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Operation Downfall

Operation Downfall was the proposed Allied plan for the invasion of the Japanese home islands near the end of World War II. The planned operation was canceled when Japan surrendered following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Soviet declaration of war, and the invasion of Manchuria. The operation had two parts: Operation Olympic and Operation Coronet. Set to begin in November 1945, Operation Olympic was intended to capture the southern third of the southernmost main Japanese island, Kyūshū, with the recently captured island of Okinawa to be used as a staging area. In early 1946 would come Operation Coronet, the planned invasion of the Kantō Plain, near Tokyo, on the main Japanese island of Honshu. Airbases on Kyūshū captured in Operation Olympic would allow land-based air support for Operation Coronet. If Downfall had taken place, it would have been the largest amphibious operation in history, surpassing D-Day.

Japan's geography made this invasion plan obvious to the Japanese as well; they were able to accurately predict the Allied invasion plans and thus adjust their defensive plan, Operation Ketsugō (ja), accordingly. The Japanese planned an all-out defense of Kyūshū, with little left in reserve for any subsequent defense operations. Casualty predictions varied widely, but were extremely high. Depending on the degree to which Japanese civilians would have resisted the invasion, estimates ran up into the millions for casualties.

Planning
Responsibility for the planning of Operation Downfall fell to American commanders Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz, General of the Army Douglas MacArthur and the Joint Chiefs of Staff—Fleet Admirals Ernest King and William D. Leahy, and Generals of the Army George Marshall and Hap Arnold (the latter being the commander of the U.S. Army Air Forces).

At the time, the development of the atomic bomb was a very closely guarded secret (not even then-Vice President Harry Truman knew of its existence until he became president), known only to a few top officials outside the Manhattan Project (and to the Soviet espionage apparatus, which had managed to infiltrate agents into, or recruit agents from within the program, despite the tight security around it), and the initial planning for the invasion of Japan did not take its existence into consideration. Once the atomic bomb became available, General Marshall envisioned using it to support the invasion if sufficient numbers could be produced in time.

The Pacific War was not under a single Allied commander-in-chief (C-in-C). Allied command was divided into regions: by 1945, for example, Chester Nimitz was the Allied C-in-C Pacific Ocean Areas, while Douglas MacArthur was Supreme Allied Commander, South West Pacific Area, and Admiral Louis Mountbatten was the Supreme Allied Commander, South East Asia Command. A unified command was deemed necessary for an invasion of Japan. Interservice rivalry over who it should be (the United States Navy wanted Nimitz, but the United States Army wanted MacArthur) was so serious that it threatened to derail planning. Ultimately, the Navy partially conceded, and MacArthur was to be given total command of all forces if circumstances made it necessary.

Considerations
The primary considerations that the planners had to deal with were time and casualties—how they could force Japan's surrender as quickly as possible with as few Allied casualties as possible. Before the First Quebec Conference, a joint CanadianBritishAmerican planning team had produced a plan ("Appreciation and Plan for the Defeat of Japan") which did not call for an invasion of the Japanese Home Islands until 1947–48. The American Joint Chiefs of Staff believed that prolonging the war to such an extent was dangerous for national morale. Instead, at the Quebec conference, the Combined Chiefs of Staff agreed that Japan should be forced to surrender not more than one year after Germany's surrender.

The United States Navy urged the use of a blockade and airpower to bring about Japan's capitulation. They proposed operations to capture airbases in nearby Shanghai, China, and Korea, which would give the United States Army Air Forces a series of forward airbases from which to bombard Japan into submission. The Army, on the other hand, argued that such a strategy could "prolong the war indefinitely" and expend lives needlessly, and therefore that an invasion was necessary. They supported mounting a large-scale thrust directly against the Japanese homeland, with none of the side operations that the Navy had suggested. Ultimately, the Army's viewpoint prevailed.

Physically, Japan made an imposing target, distant from other landmasses and with very few beaches geographically suitable for sea-borne invasion. Only Kyūshū (the southernmost island of Japan) and the beaches of the Kantō Plain (both southwest and southeast of Tokyo) were realistic invasion zones. The Allies decided to launch a two-stage invasion. Operation Olympic would attack southern Kyūshū. Airbases would be established, which would give cover for Operation Coronet, the attack on Tokyo Bay.

Assumptions
While the geography of Japan was known, the U.S. military planners had to estimate the defending forces that they would face. Based on intelligence available early in 1945, their assumptions included the following:
 * "That operations in this area will be opposed not only by the available organized military forces of the Empire, but also by a fanatically hostile population."
 * "That approximately three (3) hostile divisions will be disposed in Southern Kyushu and an additional three (3) in Northern Kyushu at initiation of the Olympic operation."
 * "That total hostile forces committed against Kyushu operations will not exceed eight (8) to ten (10) divisions and that this level will be speedily attained."
 * "That approximately twenty-one (21) hostile divisions, including depot divisions, will be on Honshu at the initiation of [Coronet] and that fourteen (14) of these divisions may be employed in the Kanto Plain area."
 * "That the enemy may withdraw his land-based air forces to the Asiatic Mainland for protection from our neutralizing attacks. That under such circumstances he can possibly amass from 2,000 to 2,500 planes in that area by exercising a rigid economy, and that this force can operate against Kyushu landings by staging through homeland fields."

Olympic

Operation Olympic, the invasion of Kyūshū, was to begin on "X-Day", which was scheduled for 1 November 1945. The combined Allied naval armada would have been the largest ever assembled, including 42 aircraft carriers, 24 battleships, and 400 destroyers and destroyer escorts. Fourteen U.S. divisions and a "division-equivalent" (two regimental combat teams) were scheduled to take part in the initial landings. Using Okinawa as a staging base, the objective would have been to seize the southern portion of Kyūshū. This area would then be used as a further staging point to attack Honshu in Operation Coronet.

Olympic was also to include a deception plan, known as Operation Pastel. Pastel was designed to convince the Japanese that the Joint Chiefs had rejected the notion of a direct invasion and instead were going to attempt to encircle and bombard Japan. This would require capturing bases in Formosa, along the Chinese coast, and in the Yellow Sea area.

Tactical air support was to be the responsibility of the Fifth, Seventh, and Thirteenth Air Forces. These were responsible for attacking Japanese airfields and transportation arteries on Kyushu and Southern Honshu (e.g. the Kanmon Tunnel) and for gaining and maintaining air superiority over the beaches. The task of strategic bombing fell on the United States Strategic Air Forces in the Pacific (USASTAF)—a formation which comprised the Eighth and Twentieth air forces, as well as the British Tiger Force. USASTAF and Tiger Force were to remain active through Operation Coronet. The Twentieth Air Force was to have continued its role as the main Allied strategic bomber force used against the Japanese home islands, operating from airfields in the Mariana Islands. Following the end of the war in Europe in May 1945, plans were also made to transfer some of the heavy bomber groups of the veteran Eighth Air Force to airbases on Okinawa to conduct strategic bombing raids in coordination with the Twentieth. The Eighth was to upgrade their B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-24 Liberators to B-29 Superfortresses (the group received its first B-29 on 8 August 1945).

Before the main invasion, the offshore islands of Tanegashima, Yakushima, and the Koshikijima Islands were to be taken, starting on X-5. The invasion of Okinawa had demonstrated the value of establishing secure anchorages close at hand, for ships not needed off the landing beaches and for ships damaged by air attack.

Kyūshū was to be invaded by the Sixth United States Army at three points: Miyazaki, Ariake, and Kushikino. If a clock were drawn on a map of Kyūshū, these points would roughly correspond to 4, 5, and 7 o'clock, respectively. The 35 landing beaches were all named for automobiles: Austin, Buick, Cadillac, and so on through to Stutz, Winton, and Zephyr. With one corps assigned to each landing, the invasion planners assumed that the Americans would outnumber the Japanese by roughly three to one. In early 1945, Miyazaki was virtually undefended, while Ariake, with its good nearby harbor, was heavily defended.

