Help Title a Book About Invasion of Japan

For some time now I have been working on a book, a bit of historical fiction, written as a collection of reports from a war correspondent. The operating premise is that American and allied forces did invade Japan in late 1945 (having decided to keep atomic weapons for military use instead of bombing cities).

It's about time to start marketing the work, as the 70th anniversary of everything approaches. I have a question for you about the final title of the work. As it is set in the invasion of the southernmost Japanese home island, the obvious (to me) title is "Kyushu Diary" (with a nod to Richard Tregaskis' Guadalcanal Diary).

What about it? Have you even heard of Kyushu, or had any idea where it is? What about the more general public? While the target audience is definitely 'armchair generals' and military history buffs, it would be nice to see some wider appeal. This is a potential story that needs to be considered, especially as people re-open the old dropping-the-bombs debate next year.

 

Well, for your kind information, it is one of the four major islands of the Japanese archipelago. Fukuoka is the largest city.
Kyushu means 'Nine Provinces'. Formarly it was known as Kyukoku, ie., the nine states.
The nine provinces of Kyushu island are Chikuzen, Chikugo, Osumi, Buzen, Bungo, Hizen, Hyuga, Higo and Satsuma. Thanks.

 

Oh yes, I know this all very well, having been staring at maps and photos and histories of said places (and drawing artillery range circles and nuclear blast effect radii on them...) for many months now.

 

I may have to recuse myself, for I do where Kyushu is. Does that indicate that I am more educated than the average person? I also have read Guadacanal Diary as well as it's rarer companion Invasion Diary (also by Tregaskis). But assuming you still want my opinion...

I like your title, but only after you have explained the premise: a war correspondent writing reports post military invasion of Japan. An alternative might be: "Climbing Olympus" (harkening to the code name "Operation Olympus").

Oops, I just discovered there is a Science Fiction novel by that name.

Another idea is "Kyushu War Diary" to clarify for the American reader that this is a war novel rather than a travelogue.

 

I agree with @Interrogator#6 ... Kyushu War Diary sounds better and more descriptive to me. Maybe even something with the date so your readers will automatically associate it with WWII? 1945 Kyushu Diary? Diary Kyushu 1945? (No, not that one, it's clumsy.) Dateline 1945 Kyushu? Kyushu War Diary 1945?

In any case, best of luck with your book!

 

Might want to look at Alfred Coppel's novel The Burning Mountain; the invasion of Kyushu goes off as planned.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Burning-Mountain-Novel-Invasion/dp/015114978X

A more dry, account of what would have happened, and more importantly, why it did not is presented in D. M. Giangreco's Hell to Pay see

http://www.amazon.com/Hell-Pay-Operation-Downfall-1945-1947/dp/1591143160

From an actual history standpoint, of course the actual operations plan is available as are various analyses of the Japanese preparedness (and they were prepared) if one structures one search correctly.

The Combined Arms Research Library is a good place to start.
http://cgsc.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/p4013coll8

Number 1 on their list of a search of WWII operational documents using just "Downfall" as the search parameter is "Downfall--strategic plan for operations n the Japanese Archipelago"
http://cgsc.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p4013coll8/id/3387/rec/1

It would seem to me that your choice of title is appropriate. Folks with an interest in the subject would certainly pick up on Kyushu Diary as a title and might, I certainly do, especially with a journalist as story teller, appreciate the nod to Tregaskis, kind of an "Ah!" moment.

Of course, this is also a marketing problem for you, far more people amongst those even vaguely interested in WWII are interested in Europe rather that the Pacific, especially the end game, where most histories follow the general path of " . . . and so the Okinawa Campaign ended, a couple of atomic bombs were dropped by the evil Americans, and the war ended with the Japanese surrender . . ." forgetting and omitting that there was certainly a whole lot more going on.

I'd probably be interested in the final product . . . point one of my daughters in the right direction & Voila! a birthday present.

R

 

I read Coppel and it is immediately one of my favorite novels. [My only complaint is that he glossed over the Kyushu operation ;-) [

This all started with Giangreco. Some time after reading Hell to Pay I happened to re-read Guadalcanal Diary, and this idea was born. I'll save the list of everything else I've slugged through for the eventual bibliography, which itself will require serious editing. I went all the way back to re-read The Art of War and The Book of Five Rings, on through to Ernie Pyle, Eugene Sledge, Col. Yahara (who designed the Okinawa defenses) and many others. I spent waaaay too much time looking for weather and tide data!

[For my money, the definitive title about the end of the war in the Pacific is Richard B. Frank's Downfall - I just grabbed it and counted eleven colored post-it notes sticking out from it.]

The research about such a vast world runs off in innumerable directions - down to particular USO shows or VIPs the main character may have come across as he travels across the Pacific to join the troops in Okinawa. Oh, I could have just started out with him already overseas, heading in to the assault even, and saved myself looking up details of San Diego from July '45, but I really want to paint the whole picture for modern readers who are less educated about the era.

