Although the Allies were aware of the seriousness of the situation, it was too late, and by the time they learned that the Japanese were preparing to withdraw from the overseas colonies, the first group of nearly 400,000 Japanese troops had already arrived at various ports along the coast of Japan.

The Japanese army base camp attaches great importance to this withdrawal of troops, after all, it is related to the security of the entire Japanese archipelago and the life and death of the Yamato nation. Therefore, at the beginning of the withdrawal, the tactics of simultaneous operation in both directions were adopted: when the Japanese convoy set off for the colonies, the Japanese troops stationed in the overseas colonies used the ships they had collected to return to Japan, and both sides were launched at the same time.

The Allies knew that they had to intercept the Japanese fleet off the coast of Japan before it returned to Japan, so under the command of Admiral Nimitz and Admiral Chen Shaokuan, more than 600 Allied warships, large and small, rushed to the Japanese archipelago from the Philippines, the South Seas, and Hawaii.

However, this time the Japanese Navy also worked hard, although there were not many remaining Japanese warships, especially only three large aircraft carriers that could be used for combat, and the rest of the large warships were not very many, the most were old cruisers and small destroyers, although the difference in strength between the two sides was huge, but the Japanese army still did not retreat, and the main force bravely faced the Allied fleet.

The Japanese side also knows that the two sides are in a hurry, and if they win in time, then this strategic withdrawal will be equivalent to which side has won the initiative in the war.

It has to be said that the Japanese army's performance in this withdrawal operation was amazing, and the information was kept secret in advance, and not only did the intelligence organs of the United States and the Soviet Union not receive the slightest rumor, but even the China National Security Bureau, which claims to be the most powerful intelligence agency in the world, did not notice anything.

And in the whole operation. The Japanese army not only acted quickly, but also had a clear division of labor, who was responsible for what work, and when it withdrew, it withdrew in an orderly manner, and only paid less than 400,000 losses, and withdrew more than 2.5 million troops to the Japanese mainland in just half a month. In comparison, the so-called "generator" program in Britain is simply weak.

However, the Allies did not gain nothing, at least the more than 300,000 Japanese troops on the Philippine Islands were finished, and there were no reinforcements and no logistical support, fighting against the Allied forces several times their size. Even Yamashita Bongbun, known as the "Malay Tiger", could not do anything. On April 4, the Allies finally captured Manila. Yamashita Fengfumi led tens of thousands of remnants of the Japanese army into the mountains of the northwest of the Philippines to continue to deal with the allies, but including Yamashita Fengfumi himself knew that this was just doing his best to obey the fate of heaven, and the Japanese army was just grasshoppers after the autumn.

In mid-April 1941, the Allies reoccupied the South Pacific. The specific situation is that China, the United States and Australia jointly occupy the Philippines. British troops occupied Malaysia. China occupied Korea, Burma, Thailand, Treasure Island, Hong Kong Island, and all of French Indochina, the United States and Britain occupied the Dutch East Indies, and a detachment of the South Seas captured Singapore. As for France and the Netherlands, which previously had a very important voice in the South Pacific region, they did not get anything.

The news of the unprecedented victory of the Allies in the Pacific Theater quickly spread throughout the world, and the people of anti-fascist countries all over the world seemed to see the dawn of victory.

On the other hand, the top brass and people in Germany and Japan are in a different situation, as if the end of the world has come, and the atmosphere in the country is very tense, especially in Japan.

Unlike Germany, the Soviet Red Army had recovered most of its territory and advanced its forces into Eastern Europe, although Germany had suffered heavy losses in the Soviet-German and North African theaters. But Germany still controls the whole of Western and Southern Europe, including France, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Denmark, Norway, and more than a dozen other countries are still under German control, so Germany has not yet reached the point of exhaustion.

However, Japan is different, after losing the two important resource bases of Korea and Northeast China, as well as the energy base of the Dutch East Indies, Japan's main strategic materials have basically lost their replenishment, and Japan's domestic reserves of strategic materials such as steel and oil are very scarce, and they cannot last long.

In addition, when the Japanese army withdrew its troops, it lost 80 percent of its heavy weapons and 30 percent of its light weapons, and at the same time lost 50 percent of its military production capacity.

It is precisely for this reason that the Japanese top brass has different ideas on how to prevent the Allied forces from landing on the Japanese mainland, and the commanders of the combat units headed by the base camp still lack confidence in the immediate destruction of the enemy's landing force by launching an offensive on the coast. In addition, in the previous Philippine operations, the Japanese had a profound experience of the Allied naval guns and bombardment, as well as the power of the flame tanks, many people thought that it was unwise to fight the Allied forces in a decisive battle on the coast, and a large number of senior officers believed that the in-depth attack and defense method was more suitable for Japan, and some commanders even proposed to "allow the enemy landing force to obtain a bridgehead when the last resort is necessary."

Some commanders took too much into account the losses caused by the enemy's artillery bombardment and bombardment, and advocated retreating from the coast and building cave positions on the high ground. For example, the operational plan of the 12th Front Army in the Japanese Kwantung region was to keep the corps scheduled for a decisive battle in the upper reaches of the Tone River against the Allied forces that landed from Kujukurihama or Sagami Bay, and then seek a decisive battle from that side after determining the direction of the enemy's main attack.