The invasion was not intended to conquer the entire island, just the southernmost third of it, as indicated by the dashed line on the map labeled "general limit of northern advance". Southern Kyūshū would offer a staging ground and a valuable airbase for Operation Coronet.

After the name Operation Olympic was compromised by being sent out in unsecured code, the name Operation Majestic was adopted.

Coronet

Operation Coronet, the invasion of Honshu at the Kantō Plain south of the capital, was to begin on "Y-Day", which was tentatively scheduled for 1 March 1946. Coronet would have been even larger than Olympic, with up to 45 U.S. divisions assigned for both the initial landing and follow-up (The Overlord invasion of Normandy, by comparison, deployed 12 divisions in the initial landings.). In the initial stage, the First Army would have invaded at Kujūkuri Beach, on the Bōsō Peninsula, while the Eighth Army invaded at Hiratsuka, on Sagami Bay; these armies would have comprised 25 divisions between them. Later, a follow-up force of up to 20 additional U.S. divisions and up to 5 or more British Commonwealth divisions would have landed as reinforcements. The Allied forces would then have driven north and inland, encircling Tokyo and pressing on toward Nagano.

Redeployment
Olympic was to be mounted with resources already present in the Pacific, including the British Pacific Fleet, a Commonwealth formation that included at least eighteen aircraft carriers (providing 25% of the Allied air power) and four battleships.

Tiger Force, a joint Commonwealth long-range heavy bomber unit, was to be transferred from RAF, RAAF, RCAF and RNZAF units and personnel serving with RAF Bomber Command in Europe. In 1944, early planning proposed a force of 500–1,000 aircraft, including units dedicated to aerial refueling. Planning was later scaled back to 22 squadrons and, by the time the war ended, to 10 squadrons: between 120 and 150 Avro Lancasters/Lincolns, operating out of airbases on Okinawa. Tiger Force was to have included the elite 617 Squadron, also known as "The Dambusters", which carried out specialist bombing operations.

Initially, US planners also did not plan to use any non-US Allied ground forces in Operation Downfall. Had reinforcements been needed at an early stage of Olympic, they would have been diverted from US forces being assembled for Coronet—for which there was to be a massive redeployment of units from the US Army's Southwest Pacific, China-Burma-India and European commands, among others. These would have included spearheads of the war in Europe such as the US First Army (15 divisions) and the Eighth Air Force. These redeployments would have been complicated by the simultaneous demobilization and replacement of highly experienced, time-served personnel, which would have drastically reduced the combat effectiveness of many units. The Australian government had asked at an early stage for the inclusion of an Australian Army infantry division in the first wave (Olympic). This was rejected by U.S. commanders and even the initial plans for Coronet, according to U.S. historian John Ray Skates, did not envisage that units from Commonwealth or other Allied armies would be landed on the Kantō Plain in 1946. The first official "plans indicated that assault, followup, and reserve units would all come from US forces".

By mid-1945—when plans for Coronet were being reworked—many other Allied countries had, according to Skates, "offered ground forces, and a debate developed" amongst Western Allied political and military leaders, "over the size, mission, equipment, and support of these contingents". Following negotiations, it was decided that Coronet would include a joint Commonwealth Corps, made up of infantry divisions from the Australian, New Zealand, British and Canadian armies. Reinforcements would have been available from those countries, as well as other parts of the Commonwealth. However, MacArthur blocked proposals to include an Indian Army division because of differences in language, organization, composition, equipment, training and doctrine. He also recommended that the corps be organized along the lines of a U.S. corps, should use only U.S. equipment and logistics, and should train in the U.S. for six months before deployment; these suggestions were accepted. The British Government suggested that: Lieutenant-General Sir Charles Keightley should command the Commonwealth Corps, a combined Commonwealth fleet should be led by Vice-Admiral Sir William Tennant, and that—as Commonwealth air units would be dominated by the RAAF – the Air Officer Commanding should be Australian. However, the Australian government questioned the appointment of an officer with no experience in fighting the Japanese, such as Keightley and suggested that Lieutenant General Leslie Morshead, an Australian who had been carrying out the New Guinea and Borneo campaigns, should be appointed. The war ended before the details of the corps were finalized.

Projected initial commitment
Figures for Coronet exclude values for both the immediate strategic reserve of 3 divisions as well as the 17 division strategic reserve in the U.S. and any British/Commonwealth forces.

Operation Ketsugō

Meanwhile, the Japanese had their own plans. Initially, they were concerned about an invasion during the summer of 1945. However, the Battle of Okinawa went on for so long that they concluded the Allies would not be able to launch another operation before the typhoon season, during which the weather would be too risky for amphibious operations. Japanese intelligence predicted fairly closely where the invasion would take place: southern Kyūshū at Miyazaki, Ariake Bay and/or the Satsuma Peninsula.

While Japan no longer had a realistic prospect of winning the war, Japan's leaders believed they could make the cost of invading and occupying the Home Islands too high for the Allies to accept, which would lead to some sort of armistice rather than total defeat. The Japanese plan for defeating the invasion was called Operation Ketsugō (ja) (決号作戦) ("Operation Codename Decisive"). The Japanese planned to commit the entire population of Japan to resisting the invasion, and from June 1945 onward, a propaganda campaign calling for "The Glorious Death of One Hundred Million" commenced. The main message of "The Glorious Death of One Hundred Million" campaign was that it was "glorious to die for the holy emperor of Japan, and every Japanese man, woman, and child should die for the Emperor when the Allies arrived".

Although it was not realistic that the entire Japanese population would be killed off, both American and Japanese officers at the time predicted a Japanese death toll in the millions. From the Battle of Saipan onward, Japanese propaganda intensified the glory of patriotic death and depicted the Americans as merciless "white devils." During the Battle of Okinawa, Japanese officers had ordered civilians unable to fight to commit suicide rather than fall into American hands, and all available evidence suggests the same orders would have been given in the home islands. The Japanese were secretly constructing an underground headquarters in Matsushiro, Nagano Prefecture, to shelter the Emperor and the Imperial General Staff during an invasion. In planning for Operation Ketsugo, IGHQ overestimated the strength of the invading forces: while the Allied invasion plan called for fewer than 70 divisions, the Japanese expected up to 90.

Kamikaze
Admiral Matome Ugaki was recalled to Japan in February 1945 and given command of the Fifth Air Fleet on Kyūshū. The Fifth Air Fleet was assigned the task of kamikaze attacks against ships involved in the invasion of Okinawa, Operation Ten-Go, and began training pilots and assembling aircraft for the defense of Kyūshū, the first invasion target.

The Japanese defense relied heavily on kamikaze planes. In addition to fighters and bombers, they reassigned almost all of their trainers for the mission. More than 10,000 aircraft were ready for use in July (with more by October), as well as hundreds of newly built small suicide boats to attack Allied ships offshore.

Up to 2,000 kamikaze planes launched attacks during the Battle of Okinawa, achieving approximately one hit per nine attacks. At Kyūshū, because of the more favorable circumstances (such as terrain that would reduce the Allies' radar advantage, and the impressment of wood and fabric airframe training aircraft into the kamikaze role which would have been difficult for Allied radar systems of the time to detect and track), they hoped to raise that to one for six by overwhelming the US defenses with large numbers of kamikaze attacks within a period of hours. The Japanese estimated that the planes would sink more than 400 ships; since they were training the pilots to target transports rather than carriers and destroyers, the casualties would be disproportionately greater than at Okinawa. One staff study estimated that the kamikazes could destroy a third to half of the invasion force before landing.

Admiral King, Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Navy, was so concerned about losses from kamikaze attacks that he and other senior naval officers argued for canceling Operation Downfall and for instead continuing the fire-bombing campaign against Japanese cities and the blockade of food and supplies until the Japanese surrendered. However, General Marshall argued that forcing surrender that way might take several years, if ever. Accordingly, Marshall and United States Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox concluded the Americans would have to invade Japan to end the war, regardless of casualties.

