PROLOGUE.  Entry into Tokyo.  Cheryl’s notes today will detail the day as we made our way into Tokyo.  Here is a little history lesson... and an unwritten chapter in Irvin’s war journey to set the stage.  

The early years of WW2 were all about Germany and Japan ... and their mission to conquer the world. The middle years were mostly about building the war machine and training / preparing...and the ending years...1944 and 1945 ... were about freeing the captured lands and the allies defeating the “evil axis”.... called “island hopping” in the South Pacific (roughly the journey we followed... yellow arrow in pic 1).

The master plan to invade Japan was never implemented and was made public a few years back.  Operation Downfall.  Two parts... operation Olympic (red arrow in pic 2) was to pick up just north of where the final island hop of Okinawa ended... first attacks on the actual main islands of Japan... planned for November 1945.  And then followed in February 1946 with operation Coronet.. landings just south of Tokyo (green arrow in pic 2)

22 divisions landing near Tokyo ... some on the Sagami Bay beaches (green arrow in pic 3) and making their way up the 30 some miles to Tokyo for the final fall of the Japanese Empire  (blue arrow in pic 3). Irvin and the 38th infantry were part of that plan.

It is estimated that 1 million Americans and 6 million Japanese might have been casualties if  those 2 bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki had not changed the course of history... the US is still issuing Purple Hearts from the inventory stockpiled for this invasion.

We “landed” up on what was probably one of those beaches and our last two hops on the train followed the route of those 30 miles from the beaches into the heart of Tokyo.