 

Well, you have certainly looked in all the right places. I agree on Frank's Downfall, it is one of the best, the first place you go when refuting the "evil Americans" arguments. I am impressed. (Gotta mention this to the girls when they're home for Thanksgiving - I realize you're a ways off, but it never hurts to start them thinking) . . . now all you have to do is sound like a 1945 vintage journalist . . . as opposed to what passes for journalism today.

Keep us posted on your progress!

 

So far the guy's voice is a little snarky compared to the likes of Tregaskis or Ernie Pyle - but my last project included reading a bunch of Ian Fleming and Raymond Chandler, so I have all that on the brain. Hmm... maybe a full-on noir detective war story could be next. "I knew she was trouble the minute she came into my tank..."

 

It was the tight black leather pants and jacket . . . holy Kelly's Heroes, a panzer uniform in a Sherman tank!

 

Kelly's Heroes is one of the finest films ever made. A star turn for Carroll O'Connor - "Can't you hear, we got the game on!"

 

I gonna add another one, 'Racing the Enemy' by Tsuyoshi Hasegawa - historian of The University of California, Santa Barbara. ~ 2005, Harvard University Press.
As a child, Hasegawa watched the Tokyo firebombing from his roof and he can still recall the Orange Glow on the horizon!
Richard Rhodes, Barton Bernstein - profesor(emeritus) of history, Stanford University, and others are telling about indepth military facts written in this book.

 

Perhaps I can put in a word for another person to ad to you already catalogue of real persons: Harold Stassen. He was on the staff of CICPAC when he was seconded to some agency in NYC. So he flew back to the States from the Pacific. When done with the secret committee work he returned back to CINCPAC late July-early Aug. 45, just in time for the surrender. He commanded a "quick-strike taskforce" to go into Japan, rescue endangered POWs, then exit BEFORE Dougie MacA. set foot on Niphon.

What was he doing in NYC? He was part of the American team which helped write the UN Charter.

Before the war he became a lawyer then liberal Republican governor of Minnesota.

Is the timeing of his to the PTO about what you need?

 

There really wasn't any call for things about the POW situation in this story. It's all from the eyes of one observer, who's near the combat front the whole time. I let him chit-chat with some intel guys or radio guys a couple times to help update the 'big picture', but for the most part he's blind to anything outside the immediate theater.
There is still an opportunity to put anything I want in the 'annotations for the modern reader', or the original author's own post script, or maybe someone does mention him the POWs are one of the reasons for pushing to go faster through tough opposition. [the hurry-up motivator so far has been hidden enemy artillery in the heights that they had to go up to and silence]

 

Oh dear, I failed to clarify otmy point. Harold Stassin's mission to rescue POWs would not have happened. It was only possible due to the sudden collapse of the war due to the dramatic dropping of the A-bombs and the "Voice of the Crane" broadcast. To make your story work as I understand it,and I may be mistaken, events of early August, 45, would have to have not occured. Harold Stassen would play a different role, as would have the roles and lives of many people. I would imagine that many POWs would have been killed by the Japanese Kempeitai (Thought Police) for they were already condemned as War Criminals and Terrorists (at least the B-29 fliers were).

One can imagine that many many civilians, armed with sharpen bamboo pikes, would have died charging American machine guns in responce to their duty-debt to the Emperor.

 

I thought a bit about the civilian defense brigades and what they would do.

There is a bit in there about US troops finding some of the instructional material for the civilians. Which was unnerving to the soldiers, for sure. Some civilian resistance was expected, but if they were actually trained and organized....

Anwyay, the only casualties I accounted for from them was when they came up on US units from behind, after they'd passed through or were still in a medium size town.

I could still write a scene about them attacking, but Conroy (1945) and Coppel (The Burning Mountain) covered it in their books, over-dramatically in both cases.
[hmmm... really I should do one, since both those scenes were brutal frontal assaults]

 

Have you ever encountered Ruth Bennet's book: The Crysanthemum and the Sword? It is a non-fiction attempt to explain the Westerners the mind of the average Niponnese. Written mostly during the war but initially published soon after, she explains how each and every Japanese were schooled (State Shinto) in their duty to their Emperor.

 

I'd heard of that one, but didn't get to it. At the beginning of the project I read The Book of Five Rings, and an anthology on the history of bushido (a variety of bhuddist/shinto/confucian texts each showing how the prevailing power bent each toward service to the state and eventual militarism).

 

Hello again! Long time no post, but I've been busy arm-wrestling with the editor. [I maintain commas go outside quotations in a list!]
The cover designer delivered the tentative final front image today, so I updated the web site and am happy to point people to it,
http://www.xdayjapan.com
Oh, yes, the final title is there. I decided to make it a book-inside-a-book - Kyushu Diary is included in X-Day : Japan.

 

Back again!
X-Day: Japan is due to hit all the usual sales channels soon. In the meantime I'm revisiting the forums where people were helpful and supportive of the project to give something back.

Get the e-book for 99 cents at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/553709, enter coupon code BG88F for $3.00 off.
Get the print book for $7.99 at https://www.createspace.com/5425704, use code B7LPRXRE for $6.00 off.

The official preview, much more than just the first 10%, can be downloaded from www.xdayjapan.com.

Thanks again!