“MERE DROPS IN THE OCEAN”: THE POLITICS AND PLANNING OF THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE BRITISH COMMONWEALTH TO THE FINAL DEFEAT OF JAPAN, 1944 – 45

Abstract

As the war in Europe wound down and the long, bloody summer of 1945 stretched on in the Pacific, the British Government began to consider the role of its armed forces in the closing stages of the Pacific War and how that role could be best constructed to advance Britain’s post-war political aims. This article is an attempt to explain the often convoluted internal negotiations that led to Britain’s offer at the Potsdam Conference of three to five divisions plus tactical air forces to the invasion of mainland Japan, to delineate the actual and planned contributions of the British armed forces to the final phases of operations against the Home Islands of Japan and immediately adjacent areas, and to assess the impact of these contributions on Anglo-American relations.