Invasion Information
Planning
Strategy
Defenses
Casualties
Books
1945
Burning Mountain
Codename Downfall
Death Is Lighter Than a Feather
Downfall
MacArthur's War
The Invasion of Japan
| Operation Olympic > Casualties |
Casualty Estimates
Approximately 500,000 Purple Heart medals (awarded to those wounded or killed while serving with the US military) were manufactured in anticipation of the invasion. However, nobody knows for sure how many Allied or Japanese casualties an invasion would have resulted in. There have been many estimates over the years (some of the estimates below do not include losses at sea).
| Estimate | US/Allied Casualties | Japanese Casualties |
| Joint Chiefs of Staff (April 1945) |
Olympic Wounded: 347,000 Olympic Dead/Missing: 109,000 Coronet Wounded: 744,000 Coronet Dead/Missing: 158,000 TOTAL: 1,200,000 |
N/A |
| Admiral Nimitz's Staff (May 1945) |
First 30 Days: 49,000 | N/A |
| General MacArthur's Staff (June 1945) |
First 120 Days: 125,000 | N/A |
| General MacArthur's Staff (Revised Estimate) |
First 120 Days: 105,000 | N/A |
| General Marshall | 70,000 | ? |
| Admiral Leahy | 268,000 | ? |
| Admiral King | 31,000 to 41,000 | ? |
| William Shockley | Wounded: 1,300,000 to 3,200,000 Dead: 400,000 to 800,000 Total: 1,700,000 to 4,000,000 |
Dead: 5,000,000 to 10,000,000 |
| Kyle Palmer | Dead: 500,000 to 1,000,000 | ? |
| Herbert Hoover | Dead: 500,000 to 1,000,000 | ? |
| < < Previous: Defenses |
| World War II |
| Operation Barbarossa 1941 German Invasion of Russia |
| Operation Citadel 1943 The Battle of Kursk |
| Operation Dragoon 1944 Invasion of southern France |
| Operation Varsity 1945 Crossing the Rhine |
| Invasions That Never Were |
| Operation Sealion 1940 German invasion of England |
| Operation Olympic 1945 US invasion of southern Japan |
| Operation Coronet 1946 US invasion of northern Japan |
| Special Forces |
| Operation Entebbe 1976 Entebbe Airport Rescue |
| Operation Nimrod 1980 Iranian Embassy Siege |
| British Cold War Operations |
| Operation Musketeer 1956 Suez Crisis |
| Operation Corporate 1982 Falklands War |
| Operation Black Buck 1982 Vulcan raids on Port Stanley |
| Operation Granby 1990-91 Persian Gulf |
| British Post Cold War |
| Operation Herrick 2002- Afghanistan |