Japan's Struggle to End the War United States Strategic Bombing Survey
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Bangor Public Library Bangor Community: Digital Commons@bpl Books and Publications Special Collections 1946 Japan's struggle to end the war United States Strategic Bombing Survey Follow this and additional works at: https://digicom.bpl.lib.me.us/books_pubs Recommended Citation United States Strategic Bombing Survey, "Japan's struggle to end the war" (1946). Books and Publications. 23. https://digicom.bpl.lib.me.us/books_pubs/23 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Special Collections at Bangor Community: Digital Commons@bpl. It has been accepted for inclusion in Books and Publications by an authorized administrator of Bangor Community: Digital Commons@bpl. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE UNITED STATES STRATEGIC BOMBING SURVEY JAPAN'S STRUGGLE TO END THE WAR ,, CHAIRMAN'S OFFICE 1 July 1946 THE UNITED STATES STRATEGIC BOMBING SURVEY JAPAN'S STRUGGLE TO END THE WAR .,. CHAIRMAN'S OFFICE 1 July 1946 ! FOREWORD The United States Strategic Bombing Survey the Army and the Navy gave the Survey all pos was established by the Secretary of War on 3 sible assistance in furnishing nien, supplies, trans November 1944, pursuant to a directive from the port and information. The Survey operated from late President Roosevelt. Its mission was to headquarters established in Tokyo early in Sep conduct an impartial and expert study of the tember 1945, with subheadquarters in Nagoya, effects of our aerial attack on Germany, to be Osaka, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki, and with mobile used in connection with air attacks on Japan and teams operating in other parts of Japan, the to establish a basis for evaluating the importance islands of the Pacific, and the Asiatic mainland. and potentialities of air power as an instrument It was possible to reconstruct much of wartime of military strategy, for planning the future Japanese military planning and execution engage development of the United States armed forces, ment by engagement and campaign by campaign, and for determining future economic policies and to secure reasonably accurate statistics on with respect to the national defense. A summary Japan's economy and war-production plant by report and some 200 supporting reports contain plant, and industry by industry. In addition, ing the findings of the Survey in Germany have studies were conducted on Japan's over-all stra been published. tegic plans and the background of her entry into On 15 August 1945, President Truman requested the war, the internal discussions and negotiations that the Survey conduct a similar study of the leading to her acceptance of unconditional sur effects of all types of air attack in the war against render, the course of health and morale among Japan. The officers of the Survey in Japan, who the civilian population, the effectiveness of the are all civilians were: Japanese civilian defense organization, and the effects of the atomic bombs. Separate reports Franklin D'Olier, Chairman. will be issued covering each phase of the study. Paul H. Nitze, Henry C. Alexander, Vice The Survey interrogated more than 700 Jap Chairmen. anese military, Government, and industrial offi Harry L. Bowman, J. K. Galbraith, cials. It also recovered and translated many Rensis Likert, Franl{ A. MeN amee, documents which have not only been useful to Fred Searls, Jr., Monroe E. Spaght, the Survey, but will also furnish data valuable for Dr. Louis R. Thompson, Theodore P. other studies. Arrangements have been made tv Wright, Directors. turn over the Survey's files to the Central Intelli Walter Wilds, Secretary. gence Group, through which they will be available The Survey's complement provided for 300 for further examination and distribution. civilians, 350 off10ers, and 500 enlisted men. The military segment of the organization was drawn The present report was prepared by the Chair from the Army to the extent of 60 percent, and man's Office rmder the editorship of Commander from the Navy to the extent of 40 percent. Both Walter Wilds, USNR. iii CONTENTS JAPAN'S STRUGGLE TO END THE WAR Page Page Foreword _______ __ _______ _____ __ -- ___ _____-- - - iii 2. Survey of National Resources as of 1- 10 Preface _____ ___ __________ __________ ____ ______ _ June 1945 ____ ____ __ _____ ____________ _ 16 I. Some Properties of the Political Target_ __ __ _ 3. Comparison of Military Strength of Jap II. Behind the Collapse of Tojo ___ __________ _ 2 anese and the United States at the Out- III. The Koiso Government ____ ________ __ ___ __ - 3 break of Hostilities __ _________________ _ 18 IV. The Suzuki Cabinet _______ ___ __ ___ __ ___ __ _ 6 4. Comparison of Estimated Japanese and V. The Political Target Under Assault_ ______ _ 9 American Military Resources at the End of the War ________ ____ ____ _________ _ Appendix A. Japanese Documents : 19 1. E stimate of Japanese National Strength at 5. Memorandum