The Kamikaze - Merely a bargaining chip?

[Randall172]

People forget how close the Soviets were to invading Japan, the southern tip of the Kurile Islands is ~25 miles from Japan with major ports being ~30 miles from each other.

[Rich46yo]

People forget how close the Soviets were to invading Japan, the southern tip of the Kurile Islands is ~25 miles from Japan with major ports being ~30 miles from each other.

I always wondered about that. Do you have any material on actual deployments and invasion plans? Ive heard so much about the Hokkaido invasion threat but they would have been violating the Potsdam conference agreements at a time maybe it would not have been to smart to. Grabbing land in Manchuria I could see but invading Japan and inviting a conflict with America??? I always wondered how concrete this plan actually was?

[Oldman731]

People forget how close the Soviets were to invading Japan, the southern tip of the Kurile Islands is ~25 miles from Japan with major ports being ~30 miles from each other.

In fact, there are many historians who think that's why we dropped the second bomb so soon after the first; not so much to influence the Japanese as the Soviets.

- oldman

[Shuffler]

The Japanese pilots were soldiers of a constituted military service attacking military targets in time of war. The Japanese didnt blow up little kids or run them over with trucks.

The kamikazees didn't anyway.

[zack1234]

The Japanese used shovels and bayonets on the kids instead in China