wwii axis reenactment forum

i had a sneaking suspicion my joke could have been true!

thats the thing, if the allies had of invaded they would have been met by a whole nation of Kamikazes, ever man women and child was expected to fight and die to stop the invasion force

it would have been bad for the americans, public support would have dropped im guessing.

not just the Americans, British and commonwealth forces would have gone in aswell. well just think how bad the Normandy landings were for the allies, how many thousands of men died so we could land in France, Allied military planners were estimating and Allied casulty rate of more than a million men to be able to take Japan

yes i think japan would have fought for years, partisan groups and such, i could easily see how a million could die in taking japan

If you only see the many improvised weapons they build to fight the allies on the homefront.
From ceramic grenades, single shot black powder rifles to bamboo spears.

it would have been a vietnam style war

I know one thing.
And that is that it would have been more violence than ever encounterd during the war.

it would be messy to say the very least and in the nicest terms!

von papen wrote:did the japenese develope any anti tank weaponary?

My father told me a a story of a japanese officer getting into a Lee tank armed with his sword, he disabled the tank by killing or wounding the crew. Scary

Helmut Schegel wrote:My father told me a a story of a japanese officer getting into a Lee tank armed with his sword, he disabled the tank by killing or wounding the crew. Scary

I doubt if its true - swords are somehow useless in confined spaces... Japanese might be different but not stupid. He would rather use his Nambu pistol. Or maybe you mean - bayonet ? Has he seen it by his own eyes ? Such stories were spread among GIs and often made hundreds times bigger than they really were...

Back to the main point. I think you're overexagerrating the dangers that might have met GIs. Million dead ? Doubt that... mind you, it was not necessary to capture every inch of ground. The only person to be taken was an Emperor... Assuming Japan's feudal social organisation that would mean the end of it - every Japanese would listen to the Emperor signing the peace document...

I wouldn't dismiss the story so quickly, i wouldn't be at all surprised if it had atleast a basis in truth. I can imagine a Wakazashi being incredibly deadly inside a tank and its certainly a tactic that wouldn't look out of place in a Japanese military manual.

As for a million casulaties to invade Japan, when yuo look at what japan had planned to combat an invasion you can see why those figures were estimated. Capturing the Emperor would have been very hard, as soon as an invasion was launched he and the rest of the Imperial family were to be moved to a secret location up in the mountains to a vast underground complex that even an atom bomb wouldn't have destroyed, and standing between the allies and the Emperor was a defence force never before seen in size and determination. The coasts were defended by midgit submarines, explosive motor boats, suicide frogman and skin divers. The air would be defended by thousands of Japanese fighters, including jet and rocket fighters based on German designs. On land you had a nation willing to fight to the death, supported by modern heavy tanks and artillery pieces.

The Japanese had kepted so much men and equipment in the home islands ready for the anticepated invasion that it actually probaly made them lose the war quicker. If this stuff had been released earlier it would probaly have taken alot longer for the allies to get to the home islands

Tanaka wrote:

A pic of me for size reference (186 cm standing up )
Man i love this gun