Naval forces
Despite the shattering damage it had absorbed by this stage of the war, the Imperial Japanese Navy, by then organized under the Navy General Command, was determined to inflict as much damage on the Allies as possible. Remaining major warships numbered four battleships (all damaged), five damaged aircraft carriers, two cruisers, 23 destroyers, and 46 submarines. However, the IJN lacked enough fuel for further sorties by its capital ships and planned instead to use its anti-aircraft firepower to defend naval installations while docked in port. Despite its inability to conduct large-scale fleet operations, the IJN still maintained a fleet of thousands of warplanes and possessed nearly 2 million personnel in the Home Islands, ensuring it a large role in the coming defensive operation.

In addition, Japan had about 100 Kōryū-class midget submarines, 300 smaller Kairyū-class midget submarines, 120 Kaiten manned torpedoes, and 2,412 Shin'yō suicide motorboats. Unlike the larger ships, these, together with the destroyers and fleet submarines, were expected to see extensive action defending the shores, with a view to destroying about 60 Allied transports.

The Navy trained a unit of frogmen to serve as suicide bombers, the Fukuryu. They were to be armed with contact-fuzed mines, and to dive under landing craft and blow them up. An inventory of mines was anchored to the sea bottom off each potential invasion beach for their use by the suicide divers, with up to 10,000 mines planned. Some 1,200 suicide divers had been trained before the Japanese surrender.

Ground forces
The two defensive options against amphibious invasion are strong defense of the beaches and defense in depth. Early in the war (such as at Tarawa), the Japanese employed strong defenses on the beaches with little or no manpower in reserve, but this tactic proved vulnerable to pre-invasion shore bombardment. Later at Peleliu, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa, they switched strategies and dug in their forces in the most defensible terrain.

For the defense of Kyūshū, the Japanese took an intermediate posture, with the bulk of their defensive forces a few kilometers inland, back far enough to avoid complete exposure to naval bombardment, but close enough that the Americans could not establish a secure foothold before engaging them. The counteroffensive forces were still farther back, prepared to move against the largest landing.

In March 1945, there was only one combat division in Kyūshū. Four veteran divisions were withdrawn from the Kwantung Army in Manchuria in March 1945 to strengthen the forces in Japan, and 45 new divisions were activated between February and May 1945. Most were immobile formations for coastal defense, but 16 were high quality mobile divisions. By August, the formations, including three tank brigades, had a total of 900,000 men. Although the Japanese were able to muster new soldiers, equipping them was more difficult. By August, the Japanese Army had the equivalent of 65 divisions in the homeland but only enough equipment for 40 and ammunition for 30.

The Japanese did not formally decide to stake everything on the outcome of the Battle of Kyūshū, but they concentrated their assets to such a degree that there would be little left in reserve. By one estimate, the forces in Kyūshū had 40% of all the ammunition in the Home Islands.

In addition, the Japanese had organized the Volunteer Fighting Corps, which included all healthy men aged 15 to 60 and women 17 to 40 for a total of 28 million people, for combat support and, later, combat jobs. Weapons, training and uniforms were generally lacking: many were armed with nothing better than antiquated firearms, molotov cocktails, longbows, swords, knives, bamboo or wooden spears, and even clubs and truncheons: they were expected to make do with what they had. One mobilized high school girl, Yukiko Kasai, found herself issued an awl and told, "Even killing one American soldier will do. ... You must aim for the abdomen." They were expected to serve as a "second defense line" during the Allied invasion, and to conduct guerrilla warfare in urban areas and mountains.

The Japanese command intended to organize its Army personnel according to the following plan:

Air threat
US military intelligence initially estimated the number of Japanese aircraft to be around 2,500. The Okinawa experience was bad for the US—almost two fatalities and a similar number wounded per sortie—and Kyūshū was likely to be worse. To attack the ships off Okinawa, Japanese planes had to fly long distances over open water; to attack the ships off Kyūshū, they could fly overland and then short distances out to the landing fleets. Gradually, intelligence learned that the Japanese were devoting all their aircraft to the kamikaze mission and taking effective measures to conserve them until the battle. An Army estimate in May was 3,391 planes; in June, 4,862; in August, 5,911. A July Navy estimate, abandoning any distinction between training and combat aircraft, was 8,750; in August, 10,290. By the time the war ended, the Japanese actually possessed some 12,700 aircraft in the Home Islands, roughly half kamikazes. Ketsu plans for Kyushu envisioned committing nearly 9,000 aircraft according to the following sequence:

 * 140 reconnaissance planes to detect the approach of the Allied fleet.
 * 330 Navy bombers flown by highly trained pilots to attack the Allied carrier task force to prevent it from supporting the invasion convoys.
 * 50 "land attack planes," 50 seaplane bombers, and 50 torpedo bombers flown by highly trained pilots for night attacks on convoy escorts.
 * 825 Navy kamikazes to attack the landing convoys prior to their arrival off Kyūshū.
 * 2,500 Army aircraft (conventional as well as suicide), together with 2,900 Naval trainers for kamikaze attacks against the landing fleet as it arrived and anchored (5,400 total).
 * 2,000 Army and Navy "air superiority" fighters to escort the kamikazes and strafe landing ships.
 * 100 transport planes carrying 1,200 commandos for a raid on the US airbases on Okinawa, following the success of earlier smaller-scale operations.

The Japanese planned to commit the majority of their air forces to action within 10 days after the Allied fleet's arrival off Kyūshū. They hoped that at least 15 to 20% (or even up to a half) of the US transport ships would be destroyed before disembarkation. The United States Strategic Bombing Survey subsequently estimated that if the Japanese managed 5,000 kamikaze sorties, they could have sunk around 90 ships and damaged another 900, roughly triple the Navy's losses at Okinawa.

Allied counter-kamikaze preparations were known as the Big Blue Blanket. This involved adding more fighter squadrons to the carriers in place of torpedo and dive bombers, and converting B-17s into airborne radar pickets in a manner similar to present-day AWACS. Nimitz planned a pre-invasion feint, sending a fleet to the invasion beaches a couple of weeks before the real invasion, to lure out the Japanese on their one-way flights, who would then find ships bristling with anti-aircraft guns instead of the valuable, vulnerable transports.

The main defense against Japanese air attacks would have come from the massive fighter forces being assembled in the Ryukyu Islands. The US Army Fifth and Seventh Air Forces and US Marine air units had moved into the islands immediately after the invasion, and air strength had been increasing in preparation for the all-out assault on Japan. In preparation for the invasion, an air campaign against Japanese airfields and transportation arteries had commenced before the Japanese surrender.

Ground threat
Through April, May, and June, Allied intelligence followed the buildup of Japanese ground forces, including five divisions added to Kyūshū, with great interest, but also some complacency, still projecting that in November the total for Kyūshū would be about 350,000 servicemen. That changed in July, with the discovery of four new divisions and indications of more to come. By August, the count was up to 600,000, and Magic cryptanalysis had identified nine divisions in southern Kyūshū—three times the expected number and still a serious underestimate of the actual Japanese strength.

Estimated troop strength in early July was 350,000, rising to 545,000 in early August.

"The intelligence revelations about Japanese preparations on Kyushu emerging in mid-July transmitted powerful shock waves both in the Pacific and in Washington. On 29 July, MacArthur's intelligence chief, Major General Charles A. Willoughby, was the first to note that the April estimate allowed for the Japanese capability to deploy six divisions on Kyushu, with the potential to deploy ten. 'These [six] divisions have since made their appearance, as predicted,' he observed, 'and the end is not in sight.' If not checked, this threatened 'to grow to [the] point where we attack on a ratio of one (1) to one (1) which is not the recipe for victory.'"

By the time of surrender, the Japanese had over 735,000 military personnel either in position or in various stages of deployment on Kyushu alone. The total strength of the Japanese military in the Home Islands amounted to 4,335,500, of whom 2,372,700 were in the Army and 1,962,800 in the Navy. The buildup of Japanese troops on Kyūshū led American war planners, most importantly General George Marshall, to consider drastic changes to Olympic, or replacing it with a different invasion plan.

