US troops "came ashore" in Japan?

[Meka]

I appeal to my fellow snopesters for help in satisfying my curiosity.

Do any of you know if American units conducted any commando missions, scouting patrols, or other amphibious raids on the island of Hokkaido (or any of the other Japanese Home Islands) during the summer of 1945? I've been reading Robert Cowley's What If?, a collection of essays speculating on alternative outcomes of various historical events. In one essay dealing with the prospect of a Soviet invasion of Hokkaido in the fall of 1945, Cowley mentions, "American raiders had apparently gone ashore there with little resistance that summer." Yes, it's a book dealing with alternate history, but in context, the author seems to be presenting it as fact - "Americans had gone ashore..." versus "If the Soviets..." for example.

Unfortunately, the book is depressingly void of any info on sources, and my own (admittedly cursory) check of battle histories of units likely to have been involved (Alamo Scouts, UDT, Marine Raiders, etc.) has only turned up a couple of harbor surveys by the UDTs after the surrender.

Can anybody shed some light on this?

[ganzfeld]

I can't understand what the purpose of such a mission would have been. Except for the Soviets, the allies were focusing on the south as a possible invasion point. Hokkaido offered no strategic interest. Perhaps the US scouted naval bases in the area in an effort to determine which ones were still active and needed to be hit but that work would have been done by reconnaissance plane.

[ganzfeld]

The USS Barb, a famous submarine, did land men in Karafuto, which is now part of Russia (Sakhalin), and destroy a train. Wikipedia says that this is "the only ground combat operation that took place on the Japanese home islands" (which is, perhaps, stretching the definition a bit). They also rocketed a few towns in Hokkaido. As far as I can tell they never landed anyone in Hokkaido.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Barb_(SS-220)

[Meka]

Originally Posted by ganzfeld

I can't understand what the purpose of such a mission would have been. Except for the Soviets, the allies were focusing on the south as a possible invasion point. Hokkaido offered no strategic interest. Perhaps the US scouted naval bases in the area in an effort to determine which ones were still active and needed to be hit but that work would have been done by reconnaissance plane.

To me, it could make sense in the context of a deception operation, i.e. the Japanese find evidence of an incursion on Hokkaido and are obligated to reinforce the island with units that would otherwise be defending Kyushu or Honshu. Or perhaps the alleged mission took place early in the planning stages of Downfall, when the allied commanders might have still been assessing alternatives to invading Kyushu and Honshu. Otherwise I'd have to agree - an Anglo-American raid of this nature would have been far more likely in the south.

The USS Barb, a famous submarine, did land men in Karafuto, which is now part of Russia (Sakhalin), and destroy a train. Wikipedia says that this is "the only ground combat operation that took place on the Japanese home islands" (which is, perhaps, stretching the definition a bit). They also rocketed a few towns in Hokkaido. As far as I can tell they never landed anyone in Hokkaido.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Barb_(SS-220)

Hmm... the essay seems to be referring to Hokkaido, but given that the Soviets did invade Sakhalin a month or two after this incident, you may be on to something.

[Troberg]

I can't understand what the purpose of such a mission would have been. Except for the Soviets, the allies were focusing on the south as a possible invasion point. Hokkaido offered no strategic interest. Perhaps the US scouted naval bases in the area in an effort to determine which ones were still active and needed to be hit but that work would have been done by reconnaissance plane.

Reconnaissance missions are not that uncommon. Before Overlord, the allied made several missions to the different possible landing sites of such varying goals as scouting out defenses and gathering sand samples to see if it would be hard enough for the tanks and trucks.

It's not that unbelievable that similar missions were carried out in Japan.

[ganzfeld]

Originally Posted by Troberg

Reconnaissance missions are not that uncommon. Before Overlord, the allied made several missions to the different possible landing sites of such varying goals as scouting out defenses and gathering sand samples to see if it would be hard enough for the tanks and trucks.

It's not that unbelievable that similar missions were carried out in Japan.

But, as I said, Hokkaido hadn't been considered as a possible landing place for quite some time before the summer in question.

[ganzfeld]

Originally Posted by Meka

Hmm... the essay seems to be referring to Hokkaido, but given that the Soviets did invade Sakhalin a month or two after this incident, you may be on to something.

As far as I can tell, the Barb's various missions to strafe, rocket, and sabotage in the north were purely to "harass" the enemy and destroy resources. (The Barb's captain and crew were pretty crazy. It's not as if they were on recon missions. They just thought of any and every way they could strike and did it.) It did have some effect of making the forces in Karafuto and Hokkaido turn their attention away from possible Soviet invasion to the to the US attacks but that was unintentional.

[Meka]

Originally Posted by ganzfeld

As far as I can tell, the Barb's various missions to strafe, rocket, and sabotage in the north were purely to "harass" the enemy and destroy resources. (The Barb's captain and crew were pretty crazy. It's not as if they were on recon missions. They just thought of any and every way they could strike and did it.) It did have some effect of making the forces in Karafuto and Hokkaido turn their attention away from possible Soviet invasion to the to the US attacks but that was unintentional.

I gathered that. My point was that the author - especially since he refers only to "American raiders" and not to "commandos," "rangers," or a similar unit - might have been referring to the Barb's shore party and simply confused an island the Soviets later occupied with one the Soviets were thinking of occupying. Or perhaps he heard the story of the Barb and not only got the islands confused but also misremembered it as something more substantial (or perhaps, official) than it really was.

[Majorsam]

Howdy;

I've been doing a little research and so far have seen no evidence of an across-shore invasion of Hokkido. I checked out a few sources, but nothing really came close to an actual land-on-the-beaches, shoot stuff up and pull out raid.

As Troberg mentioned, it was common for small 2-3 man parties to sneak onto the shore to do pre-invasion reconnaissance, but I don't think that this is what was meant in spirit by the OP.

There were, however, some raids late in the war...but they were air raids and naval bombardment of iron works. If you go here, you can read about the naval bombardment on 14-15 July 1945 in which the joint Brit/American force "approached to within a few thousand yards of the enemy mainland off the steel plant city of Kamaishi and, in the first direct naval bombardment of the Homeland, fired thundering salvos into shore targets."

At that point of the war the fleets were able to range up & down the islands with impunity, even the Kamikaze threat was negligible by that point. In that context, the OP might be essentially correct.

So I’ll keep my eyes out but at this point I haven’t found anything to confirm.

Best regards;

Sam

A published account of this incident is at the bottom of page 429 of the book Thunder Below!: The USS *Barb* Revolutionizes Submarine Warfare in World War II. Other published accounts exist.

See http://books.google.com.ph/books?id=...s05AC&pg=PA429