buildings, and inhabitants were set alight universally, over two hundred thousand staggering in agony, amongst them the remnants of the Fukuoka Prisoner of War Camp, those whom the Japanese had hoped might protect their cities from the flames. The blast tore the city apart, toppling buildings down on those in the outskirts who had fled, blinded and in searing pain, in an attempt to reach shelter.

  In Chikushino, a roar formed from outside Isamu Yokoyama’s subterranean headquarters, before the underground chamber to shake violently. After a few moments of cursing and ducking, the men present stepped outside to gaze at the ominous black mushroom that arose to their west, before returning to their business.

  As American troops began to slowly trickle into the lowlands of southern Kyushu, they were about to come into contact with what they had unleashed.

  The troops had been told not to expect a Christmas truce. Though the battle for southern Kyushu, a war of relentless artillery, static advance, and mass slaughter for both sides had come to resemble the battlefields of northern France in 1914, neither side would choose to emerge to sing and pray and curse those who had sent them to this living hell to die for their own glory. The Japanese did not officially observe Christmas, her tiny Christian population had been hidden and repressed, largely concentrated in the prefecture of Fukuoka, many who had survived the initial blast of the Atomic bomb would not live to see the day, as their radiations and the radiation that had poisoned their bodies took its tool. Not Christian martyrs, but martyrs of Japan, announced radio Tokyo, a testament to the murderous tendencies of the Americans, and why the fight that raged in the south was so crucial to preserving the future of Japan.

  On December 25th, 1945, there was one area of the frontline were the guns had gone silent. To the American soldiers to who had begun to slowly creep through the ruins of Miyakonojo the lack of artillery and mortar fire, planes flying overhead, or the screams of the Japanese or their own comrades should have been welcome. They had often dreamed of the time when they would be free of this misery, to bask in the promised peace that had been so cruelly snatched away on August 15th, to replace birdsong, laughter, the simple hum drum of life over the brutal rhythms that had so frequently accompanied this most nightmarish of wars. In the ruined city there hopes were squandered.

  The fires had burned for days, days in which Operation Majestic had begun. In order to address this foremost concern, the city had been left to burn out, with all medical staff departing to assist the already building casualties on the front, the surviving population had been left to its own devices. Some had tried to escape, most north, some south, where they hoped there might be better access to food and water. As the Americans approached the city their bodies began to appear, alone and betrayed, growing all the more frequent as they approached the ruins. For those who had remained in the city there was nothing left, either to eat or to warm themselves with as their wounds and the lethal radiation too their toll as the weeks went by. Japanese soldiers passing through noted the infamous ‘Atomic sickness’ and stayed clear of the city, choosing not even to defend the city, unsure as to whether their troops would also be poisoned, instead they had taken positions in the hills around the ruins and left those remaining to die, lest their ailment was found to be contagious. Now the only life in the city was the howling of the winds, and the rags that billowed in their wake.

  The American troops would not allow complacency to get the better of them, behind any standing wall there might be a lone Japanese soldier creeping closer with his bayonet, readying to take an American with him before finally succumbing to the radiation. With the cover of a pile of rubble, perhaps two Japanese were busily inserting one last mortar cartridge, pausing only to cough up blood and wipe it from their burned faces. At any time one of the growing number of corpses might spri
ng to life to pull the pin on their carefully concealed grenade that would everyone around him. The corpses, ever more numerous, disagreed. Soldiers, policemen, nurses, men, women, children only lay in pale decay, their detaching jaws contorting their faces into a mocking laugh as the American procession continued to move through.

  Amidst the dust and rubble a number of tents had been hastily assembled by the survivors, seeking some shelter from the misery of the rain and the wind. Most had now tumbled over, or been blown apart all together, unattended by their occupants, dead for weeks, barring one. A G.I had noticed by the moonlight that inside one of the tents sat figures, armaments were raised, shouts in Japanese were called to come out and surrender, a phrase that many had learned but had seen frighteningly little use. Still the figures remained silent, motionless, as one man began to approach, covered by the others, he carefully stepping over the carcasses of livestock that may once have belonged to the tents occupants. It was clear to him that they were dead, they must have been, but still the hope remained that something, anything, might yet be alive in this city of the dead.

  As he pulled open the canvas the dreaded smell was overpowering. The figures were upright, they had died kneeling, their heads lowered, as their decay had caused them to slump into each other, locked in a comforting embrace. A man and a woman, both young, one recently pregnant, staring down at the small bed of straw and wood they had assembled for the life that they had created. A life that laid in his manger, full of the hope and potential that had made up his few days on his Earth, now silenced forever.

  Ache: The American and Japanese Home Fronts

  The war had in many ways been good for America. In the wake of the various schemes of the New Deal era, none of which had quite proven to be a solution to the collapse of the American economy in the late Nineteen Twenties, the war had given the incentive the Roosevelt administration had finally needed to inject vast amounts of income into the American economy. At a stroke the war solved the critical problem of idleness, with unemployment at practically zero by 1943. Whilst the other worlds great powers worked to destroy the economies of the enemy, American industry was left intact, too far away to be threatened by meaningful Axis attacks, the American people finally had money to spend and jobs with which they would produce the goods of the new consumer society alongside the tools needed to combat global Fascism.