Chemical weapons
Fears of "an Okinawa from one end of Japan to the other" encouraged the Allies to consider unconventional weapons, including chemical warfare. Widespread chemical warfare was considered against Japan's population and food crops. While large quantities of gas munitions were manufactured and plans were drawn, it is unlikely they would have been used. Richard B. Frank states that when the proposal reached Truman in June 1945, he vetoed the use of chemical weapons against personnel; their use against crops, however, remained under consideration. According to Edward J. Drea, the strategic use of chemical weapons on a massive scale was not seriously studied or proposed by any senior American leader; rather, they debated the tactical use of chemical weapons against pockets of Japanese resistance.

Although chemical warfare had been outlawed by the Geneva Protocol, neither the United States nor Japan was a signatory at the time. While the US had promised never to initiate gas warfare, Japan had used gas against the Chinese earlier in the war:

"Fear of Japanese retaliation [to chemical weapon use] lessened because by the end of the war Japan's ability to deliver gas by air or long-range guns had all but disappeared. In 1944 Ultra revealed that the Japanese doubted their ability to retaliate against United States use of gas. 'Every precaution must be taken not to give the enemy cause for a pretext to use gas,' the commanders were warned. So fearful were the Japanese leaders that they planned to ignore isolated tactical use of gas in the home islands by the US forces because they feared escalation."

In addition to use against people, the U.S. military considered chemical attacks to kill crops in an attempt to starve the Japanese into submission. The Army began experimenting with compounds to destroy crops in April 1944, and within one year had narrowed over 1,000 agents to nine promising ones containing phenoxyacetic acids. One compound designated LN-8 performed best in tests and went into mass production. Dropping or spraying the herbicide was deemed most effective; a July 1945 test from an SPD Mark 2 bomb, originally crafted to hold biological weapons like anthrax or ricin, had the shell burst open in the air to scatter the chemical agent. By the time the war ended, the Army was still trying to determine the optimal dispersal height to cover a wide enough area. The ingredients in LN-8 and another tested compound would later be used to create Agent Orange, used during the Vietnam War.

Nuclear weapons
On Marshall's orders, Major General John E. Hull looked into the tactical use of nuclear weapons for the invasion of the Japanese home islands, even after the dropping of two strategic atomic bombs on Japan (Marshall did not think that the Japanese would capitulate immediately). Colonel Lyle E. Seeman reported that at least seven Fat Man-type plutonium implosion bombs would be available by X-Day, which could be dropped on defending forces. Seeman advised that American troops not enter an area hit by a bomb for "at least 48 hours"; the risk of nuclear fallout was not well understood, and such a short time after detonation would have exposed American troops to substantial radiation.

Ken Nichols, the District Engineer of the Manhattan Engineer District, wrote that at the beginning of August 1945, "[p]lanning for the invasion of the main Japanese home islands had reached its final stages, and if the landings actually took place, we might supply about fifteen atomic bombs to support the troops." An air burst 1800 - 2000 ft above the ground had been chosen for the (Hiroshima) bomb to achieve maximum blast effects, and to minimize residual radiation on the ground, as it was hoped that American troops would soon occupy the city.

Alternative targets
The Joint Staff planners, taking note of the extent to which the Japanese had concentrated on Kyūshū at the expense of the rest of Japan, considered alternate places to invade such as the island of Shikoku, northern Honshu at Sendai, or Ominato. They also considered skipping the preliminary invasion and going directly at Tokyo. Attacking northern Honshu would have the advantage of a much weaker defense but had the disadvantage of giving up land-based air support (except the B-29s) from Okinawa.

Prospects for Olympic
MacArthur dismissed any need to change his plans:

"I am certain that the Japanese air potential reported to you as accumulating to counter our OLYMPIC operation is greatly exaggerated. … As to the movement of ground forces… I do not credit… the heavy strengths reported to you in southern Kyushu. … In my opinion, there should not be the slightest thought of changing the Olympic operation."

However, King was prepared to oppose proceeding with the invasion, with Nimitz's concurrence, which would have set off a major dispute within the US government:

"At this juncture, the key interaction would likely have been between Marshall and Truman. There is strong evidence that Marshall remained committed to an invasion as late as 15 August. … But tempering Marshall's personal commitment to invasion would have been his comprehension that civilian sanction in general, and Truman's in particular, was unlikely for a costly invasion that no longer enjoyed consensus support from the armed services."

Soviet intentions

Unknown to the Americans, the Soviet Union also considered invading a major Japanese island, Hokkaido, by the end of August 1945, which would have put pressure on the Allies to act sooner than November.

In the early years of World War II, the Soviets had planned on building a huge navy to catch up with the Western world. However, the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 forced the suspension of this plan: the Soviets had to divert most of their resources to fighting the Germans and their allies, primarily on land, throughout most of the war, leaving their navy relatively poorly equipped. As a result, in Project Hula (1945), the United States transferred about 100 naval vessels out of the 180 planned to the Soviet Union in preparation for the planned Soviet entry into the war against Japan. The transferred vessels included amphibious assault ships.

At the Yalta Conference (February 1945), the Allies had agreed that the Soviet Union would take the southern part of the island of Sakhalin, which Japan had invaded during the 1904–1905 Russo-Japanese War, and which Russia had ceded in the Treaty of Portsmouth after the war (the Soviets already controlled the northern part), and the Kuril Islands, which had been assigned to Japan in the 1875 Treaty of St. Petersburg. On the other hand, no agreement envisaged Soviet participation in the invasion of Japan itself.

The Japanese had kamikaze aircraft in southern Honshu and Kyushu which would have opposed operations Olympic and Coronet. It is unknown to what extent they could have opposed Soviet landings in the far north of Japan. For comparative purposes, about 1,300 Western Allied ships deployed during the Battle of Okinawa (April–June 1945). In total, 368 ships, including 120 amphibious craft, were badly damaged, and another 28, including 15 landing ships and 12 destroyers, were sunk, mostly by kamikazes. The Soviets, however, had fewer than 400 ships, most of them not equipped for amphibious assault, when they declared war on Japan on 8 August 1945.

For Operation Downfall, the US military envisaged requiring more than 30 divisions for a successful invasion of the Japanese home islands. In comparison, the Soviet Union had about 11 divisions available, comparable to the 14 divisions the US estimated that it would require to invade southern Kyushu. The Soviet invasion of the Kuril Islands (18 August – 1 September 1945) took place after Japan's capitulation on 15 August. However, the Japanese forces in those islands resisted quite fiercely although some of them proved unwilling to fight after Japan's surrender on 15 August. In the Battle of Shumshu (18–23 August 1945), the Soviet Red Army had 8,821 troops that were not supported by tanks and without back-up from larger warships. The well-established Japanese garrison had 8,500 troops and fielded about 77 tanks. The battle lasted one day, with minor combat actions going on for four more after the official surrender of Japan and the garrison, during which the attacking Soviet forces lost over 516 troops and five of the 16 landing ships (many of these formerly belonged to the US Navy and were later given to the Soviet Union) to Japanese coastal artillery, and the Japanese lost over 256 troops. According to Soviet claims, Soviet casualties during the Battle of Shumshu totaled up to 1,567, and the Japanese suffered 1,018 casualties.

During World War II, the Japanese had a naval base at Paramushiro in the Kuril Islands and several bases in Hokkaido. Since Japan and the Soviet Union maintained a state of wary neutrality until the Soviet declaration of war on Japan in August 1945, Japanese observers based in Japanese-held territories in Manchuria, Korea, Sakhalin, and the Kuril Islands constantly watched the port of Vladivostok and other seaports in the Soviet Union.

According to Thomas B. Allen and Norman Polmar, the Soviets had carefully drawn up detailed plans for the Far East invasions, except that the landing for Hokkaido "existed in detail" only in Stalin's mind and that it was "unlikely that Stalin had interests in taking Manchuria and even taking on Hokkaido. Even if he wanted to grab as much territory in Asia as possible, he was too much focused on establishing a beachhead in Europe more so than Asia."

