| Maps: World War II in the Pacific |
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Japanese Predictions of a U.S. Invasion
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After Saipan, the Imperial Army develops a strategy, based on the threat of national suicide, to save Japan from humiliating defeat. Japanese leaders predict U.S. forces will assault Iwo Jima then Okinawa, where they plan fierce resistance to force a negotiated peace.
The Japanese also prepare for an invasion of Japan from Okinawa, which is within U.S. fighter plane range of the southern part of the Japanese island of Kyushu.
From Kyushu, the Japanese predict Americans will launch an invasion of the Tokyo plain. If the final, decisive battle is to be fought on Japan's main islands, the Imperial Army plans to fight to the death alongside civilians armed with sharpened bamboo spears. The army calls the plan Ketsu-Go.
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