On April 18, Showa 19 (1944), when the Allies captured Iwo Jima and approached the Ryukyu Islands, the head of the headquarters and the newly established General Army Headquarters believed that it was necessary to unify the minds of the people at home before arranging a decisive battle on the mainland, and that without a unified mind, it would be impossible to resist the landing operations of China, the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union.

Therefore, the base camp sternly demanded that this negative tendency be changed, implement the basic idea of the decisive battle on the mainland, and put forward the operational slogan of "100 million pieces of jade."

On 22 April, the Chief of Staff instructed all the land forces on the ground: "Combat on the ground shall be an offensive war, and the decisive battle shall be fought on the coast, especially on the seashore." Its operational guidance is to make in-depth arrangements to storm the enemy's weak points that have not yet completed the landing before the enemy forces have established a bridgehead. ”

On the 25th, the War Department of the base camp issued the "Manual of Tactics for Decisive Battles on Territory," emphasizing that decisive battles on territory are offensive annihilation wars, and that defense and positional fortifications should not be relied upon, and coastal defense should also be carried out in the form of decisive battles. The construction of positions should be selected in the places where the enemy must attack, and attention should be paid to the combat fortifications on flat ground. It is necessary to attach importance to securing airfields, and combat fortifications, training, and combat should be dominated by antitank warfare, and attention should be paid to the method of hand-to-hand combat by assault.

On the same day, the War Department of the base camp issued the "National War of Resistance Must Be Carried", requiring the people to fight for the defense of the country with the determination to participate in the decisive battle, that is, to fight for the defense of the country with the spirit of 100 million people rising up to fight for special attacks; and formed a national volunteer combat team to conduct combat training and build positions; Each defended the countryside and assisted the army in combat with the method of hand-to-hand combat.

In the propaganda of the Japanese government, the decisive battle at home was the final decisive battle of the Japanese army, and the Japanese army gambled the glorious tradition of the army over the past 80 years with this final battle, and could only and must win the final victory in the decisive battle at home. However, it is believed that the key to victory lies in pouring all the strength of the army into the enemy and desperately slamming the enemy when the enemy's front is not stable; There is no other way.

In addition, the coastal areas are not only political, economic, and transportation centers where many people live, but also have many important aviation bases located in these areas due to the topography of the region. In addition, judging from the lessons of the battles of the Philippines and Iwo Jima, once these areas were handed over to the enemy and the enemy army had consolidated the bridgehead, it would be extremely difficult to pull them out with the firepower and assault equipment of the Imperial Army, and it would be very unfavorable to the Imperial Japanese Army.

In addition, the Japanese army headquarters also issued the highest instructions to all units on combat methods -- the "General Essentials for Facing Decisive Battles," and according to the instructions of the "Essentials," the Japanese army's offensive was to be carried out by the elite units of the naval air force and submarine attacks as the first batch. Around this time, from the moment the enemy's landing force approached the coast of the mainland about 300 kilometers, all the air units of the army and navy and the medium- and small-sized submarines equipped in these sea areas suddenly launched a special attack on the transport fleet.

In line with this attack, the attack boats concentrated on the coast also launched an attack with the main force before and after the enemy convoy of transport ships sailed into the anchorage. Long-range artillery concealed in the coastal cave positions also shelled the Allied convoy of transport ships at the anchorage.

The assault on the Allied convoy culminated in the vicinity of its entry into the anchorage. During the offensive, aviation units and part of submarines launched an offensive against Allied mobile units and ships that served as support for artillery bombardment, as well as transport flotilla for supplies; And let some of the "Jiaolong" and "Meat Mine" of the special attack boats participate in such operations.

When the Allied landing force reached the coast and began the offensive, the fire of all the weapons of the Imperial Japanese Army was concentrated on the landing site. The various units deployed on the coastal land should stubbornly and unexpectedly carry out repeated counterattacks to prevent the US forces from establishing bridgeheads and to bring the enemy and our fronts into a state of staggered and melee combat, making it difficult for the US forces to carry out bombing and naval artillery fire.

In addition, when the decisive battle corps is aware of the enemy's landing side, it should immediately use several prepared roads to quickly advance and concentrate on the predetermined main decisive battle front, and deploy its forces in the attack positions on the front of the main attack.

In view of the fact that in previous battles, the armored strength of the Chinese Army exceeded the expectations of the Empire of Japan and inflicted unimaginable losses on the Imperial Japanese Army, special emphasis was placed on the tactical approach of anti-tank in the Essentials. Originally, the best tactic against tanks was to attack the same tanks, but because the Japanese tanks were far inferior to the Chinese tanks in terms of number, armor, firepower, and equipment.

Not only that, the Japanese anti-tank guns were poor in terms of number and armor penetration, and the automatic guns, which were in urgent need of increased production, were also subjected to air raids and simply could not meet the requirements. Therefore, the base camp of the Japanese army believed that the only way to remedy the inferiority of modern anti-tank equipment was to adopt the method of special offensive warfare, that is, the hand-to-hand offensive method of destroying a tank with one soldier, just like the special attack of an aviation with one aircraft destroying a warship.

Columns such as infantry holding flasks of flame, approaching enemy tanks, throwing themselves into the tank cabin in order to cause fire. Or pack a small packet of explosives into a cushion-style bag and attach a slow-burning detonator. Approach an enemy tank and throw it on the front or protrusion of the tank, causing it to explode. In the past, in various battlefields in the south, the Japanese army used this method of warfare to perform miraculous feats many times. (To be continued......)