Estimated casualties
Due to the nature of combat in the Pacific Theater and the characteristics of the Japanese Armed Forces, it was accepted that a direct invasion of mainland Japan would be very difficult and costly. The Allies would not only have to contend with all available Japanese military forces that could be brought to bear, but also the resistance of a "fanatically hostile population." Depending on the scope and context, casualty estimates for American forces ranged from 220,000 to several million, and estimates of Japanese military and civilian casualties ran from the millions to the tens of millions. Casualty estimates did not include potential losses from radiation poisoning resulting from the tactical use of nuclear weapons or from Allied POWs who would have been executed by the Japanese.

In the aftermath of the Marianas Campaign, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) revised their planning document, "Operations against Japan subsequent to Formosa" (JCS 924), to reflect the experience gained. Taking into account the stiff resistance of the Japanese 31st Army at Saipan, they concluded that if U.S. forces had to defeat all 3.5 million Japanese soldiers who could be made available, "it might cost us half a million American lives and many times that number wounded." Despite the high numbers, by the spring of 1945 a figure of 500,000 battle casualties for the projected invasion was widely used in briefings, while totals of closer to a million were used for actual planning purposes. U.S. planners hoped that by seizing a few vital strategic areas they could establish "effective military control" over Japan without the need to clear the entire archipelago or defeat the Japanese on mainland Asia, thereby avoiding excessive losses.

Covering only the U.S. Army, the Army Service Forces (ASF) planning document of 15 January 1945, "Redeployment of the United States Army after the Defeat of Germany," expected that an average of 43,000 replacements for "dead and evacuated wounded" would be needed each month between June 1945 and December 1946 to carry out the final phase of the war against Japan. Projected losses in these categories, excluding those of the Navy and Marine Corps, totaled approximately 723,000 through the end of 1946 and 863,000 through the first part of 1947.

Two days later on 17 January, letters from President Roosevelt, General Marshall, and Admiral King to House Military Affairs Committee Chairman Andrew J. May were released to the New York Times, informing the public that "the Army must provide 600,000 replacements for overseas theaters before June 30, and, together with the Navy, will require a total of 900,000 inductions by June 30." Of the Navy's target of 300,000, a large proportion were required for "manning the rapidly expanding fleet" rather than replacing battle casualties.

Acting on the basis of sensitive information obtained from contacts in the military, former President Herbert Hoover, a close personal friend of incoming President Harry S. Truman, submitted a memorandum on 15 May 1945 to Secretary of War Henry Stimson. Hoover's memorandum indicated that defeating Japan could cost 500,000 to 1 million American dead. The same week, Kyle Palmer, Los Angeles Times war correspondent at Admiral Nimitz's headquarters, warned that "it will cost 500,000 to 750,000, perhaps 1,000,000 lives of American boys to end this war." Those numbers were given in the context of revised estimates of Japanese military strength, still classified, which indicated that the Japanese Army had the potential to mobilize 5,000,000 to 6,000,000 soldiers rather than the 3.5 million assessed by JCS 924.

On 28 May, Hoover and Truman met at the White House and conversed for several hours. At Truman's request Hoover prepared four memoranda on the issues discussed (1. The European Food Organization, 2. The Domestic Food Organization, 3. The Creation of a War Economic Council, and 4. The Japanese Situation—in which Hoover twice repeated his figure of 500,000 to 1 million American deaths). Truman "seized" on memo 4 and asked for written judgements on it from Stimson, Undersecretary of State Joseph Grew, Director of the Office of Mobilization and Reconversion Fred Vinson, and former Secretary of State Cordell Hull. Truman was particularly interested in hearing from Grew and Stimson and asked to meet with them in person.

Neither Hull nor Grew objected to Hoover's estimate, but Stimson forwarded his copy of "Memo 4" to Marshall's deputy Chief of Staff, General Thomas T. Handy. As with the "worst case" scenario from JCS 924, Handy wrote that " under our present plan of campaign " (emphasis original), "the estimated loss of 500,000 lives [...] is considered to be entirely too high." Both Marshall and General George A. Lincoln, chief of the Operations Division (OPD), agreed with Handy's remarks. Nonetheless, it was emphasized that an invasion would cost "a lot of lives."

Appalled at the prospect of an impending bloodbath, Truman ordered a meeting scheduled for 18 June 1945 involving the JCS, Stimson, and Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal. At stake was the decision to press forward with Downfall or to opt for the Navy's long-standing proposal of blockade and bombardment. To support the meeting, the Joint War Plans Committee (JWPC) hastily assembled a table illustrating the casualties that could be expected in an invasion of Japan based on the experience of the Battle of Leyte. That estimate, which was significantly lower than those that had been made previously, was deleted from a subsequent version of the document and not shown to the President. The meeting concluded with all participants agreeing that the invasion would be "bloody but essential for victory." Truman expressed hope of avoiding "an Okinawa from one end of Japan to the other." Throughout the summer, as the intelligence picture concerning Japanese Army strength in the Home Islands became more and more unfavorable, together with new data from the fighting on Iwo Jima and Okinawa, casualty predictions were continually revised upward. During the first week of August, approximately 50 reporters from the United States, Britain, and Australia were given an "off the record" briefing at General MacArthur's headquarters in Manila, where they were informed that final operations against Japan could result in up to 1 million American casualties. An internal memorandum from Marshall to Leahy implied that by 30 June 1946 there would be approximately 275,000 Army soldiers in serious enough condition to require hospitalization in the United States. That excluded the dead and missing; losses of other branches; patients previously discharged and sent back to their units or invalidated from service; and patients in forward hospitals in Hawai'i, the Philippines, Australia, Kyushu, and elsewhere. The number of beds to be made available in such forward hospitals was planned to total about 150,000, a general rule being that available beds should exceed expected casualties (excluding deaths) by 20%. By war's end nearly half a million Purple Heart medals were on hand with more being produced in anticipation of the invasion; in 2003 there were still some 120,000 of this stockpile left.

Writing in "Military Review: June 1946" No. 3, MacArthur's intelligence chief, Major General Charles A. Willoughby, concluded that destroying "two to two and a half Japanese divisions [exacts] a total of 40,000 American battle casualties on land." Using that "sinister ratio," he claimed that U.S. forces could have expected over 700,000 casualties at four key locations in mainland Japan. The estimate excluded losses from "the shattering kamikaze attack," combat against Naval ground forces personnel and militia, and any reinforcements the Japanese might have been able to bring in to the battle areas. Willoughby regarded that ratio as "a completely authentic yardstick to forecast what it would have taken in losses had we gone in shooting."

POW executions
In addition to battle casualties, hundreds of thousands of prisoners of war and civilian internees were also scheduled to be murdered by the Japanese. Beginning in the summer of 1944, Japanese leaders issued a series of directives to prison camp commandants that all prisoners were to be "liquidated" when Allied troops approached the camps. The objective was to prevent the prisoners from rioting or being utilized as a fighting force, and camp commandants were given flexibility as to how the "liquidation" would be accomplished. The main emphasis was to 'annihilate all captives, not allowing a single one to escape,' and that 'no trace' should be left of their existence or the existence of the prison camps. At the end of the war many POWs were in the process of digging their own graves in preparation for their deaths.

Historically, the orders led to the massacre of POWs on several occasions, including on Palawan Island, in which men were burned alive in their barracks, shot, or stabbed. The Palawan massacre prompted American forces to organize daring rescue missions to save other prisoners from execution, such as the "Great Raid" on Cabanatuan. On 20 August 1945, the Japanese government secretly distributed an order formally authorizing guards and other perpetrators to flee to escape punishment for their crimes.

