American Military History, Volume 2 by Richard W. Stewart

Read "American Military History, Volume 2" by Richard W. Stewart online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.

The U.S. Army and Navy had separately determined during the war their reasonable postwar strengths and had produced plans for an orderly demobilization. The Navy developed a program for 600,000 men, 370 combat and 5,000 other ships, and 8,000 aircraft. The Army Air Forces was equally specific, setting its sights on becoming a separate service with 400,000 members, 70 combat groups, and a complete organization of supporting units. The Army initially es- tablished as an overall postwar goal a regular and reserve structure capable of mobilizing 4 million men within a year of any future out- break of war; later it set the strength of the active ground and air forces at 1.5 million. Demobilization plans called for the release of troops on an individual basis with each soldier receiving point credit for length of service, combat participation and awards, time spent overseas, and parenthood. The General Staff considered the shipping available to bring overseas troops home and the capacity to process discharges in setting the number of points re- quired for release. The whole scheme aimed at producing a systematic transition to a peacetime military structure.

WAR CRIMES TRIALS (JAPAN) The International Military Tribunal for the Far East, held in Tokyo after World War II, prosecuted suspected Japanese war criminals. Only 28 of the 80 Class A war suspects appeared before the court. Of these individuals, 4 had been prime ministers and 19 had been military officers. Twenty-five of the 28 were found guilty, 2 others died during trial, and 1 was found mentally incompetent. Seven were sentenced to death by hanging, 16 to life in prison, and 2 to shorter terms. The emperor was not indicted.

Reading navigation