Japan 45

[Kool Kat]

John Ray Skates on page 100 of his book "The Invasion of Japan" says that steel and concrete were in short supply by the time of 1945. The Japanese generals were offensive minded and were not as prone to want to build fortifications. Much of the concrete went to building new coastal defense positions.

The Japanese had seen what had happened with the Germans and realized that trying to build a "Pacific Wall" would not work. Instead they preferred to avoid contact with the Allied forces at the beach and defend inland where the natural terrain would be their ally.

The Osprey book "The Defense of Japan" makes little to no mention of a bunker line on Kyushu. Finally I have added one on the Kanto Plain for the Coronet game to make the advance a bit harder for the Allies. In that case I used the degraded type of bunker .. where you exit the unit and its defense is halved. The bunker properties still apply (harder to get the Japanese to give them up) but they are not indestructible.

So yes, there were not a lot of bunkers in the Olympic game. You are always welcome to copy the campaign file and add in your own bunkers if you wish. We found in playtesting that the US Army units had their hands full as it is.

Also: there is really no unit that can recreate the use of gasoline in the openings of the bunkers and caves to set them on fire. We would need to add in engineer units with a 70 Assault rating to really do the history of the Pacific justice.

Gents:

Both you and David keep stating that the Japanese were not trying to build a "Pacific Wall" and finding no references to a bunker line on Kyusha. 

I stated the following:

"Historically, bunkers, pillboxes and other significant fixed defensive structures were built prior to battle so from a Japan '45 standpoint, it makes most sense for the Japanese to have bunkers defending "some" objectives at scenario start and to NOT allow the building of bunkers in game."

I am not referencing a Japanese "Pacific Wall" or a "line of bunkers."

Also, the Japanese were masters at constructing non-concrete and non-steel bunkers dug deep into reverse hill slopes that were reinforced with coral, rocks, timber, narrow gauge railroad ties, steel barrels, etc. The Japanese used construction materials that were available on site. Many of these strong points and bunkers were connected by tunnels and trenches. 

Are you stating that the Japanese would NOT have built these type of bunkers and strong points on their Home Islands?

Also, you state that players can add bunkers to various scenarios as we wish. But in reality we can't since the bunker values are incorrect and if bunkers are either placed or constructed will severely unbalance the scenarios and make Japanese bunker positions impenetrable.

Again, I ask - What are players to do?