Japanese casualties
Throughout the Pacific War, the Japanese Armed Forces earned a reputation of fighting practically to the last man. By the early summer of 1945, there had not been one instance of an organized surrender by any Japanese unit, even under the most hopeless conditions. The Japanese suffered especially from starvation and disease: according to historian Akira Fujiwara, out of 2.3 million military deaths between 1937 and 1945, 1.4 million (61%) were attributable to these causes. A further 358,000 (15.5%) died from drowning as a result of the American air and submarine campaign against Japanese shipping. During the reconquest of the Philippines as many as 80% of Japanese deaths were from starvation and disease, while the proportion in New Guinea may have reached 97%. Even in battles where starvation was not as great of a factor, Japanese losses were skewed higher because their island garrisons had no means of resupply or evacuation. Former Ensign Kiyoshi Endo, an Iwo Jima survivor, later recalled: "The number of deaths on the Japanese side was much larger, because the Americans rescued and treated their injured. Japanese soldiers who were injured could have survived if they were rescued, but that was not possible, so they all died."

In contrast to previous campaigns, Admiral King pointed out that the Japanese Army in the Home Islands would have several advantages that its overseas counterparts did not. It would have more "room to maneuver, and would not be so vulnerable to the overpowering air and naval power which the Allies had been able to bring to bear [...] on small and isolated islands." It would also be near to its bases of supply and reinforcement, and have the support of a friendly population. For these reasons Admiral King was cautious about using casualty rates from previous battles to predict the course of fighting in Japan.

Under the Ketsu-Go plan, all divisions assigned to coastal defense were ordered to stand and fight "even to utter annihilation," and heavy counterattacks by reserves aimed to force a decisive battle near the beachheads. If that had failed, the surviving mobile elements would have retreated to strongholds around Mount Aso on Kyushu and in Nagano Prefecture on Honshu for protracted resistance. Given their chosen tactics, American military historian Richard B. Frank concluded that "it is hard to imagine that fewer than [40 to 50%]" of Japanese soldiers and sailors in the invasion areas "would have fallen by the end of the campaign."

Civilian casualties were also expected to be high, both as a direct result of military action and indirectly from other causes. Between 10 and 25% of the civilian population of Okinawa died as a result of the battle there. A worst-case scenario, published on 21 July 1945 by the physicist William B. Shockley, predicted that "at least" 5 to 10 million Japanese - military and civilians - could die, with a corresponding American casualty total of up to 4 million. The war ended before this document, "Proposal for Increasing the Scope of Casualties Studies," could be considered in detail. Army Service Forces planners assessed that approximately one third of Japanese civilians within the invasion areas on Kyushu and Honshu would flee as refugees or die, leaving the remainder (including wounded and sick) to be cared for by the occupation authorities.

Japanese leaders regarded Ketsu-Go as apocalyptic battle in which they would either succeed or be destroyed as a nation. Propagandists frequently repeated the slogan that 'all 100 million people of the Empire should be prepared to sacrifice themselves,' and that even if they failed, "the memory of Japan will be inscribed in history forever."

Internally, it was believed that while the whole people would not be annihilated, losses would be heavy. In a 13 August meeting with Army Chief of Staff Umezu, Chief of the Naval General Staff Toyoda, and Foreign Minister Togo, Admiral Takijiro Onishi stated, "If we are prepared to sacrifice 20 million Japanese lives in a special attack effort, victory shall be ours!" Later Marquis Koichi Kido also gave the figure of 20 million to an interrogator for the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, but in reference to total casualties instead of deaths. Lt. Col. Masahiko Takeshita, a staff officer at the War Ministry and brother in law of War Minister Korechika Anami, testified that:

"We did not believe that the entire people would be completely annihilated through fighting to the finish. Even if a crucial battle were fought in the homeland and the Imperial Forces were confined to the mountainous regions, the number of Japanese killed by enemy forces would be small. Despite the constant victories of Japanese troops in the China Incident, relatively few Chinese were killed. Almost all the strategic points in China were occupied, but the Chungking Government could not be defeated. [But] even if the whole [Japanese] race were all but wiped out, its determination to preserve the national polity would be forever recorded in the annals of history."

As a result of the American naval blockade and strategic bombing campaign, the food situation in Japan had become difficult. By the end of the war the average person consumed 10 to 25% fewer calories than in 1941, and this amount was declining. In January 1946, future Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida warned that unless emergency food aid was rushed to Japan, up to 10 million people could starve to death by the end of 1946. Other estimates, including those of agricultural experts working under MacArthur's headquarters, ranged from 7 million to 11 million.

title: Operation Downfall


text:
Edwinstowe

Edwinstowe is a village and civil parish in the Newark and Sherwood district of Nottinghamshire, England, on the edge of Sherwood Forest and the Dukeries. It is associated with the legends of Robin Hood and Maid Marian, and to a lesser extent Edwin of Northumbria, from where the village gets its name. The civil parish population at the 2011 census was 5,188. A 2019 estimate put it at 5,261, and was 5,320 at the 2021 census.

Heritage
The etymology of the village name, "Edwin's resting place", recalls that the body of Edwin of Northumbria, King and Saint, was hidden in the church after he was killed in the Battle of Hatfield Chase. The battle against King Penda of Mercia is thought to have occurred near the present-day hamlet of Cuckney, some five miles north-west of modern Edwinstowe, though this location is disputed.

Like Thoresby, Budby and Mansfield, Edwinstowe belonged to King Edward the Confessor and afterwards became the property of King William the Conqueror.

Edwinstowe is referred to twice in Domesday Book as having five households, in addition to a priest and his four bordars, in 1086.

Legend has it that Robin Hood married Maid Marian in St Mary's Church. Edwinstowe is known for the presence near the village of the Major Oak in Sherwood Forest, a feature in the folk tales of Robin Hood, and Robin Hood's Larder.

By the turn of the 20th century Edwinstowe consisted of a cluster of houses along Town Street, East Lane, Church Street and High Street. A hamlet called Hazel Grove was bordered by Mill Lane and the railway line and a cluster of houses at the top of Rufford Road was another hamlet called Lidgett. Lidgett was the site of a fireworks factory owned by F. Tudsbury and Co. before George Pinder, a local wine, spirit and porter merchant who resided at Lidgett House, took over ownership by 1886. These settlements eventually merged as the result of infills from World War I, much of it housing for colliers and named after the largest area.

Economy
Nottinghamshire County Council's Sherwood Forest Visitors' Centre is located near the village and was redeveloped and improved in 2017 at a cost of £5.3 million. This centre is operated in partnership by the Council and the RSPB.

Center Parcs' Sherwood Forest holiday village is a local employer established in 1987, close to the edge of the village.

Sherwood Pines Forest Park is set within Sherwood Forest near to Old Clipstone and has activity walking/cycling trails, play areas and bike hire for the general public. Sherwood Pines is managed by the Forestry Commission. A Go Ape adventure area is on-site too.

There was a post windmill south of the Mansfield Road with a small box-style roundhouse. It was driven by two common and two double-patent windmill sails.

Thoresby Colliery served as Edwinstowe's main source of employment until July 2015, when the mine was permanently closed. The loss of one of the last remaining deep coal mines in the country has left tourism as the main factor in the local economy. The colliery has now become a large housing development for 800 homes, to make use of the now brownfield site.

Amenities

The two schools in the village are St Mary's Primary School and King Edwin Primary School. The former Rufford School on the north side of the village closed in 2003 and has become residential housing by Barratt Developments, known as Friars Park. A skate park on the development proved controversial with concerns over noise and anti-social behaviour.

The village has a business services provider, a St John's Ambulance amenity, an antiques centre, workshops, a fun park, a youth hostel, two arts and crafts centres, a village hall, and a community pest-control centre. Leisure facilities include Thoresby Colliery Band and Youth Band, a high-wire forest adventure course, a mountain biking, cyclo cross and forest walks centre, a forest fun park, and an outdoor adventure park.

Environmental concerns are addressed under the Maun Valley Project Conservation Area.

Transport
Edwinstowe railway station functioned between 1897 and 1955. A goods line remains. The nearest passenger railway stations are at Mansfield Woodhouse and Mansfield, both about 6 mi from Edwinstowe.

The village is served by half-hourly daytime Monday–Saturday bus services to Mansfield and Ollerton, six buses a day Monday–Saturday to Worksop, and one bus a day Monday–Friday to Nottingham. Services run twice a week to Newark and once a week to Lincoln.

