Week 307 - Japan's New Defense Plan, 100 Million Dead - WW2 - July 13, 1945

Japan is aware that soon enough the Allies will invade the Home Islands, and they will mobilize absolutely everything and everyone they can for their defense plan, "The Glorious Death of the 100 Million". In the meantime, Allied carrier forces keep hitting them, the Australian advance on Borneo continues, the Chinese advance on Guilin continues, the Allied rebuilding of Okinawa continues, and American preparations are nearly complete for a test detonation of an atomic bomb.

0:00 INTRO
0:38 RECAP
0:58 PREPARING TO TEST THE BOMB
6:05 OBOE 2 CONTINUES
7:22 CHINESE ADVANCE ON GUILIN
8:22 TRANSFORMING OKINAWA
9:53 JAPANESE DEFENSE PLANS
14:33 NOTES
16:59 CONCLUSION
18:44 ROY V. HANSON MEMORIAL

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Hosted by: Indy Neidell
Director: Astrid Deinhard
Producers: Astrid Deinhard and Spartacus Olsson
Executive Producers: Astrid Deinhard, Indy Neidell, Spartacus Olsson
Creative Producer: Marek Kamiński
Community Management: Jake McCluskey
Written by: Indy Neidell
Research by: Indy Neidell
Map animations by: Daniel Weiss
Map research by: Sietse Kenter
Edited by: Karolina Dołęga
Artwork and color grading by: Mikołaj Uchman
Sound design by: Marek Kamiński
Colorizations by:
Mikołach Uchman

Image sources:
National Archives NARA
Australian War Memorial
Library of Congress

Soundtracks from Epidemic Sound

A TimeGhost chronological documentary produced by OnLion Entertainment GmbH.

[WorldWarTwo]

This episode is dedicated to Roy Hanson, the grandfather of TimeGhost Army member Seth Hanson. We’d like to thank Seth for sharing his story with us and for being such a dedicated member of the TimeGhost Army.

[pacificostudios]

My late mother turned 15 in 1945. One day, while watching a local news spot about a high school archery competition, my mother said, "When I was a girl, I was good at that." That's how I learned that my mother's role in Operation Olympic would have been to shoot arrows at the U.S. Army. That illustrates the utter madness of the Japanese military in the summer of 1945.

[joemontgomery]

I’m starting to think this war might not go so well for the Japanese

[adelkheir]

You know it's getting serious when Indy stops making phone calls

[가니메데]

I always find it amusing how the number 100 million includes not only the people in the main Japanese islands but also 20 million from the Korean peninsula. Did the Japanese command really think Koreans would sacrifice their lives for a colonial ruler?

[ddax]

During the war my grandfather had an apple farm in New Mexico, German POWs worked for him picking apples, my father was just a kid then, he told me the German POW's were very kind to him and happy to be in the U.S, out of the war.

[NigelDeForrest-Pearce-cvek]

My Late Father was A Captain in the 41st Inf. Div., Scheduled to Land With The First Wave On Miyazaki Beach as Part of Olympic.
The Manhattan Project Saved His Life.

[reamrkj]

I grew up with a man named Dan Saxon. He was too young to go to war and his father was too old. However, when the war started they began growing sweet potoatos. They were not farmers, but they had a few acres they could use. Some of it was theirs and some of it was borrowed from neighbors who weren't there durring the war. All the sweet potatos were sold to the army for use in rations. This was in addition to their regular jobs. It was his family's contribution to the war effort.

[ives]

"War's tragedy is that it uses man's best to do man's worst." - Harry Emerson Fosdick

[konstantinriumin]

On July 12, 1945, american bombers bombed Utsunomiya. Hayao Miyazaki, then 4 years old, was evacuated by car with his family by his affluent father, head of aircraft manufacturing plant. Despite pleas from their neighboring family to get in car too, father speeded away, only caring for his own. That feeling of terror of war, selfishness and powerlessness in a face of injustice formed a core memory of Hayao, and inspired him to make many stories about willful, brave children seeking peaceful world.

