IT WILL NOT COME AS A SURPRISE TO AMERICAN READERS THAT WHEN THE Japanese emperor delivered his surrender message on August 15, 1945, Allied forces led by the United States had thoroughly defeated Japan s naval and air power in the Pacific. They may be less familiar with the fact that the bulk of Japan's land forces were still largely intact. In three years of intense combat beginning in late 1942, Allied forces had retaken control of many islands in the Pacific, notably the Philippines and Okinawa, and had routed the Japanese defenders. At that point, however, they had not defeated key units of the Japanese Army. When the cease-fire took effect, a depleted force of some 300,000 Japanese soldiers in Manchuria had fallen victim to the sudden attack of the Soviet Union on August 8, 1945, and many were on the run. All of the other Japanese divisions that were scattered throughout East Asia remained fully intact. These included Japanese forces in the Dutch East Indies, Malaya, Thailand, Burma and French Indochina. Although weakened by relentless American submarine and air attacks against Japanese shipping, these forces had hardly even been tested in combat.
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