Notable people
In order of birth:
 * King Edwin of Northumbria (c. 586 – 632/633) gave his name to the village.
 * The legendary Robin Hood is said to have married Maid Marian here.
 * John Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle (1662–1711), politician and landowner, was born here.
 * Henrietta Harley, Countess of Oxford and Countess Mortimer (1694–1755), noblewoman and heiress was born here.
 * E. Cobham Brewer (1810–1897), lexicographer, died at the vicarage, where his son-in-law was the vicar.
 * Henry Morley (1852–1924), first-class cricketer, was born and died here.
 * Fanny Jean Turing (1864–1934), politician and activist, was probably born in the village, where her father was vicar.
 * Charles Otway Alexander (1888-1970), rear admiral, was born in Edwinstowe Hall.
 * Fred Kitchen (1890–1969), countryside writer and autobiographer, was born here.
 * Cecil Day-Lewis (1904-1972), Poet Laureate and father of Daniel Day-Lewis and Lydia Tamasin Day-Lewis, lived in Edwinstowe when his father, Frank Cecil Day-Lewis, was appointed vicar of St Mary's Church in 1918.
 * Francis Woodhead (1912–1991), first-class cricketer, was born here.
 * Philip Brett (1937–2002), musicologist and conductor, was born here.
 * Brendan Clarke-Smith (born 1980), Member of Parliament for Bassetlaw, was living in the village in December 2019, but now resides in nearby Retford.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Edwinstowe


text:
Jasper County

Jasper County is the name of eight counties in the United States of America. All are named in honor of Sergeant William Jasper, a hero of the Revolutionary War. Five counties share a boundary with a Newton County, named for John Newton, a similarly distinguished soldier. Two have their county seat named Newton.

The following counties are called Jasper County:

title: Jasper County


text:
Minnesota Thunder

Minnesota Thunder was an American professional soccer team based in Minnesota, United States. Founded in 1990, the team played in the USL First Division (USL-1), the second tier of the American Soccer Pyramid, until 2009. The team played its home games at the National Sports Center in nearby Blaine, Minnesota for its final two seasons. The team's colors were navy blue, light blue, silver, and white.

The team had a development team, Rochester Thunder, which independently played in USL Premier Development League for another season after the Thunder folded, and a sister organization, the Minnesota Lightning, which played in the women's USL W-League.

Before the Thunder
Prior to the Minnesota Thunder forming in 1990 Minnesota had two former professional soccer teams. After two seasons as the Denver Dynamos the franchise was purchased by Minnesota investors and became the Minnesota Kicks. The Minnesota Kicks played the state's first professional soccer game in May 1976 to a crowd of over 20,000 at Metropolitan Stadium. The team survived for six seasons competing in the North American Soccer League before folding after the 1981 season. After two years without a team the Fort Lauderdale Strikers were moved to Minnesota becoming the Minnesota Strikers in 1984. The team played one season in the NASL before transferring to the Major Indoor Soccer League. The team disbanded in 1988 after the 1987–1988 season.

Independent era (1990–1993)
The team was founded as an all star team in 1990. The team was composed of top amateur and former professional players who were mostly in their late 20s or early 30s. The team was coached by then Saint Paul Academy soccer coach Buzz Lagos. The team scheduled five exhibition games against teams in the A-League. At the time the goal was to eventually get a semipro soccer team for the Twin Cities.

The Thunder operated on a budget of $35,000 in their first year paying no salaries. The budget mainly supported stadium rental at the National Sports Center, office rental and promotions. In the first season the team played against the amateur Madison 56ers, professional San Francisco Bay Blackhawks and Winnipeg Fury and the indoor professional Chicago Power and Milwaukee Wave. Attendance averaged around 1,000 fans a game.

In the first season the team lost around $12,000. The next year, 1991, with the help of corporate sponsors Rainbow Foods, Kemps, and Liberty State Bank, the team played an expanded schedule with a record of eight victories and three ties losing $10,000 in the process. The following year the team added four more corporate sponsors and expected to lose about $5,000 with a budget of $45,000 By their third season the team became a model for teams in Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison, and Canada due to their competitive schedule, reasonable budget and fan base. As an amateur team, the Thunder was responsible for an opponent's hotel, food and lodging for each road trip. The team was undefeated through their first twenty games.

Buzz Lagos era (1994–2005)
On November 13, 1993 the Thunder announced its intention to join the U.S. Interregional Soccer League. The team joined the Midwest Region and retained their amateur status for the 1994 season. The team finished the year 25–2 losing in a sudden-death shootout to the Greensboro Dynamo in the championship game. The team became professional for the 1995 season.

On July 15, 2004 coach Buzz Lagos earned his 300th victory. It was his 123rd since the Thunder joined the A-League in 1997. Lagos improved his record to 300–127–31 all-time as coach of the Thunder. Five days later Lagos led the Thunder to their first victory over a MLS team in a nonexhibtion game. The Thunder defeated the Los Angeles Galaxy in fourth round U.S. Open Cup game played to 5,505 fans at the Metrodome. The 2004 season holds the highest average attendance with 4,400 over 14 home games.

Amos Magee played for the Thunder for 12 seasons, retired in 2005, is its all-time leading scorer (64 goals and 39 assists), and was inducted into the USL Hall of Fame in 2008. He was named first-team all-league in 1998, and A-League Championship MVP in 1999. He was inducted into the Minnesota Thunder Hall of Fame.

The 2005 season brought many changes to the Thunder. The Thunder's A-League and the lower Pro Soccer League were reorganized. The Thunder were placed in the twelve team First Division which previously had sixteen teams. Additionally, the team was sold to an ownership led by majority owner Saeed Kadkhodaian. These changes led to Buzz Lagos announcing on August 1, 2005 that he would retire as coach after sixteen season. Lagos cited wanting to spend more time with his family as the main reason to retiring. On October 12, 2005, Amos Magee became the second head coach in the history of the Thunder. The Thunder also purchased a W-League team in 2005. The team was eventually named the Minnesota Lightning in 2006 before their opening season. 2005 was the only season the Thunder turned a profit, making $6,000 which was immediately paid in taxes to the state of Minnesota.

The Thunder defeated four MLS teams over the course of the 2004 and 2005 U.S. Open Cup competitions.

Final years (2005–2009)
Beginning in August 2007 the team spent $400,000 on a beer garden called the Thunder Lounge and started the Minnesota Thunder Academy. The team also founded the Rochester Thunder in the Premier Development League.

Magee resigned as Thunder manager on July 22, 2008, halfway through the 2008 season.

In November 2009 the Thunder announced their intent to leave the USL First Division to become the co-founders of a new North American Soccer League.

Minnesota's participation in this new league was, however, not to be. In early November 2009 they released all players from their contracts, partly in response to heavy debts and unpaid bills, including wages. The organization was operating with a skeleton staff of 3 people as they tried to reorganize in their final days.

In January 2010, the National Sports Center announced the formation of a new club, the NSC Minnesota Stars that functioned as a replacement for the Thunder.

Colors and badge
A new logo using the colors of navy blue, light blue, and silver was unveiled for the 2008 season. The identity was designed by the Minneapolis design firm Capsule.

The previous Thunder badge incorporated the logo of a capital 'T' and an active soccer ball on a shield reading "Minnesota Thunder". When on the team uniform, it also is adorned atop by a gold star commemorating the 1999 championship season. The initial Thunder crest was a soccer ball with a thunderbolt crossing it followed by the text "Minnesota Thunder".

When the team became a professional organization, a new logo was created, consisting of an image of the state of Minnesota background with a soccer ball and thunderbolt imposed upon it.

In 2002, the Thunder undertook a marketing re-branding endeavor, where a new logo was created consisting of a soccer ball with movement lines and a T below the words of team's name.

In 2006, a new navy and gold "shield" logo was created by the Minneapolis design firm CAPSULE.

The official mascot of the Minnesota Thunder was Thor.