[faenethlorhalien]

Back when I was studying in Tokyo in late 2000 to mid 2001, I had a Japanese professor who was in his late 60s, still working part time after retiring, and he was a very young kid during the late stages of WW2. He told us how them, pre-school and primary school school kids, were taught how to hide in holes dug in the ground, holding on to an explosive device (something like a landmine or similar, but with some glue they were supposed to use to attach it to the enemy vehicle) and wait for an American tank to roll over, then stick the bomb, and die for the Emperor. Absolutely terrifying how he told it: laughing his ass off. What a great guy he was, and I'm so happy he didn't have to sacrifice himself for a foolish ideal that would have led them nowhere at a point when everyone knew the war was lost.
Also told us the bread they were forced to eat instead of rice (as they were taught that everything they had been doing during and before the war was the reason they lost, as in, their "japanness" is what cost them the war) was absolutely atrocious and disgusting. Fortunately, over time, sane heads prevailed.

[gunman]

A sidenote this week on July 8 1945 is that Subhas Chandra Bose, leader of the Indian National Army (INA), will attend and lay the foundation stone for the Indian National Army Monument in Japanese occupied Singapore. The monument would be completed by the Japanese within a month in August 1945 but was eventually demolished by the British at the end of the war. On the present day, a plaque commemorating the previous memorial currently sits on the same spot.

[xxnavyrulzxx]

Old McDonald HAD a farm, then the ordinance department turned it into glass

[jetsandthebombers]

This is one of the best episodes so far. It shows well the preparations for the invasion of Japan. I got tingles when Indy was describing the US Okinawa base storage capacity. Thank you.

[tpaktop_na]

Nice in remembering the farmer. Just as important during and after WW2. The home front infrastructure matters too for victory. The farmers may not have been in battle, however without their efforts on the home front, everything would be harder in ending WW2.

[HandDrawnHistory]

This week also marks 8 years since the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, which caused the war in Asia to begin in earnest. In the intervening time, the war in Europe has begun and ended, and all this time China and Japan have been in all out war.

[hckyplyr]

I loved the story of the Hansen farm. My dad grew up on a farm during WWII. He was only a child. He remembers hearing the announcement of the Pearl Harbor attack on the radio.

Not many know there was a system of ratings for farms during the war. The ratings designated efficiency and productive capacity and indicated priority for war-vital commodities. My grandpa's farm held the highest rating. They enjoyed highest priority for fuel, spare parts, lubricants, etc. No A ration sticker for them. My dad recalls fuel never being an issue - they always had plenty. Same with meat, butter, etc. Of course they produced all their own.

I still own that farm about 5 mi ENE of Phillipsburg, KS today.

[lynnwood]

A summer job on the extra gang in 1974 on the Milwaukee Road Railroad brought me under the supervision of a section chief Kenny Ohm(sic).
He described his war time service as a railroad Maintenance of Way worker, "always too much work and endless hours", with no chance of
escape because of his job classification. He even went into Chicago to enlist, was enlisted and got caught up with by the War Production Board
in Basic Training and sent back to his job on the Milwaukee Road. He said Basic Training was a vacation for him.

All of that gone now, just motes of dust of history.

[_dog_Restoration]

The story about Roy Hanson. Reminded me of our farm neighbor that i worked for in the early 70s. I was only 10 years old but I drove tractor raking hay and driving his old pickup that was made into a hay buck. No matter what Harold Burdick would stop in time to be at the house at straight up noon for lunch give or take 30 seconds max! His wife June was amazing cook! Then as soon as lunch was over it was back to the hay field. One day a P-38 was being use as a crop duster over head. I found it strange that Harold quit working to watch this plane the whole time is could be seen. He never took a break from work any other time all summer. I mention this too my dad. Dad said that Harold had flow the P-38 at the end of WW2.

[nicklewis]

Ironically, farmers with their skill set and ability to "generally survive & overcome" were possibly the members of society the frontline needed most. But all food producers should be celebrated as much as many combatants.. Great episode