of Konoye Conversation Outbreak of the G1:eater East Asia War with Hirohito, February 1945 _____ ___ - 21 (December 1941) ___ ____ _____ ___ _____ _ 14 Appendix B. Biographies of Japanese Leaders ___ _ 23 - y JAPAN'S STRUGGLE TO END THE WAR Preface the course of events would not have been changed While the impact of Allied air operations in the materially had these persons been available for entire Pacific war bore directly upon the enemy's interrogation. military and economic capabilities for resisting, I. Some Properties of the Political Target only by translating these military and economic effects into political events could our announced To assess the events of surrender requires a war aim of unconditional surrender be realized. capsule reminder of the interrelated pressures, Japan's acceptance of defeat without invasion the interlocking mechanism of Japanese politics. while still possessed of 2}~ million combat-equipped The starting point is that Japan was governed troops and 9,000 Kamikaze airplanes in the home largely by a consensus among the oligarchy of ruling islands, reveal how persuasively the consequences factions at the top. No major decisions of of our operations were translated into political national policy could be reached until such a results. The nature of Japanese politics and its consensus had been obtained. This process in vulnerability and responses to air assault consti evitably took time and involved complicated tuted therefore a major and significant line of pressures and struggles of will among those of inquiry for the Survey. differing opinions. The "political target" comprised a ganglion of A flow-chart of the chief pressures would show Army, Navy, Government, and Imperial house the Lord Privy Seal (Marquis Koichi Kido hold factions which together decided major ques throughout the war period) as the Emperor's tions of national policy. Fortunately, most of political agent, an observer and estimator of the the pertinent questions relating to how Japan was current GovernmenVs problems and its capabili brought to acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration ties for coping with them. To one side, clear of find their answers in the simple chronology of responsibility or authority, but in this instance events which can now be narrated in some detail with pipe lines into the Government which in for the period from the collapse of Tojo in July formed them of the true state of affairs, were the 1944, to the imperial rescript of 15 August 1945. senior statesmen or Jushin. These ex-premiers The evidence is .chiefly in the testimony obtained could not enforce their views, but did apply by Survey interrogation of the Army, Navy, persuasive and informed pressure on the Privy Government, and Imperial household leaders who Seal and other Government leaders. The Jushin participated or were influential in the struggle also had interlocking membership with the within Japan over whether to continue the war or Privy Council which approved important decisions to accept surrender. The inquiry might have in foreign policy, and individual Jushin were benefited from testimony of certain key figures frequently close to the Emperor. Then there who were not available tv the Survey. Tojo, was the Cabinet, which once formed could perpet Koiso, Togo, and a few others impounded for trial uate itself so long as it was strong and successful. as war criminals could not be interrogated. A An important test of its strength and success few, notably General Anami, the War Minister in was its ability to absorb or modify the views and the Suzuki cabinet, had committed suicide. Since policies of the Army and Navy, who named their the Emperor's participation in the crucial events own Cabinet ministers, whose ministers and chiefs of the period preceding surrender had been re of staff had direct access to the Emperor, and who vealed and corroborated by other participants, an were influenced until the end by the fanaticism interview with Hirohito would not have been of the majority of Army officers and younger ' productive. It is felt that the general picture of Navy officers. One important wartime innova- 1 tion to this flow-chart, the Supreme War Direc useful to restate briefly the basis on which Ja.pan tion Council or Inner Cabinet, will be explained began the war in December, 1941. Japan en in a later section dealing with Koiso's time. tered the war securely in the hands of the radical This political mechanism had several special military clique that originally rose to power in characteristics which were peculiar to our eyes and Manchuria and was led and symbolized by Tojo. important to these events: (l) the Lord Privy This group had already achieved a police state Seal was the custodian of the Emperor's political and the controlling position in Japanese policy powers and chief protector of the "national during its uneasy coalition with the conservatives polity" or Tenno system; (2) the Japanese had a in the two preceding Konoye governments.