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[[underlined in red ink]]What are military leaders did not know was that by the end of July, 1945, as part of the Japanese overall plan for the defense of their country, they had been saving all aircraft, fuel and pilots in reserve, and had been feverishly building new planes for the decisive battle for their homeland.[[/underlined in red ink]] The Japs had abandoned, for the time, their suicide attacks in order to preserve their pilots and planes to hurl at our invasion fleets.

The plan for the final defense of Japan was called "Ketsu-Go", and a large part of that plan called for the use of the Japanese Naval and Air Forces in defense.  Japan had been divided into districts, and in each of these districts hidden airfields were being built and hangers and aircraft were being dispersed and camouflaged in great numbers.  Units were being trained, deployed and given final instructions.  Still other suicide units were being scattered throughout the islands of Kyushu and elsewhere, and held in reserve; and for the first time in the war, the Army and Navy Air Forces would be operating under one single unified command.

As part of the "Ketsu-Go", the Japanese were building 20 suicide take-off strips in southern Kyushu, with underground hangers for an all-out offensive.  In Kyushu alone, the Japanese had 35 camouflaged airfield and 9 seaplane bases.  As part of their overall plan, these seaplanes were to be used in suicide missions as well.

On the night before the invasion, 50 seaplane bombers, along with 100 former carrier aircraft and 50 land based army planes were to be launched in a direct suicide attack on the fleet.

The Japanese 5th Naval Air Fleet and the 6th Air Army had 58 more airfields on Korea, Western Honshu and Shikoku, which also were to be used for massive suicide attacks.  [[underlined in red ink]] Allied intelligence had established that the Japanese had no more than 2,500 aircraft of which they guessed only 300 would be deployed [[/underlined in red ink]] in suicide attacks.  However, [[underlined in red ink]] in August of 1945, unknown to our intelligence, the Japanese still had [[/underlined in red ink]] 5,651 Army and 7,074 Navy Aircraft, for [[underlined in red ink]] a total of 12,725 planes of all types.  During July alone, 1,131 new planes were built [[/underlined in red ink]] and almost 100 new underground aircraft plants were in various stages of construction.

Every village had some type of aircraft manufacturing activity.  Hidden in mines, railway tunnels, under viaducts and in basements of department stores, work was being done to construct new planes.

Additionally, the Japanese were building newer and more effective models of the "Okka" which was a rocket propelled

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bomb, much like the German V-1, but piloted to its final destination by a suicide pilot.  In March of 1945, the Japanese had ordered 750 of the earlier models of the "Okka" to be produced.  These aircraft were to be launched from other aircraft.  By the summer of 1945, the Japanese were building the newer models, which were to be catapulted out of caves in Kyushu to be used against the invasion ships which would be only minutes away.

At Okinawa, while almost 10,000 sailors died, as a result of kamikaze attacks, the kamikaze there had been in relatively ineffective, primarily because of distance.  Okinawa was located 350 miles from Kyushu and even experienced pilots flying from Japan became lost, ran out of fuel or did not have sufficient flying time to pick out a suitable target.  Furthermore, early in the Okinawa campaign, the Americans had established a land based fighter command which, together with the carrier aircraft, provided an effective umbrella of protection against kamikaze attacks.

During "Olympic", the situation would be reversed.  Kamikaze pilots would have little distance to travel, would have considerable staying time over the invasion fleet, and would have little difficulty picking out suitable targets.  Conversely, the American land based aircraft would be able to provide only minimal protection against suicide attacks, since these American aircraft would have little flying time over Japan before they would be forced to return to their bases on Okinawa and elsewhere to refuel.

Also, different from Okinawa would be the Japanese choice of targets.  At Okinawa aircraft carriers and destroyers were principle targets of the kamikaze.  The targets for the "Olympic" invasion were to be the transports carrying the American troops who were to participate in the landing.  The Japanese concluded they could kill far more Americans by sinking on troop ship than they could by sinking 30 destroyers.  Their aim was to kill thousands of American troops at sea, thereby removing them from the actual landing.  "Ketsu-Go" called for the destruction of 700 to 800 American ships.

When invasion became imminent, "Ketsu-Go" called for a four-fold aerial plan of attack.  While American ships were approaching Japan, but still in the open seas, an initial force of 2,000 army and navy fighters were to fight to the death in order to control the skies over Kyushu.  A second force of 330 specially trained Navy combat pilots were to take off and attack the main body of the task force to keep it from using its fire support and air cover to adequately protect the troop carrying transports.

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