Stadiums

 * National Sports Center; Blaine, Minnesota (1990–2003, 2008–2009)
 * James Griffin Stadium; St. Paul, Minnesota (2004–2007)
 * Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome; Minneapolis, Minnesota 2 games (2004–2005)
 * Macalester Stadium at Macalester College; St. Paul, Minnesota 1 game (2004)
 * Stadium at Stillwater High School; Oak Park Heights, Minnesota 1 game (2004)

The Thunder's first home field was the National Sports Center in Blaine, Minnesota where they played until 2003. In 2003 the Thunder wanted to reduce the number of home games played at the National Sports Center to seven. The Minnesota Amateur Sports Commission which owns the National Sports Center was not comfortable with the idea so the Thunder decided to look elsewhere. Their three-year lease expired in 2003 leaving them open to search for other facilities for 2004. At the time revenue from the Thunder accounted for less than one percent of the National Sports Center's total revenue. Barclay Kruse, the associate director of the Minnesota Amateur Sports Commission described the situation as, "The best way to describe it is that we're disappointed."

In 2004 the Thunder played home matches at James Griffin Stadium, also known as "The Jimmy", in St Paul. The move to this stadium in central Saint Paul was made in an attempt to reduce overhead costs and market to a more urban and ethnic crowd. According to then president and general manager Jim Froslid some of the deciding were being on a bus line (mass transit does not go to Blaine) and being accessible to the ethnic community. Fan surveys indicated that they would attend more games if the Thunder played in a more central location.

On May 12, 2008, they returned to the National Sports Center with a lease until 2011. At the time the Thunder was the only team in the USL to not play in a soccer specific stadium and the only team that played on with painted American football lines.

The Metrodome was occasionally used as a home field. Macalester Stadium at Macalester College in St. Paul was also used for games in the past. While playing at the National Sports Center the Thunder traditionally played several games a year in other locations notably Macalester College or Eastview High School in Apple Valley.

Supporters
The team's largest supporters' group, the Dark Clouds, were founded in 2004 and worked with the Thunder organization to make improvements to their home stadium. After the Thunder folded, the group supported the NSC Minnesota Stars and Minnesota United FC—including its later MLS incarnation.

Hall of Fame
The following people have been inducted into the Minnesota Thunder Hall of Fame:

 * Tony Pesznecker Inducted 1996
 * Tony Sanneh Inducted 1996
 * Manuel Lagos Inducted 1996
 * John Swallen Inducted 2002
 * Gerard Lagos Inducted 2002
 * Tom Engstrom Inducted 2003
 * Don Gramenz Inducted 2004
 * Buzz Lagos Inducted 2005
 * Amos Magee Inducted 2005
 * Bill George Inducted 2006

Honors

 * USL A-League
 * Winners (1): 1999
 * Runners-up (3): 1998, 2000, 2003
 * Midwest Division champions (1): 1994*
 * Midwest East Division champions (1): 1995*
 * Central Division champions (2): 1999, 2000
 * U.S. Open Cup
 * Semifinals (1): 2005
 * Quarterfinals (1): 2004
 * USISL Sizzling Nine Championship
 * Runners-up (2): 1994, 1995

Head coaches

 * 🇺🇸 Buzz Lagos (1990–2005)
 * 🇺🇸 Amos Magee (2006–2008)
 * 🇺🇸 Don Gramenz (2008–2009)

title: Minnesota Thunder


text:
Navy Blues (album)

Navy Blues is the fourth studio album by Canadian rock band Sloan. Released on Murderecords in 1998, the album is slightly heavier than their two previous albums, showing an influence from 1970s rock mixed with their usual catchy, melodic, Beatles-esque sound. The album contains arguably their most popular song, "Money City Maniacs," which went on to be used in a beer commercial at the time. The song also became a top 10 hit in the band's native Canada and received heavy radio airplay. Navy Blues was certified Gold in Canada on June 12, 1998. By October 1998, the album had sold more than 70,000 copies. The album was nominated for Best Rock Album at the 1999 Juno Awards.

The album's cover art is a very direct copy of the movie poster for the 1959 Polish film Night Train (Polish: Pociąg).

Track listing
All songs credited to Sloan.

Japanese Bonus Tracks

B-sides
 * "Keep on Thinkin' (acoustic)" ("She Says What She Means" promo)

Deluxe Reissue

 * LP1 - Navy Blues
 * 1) "She Says What She Means" (Chris Murphy/Sloan) - 3:01
 * 2) "C'mon C'mon(We're Gonna Get It Started)" (Jay Ferguson) - 3:30
 * 3) "Iggy & Angus" (Patrick Pentland) - 2:48
 * 4) "Sinking Ships" (Andrew Scott) - 4:58
 * 5) "Keep on Thinkin'" (Chris Murphy) - 2:32
 * 6) "Money City Maniacs" (Patrick Pentland/Chris Murphy) - 3:53
 * 7) "Seems so Heavy" (Andrew Scott) - 4:08
 * 8) "Chester the Molester" (Chris Murphy) - 3:14
 * 9) "Stand By Me, Yeah" (Patrick Pentland) - 3:19
 * 10) "Suppose They Close the Door" (Chris Murphy/Andrew Scott) - 3:45
 * 11) "On the Horizon" (Andrew Scott) - 4:04
 * 12) "I Wanna Thank You" (Jay Ferguson) - 3:59
 * 13) "I'm Not Through with You Yet" (Patrick Pentland) - 3:15
 * LP2 - The Demos
 * 1) "She Says What She Means-July-Aug 1996 Demo" (Chris Murphy) - 2:19
 * 2) "C'mon C'mon(We're Gonna Get It Started)-Autumn 1997 Demo" (Jay Ferguson) - 3:31
 * 3) "Iggy & Angus-Jan-Feb 1997 Demo" (Patrick Pentland) - 2:09
 * 4) "Sinking Ships-Oct 1997 Demo" (Andrew Scott) - 4:41
 * 5) "Keep on Thinkin'-July 1997 Demo" (Chris Murphy) - 2:28
 * 6) "Money City Maniacs-Aug 1997 Demo (Patrick Pentland/Chris Murphy) - 3:27
 * 7) "Seems so Heavy-Sept 1997 Demo" (Andrew Scott) - 3:43
 * 8) "Chester the Molester-July 1997 Demo" (Chris Murphy) - 2:53
 * 9) "Stand by Me, Yeah-Aug 1997 Demo" (Patrick Pentland) - 3:01
 * 10) "Suppose They Close the Door-July 1997 Demo" (Chris Murphy/Andrew Scott) - 3:43
 * 11) "On the Horizon-Oct 1997 Demo" (Andrew Scott) - 4:37
 * 12) "I Wanna Thank You-Autumn-Winter 1997 Demo" (Jay Ferguson) - 3:39
 * 13) "I'm Not Through with You Yet-Aug 1997 Demo" (Patrick Pentland) - 3:06
 * LP3 - The Outtakes
 * 1) "So Beyond Me-Studio Outtake" (Chris Murphy) - 2:45
 * 2) "Just One Shot-July-Aug 1996 Demo" (Patrick Pentland) - 2:52
 * 3) "I Feel Lied To-July 1997 Demo" (Chris Murphy) - 2:21
 * 4) "Mother's Day-Studio Outtake" (Andrew Scott) - 3:56
 * 5) "Style is Still Style-Studio Outtake" (Chris Murphy) - 3:21
 * "2, 3 Hello-Aug 1997 Demo" (Patrick Pentland) - 1:21
 * 1) "Open Your Umbrellas-Early 1997 Demo" (Chris Murphy) - 2:10
 * 2) "Daddy Be Cool-Studio Outtake" (Chris Murphy) - 2:49
 * 3) "Family Tree-Oct 1997 Demo" (Andrew Scott) - 4:20
 * 4) "All by Myself-Studio Outtake Version 2" (Chris Murphy) - 3:38
 * 5) "Glen Campbell-July-Aug 1996 Demo" (Jay Ferguson) - 0:59
 * 6) "I've Enabled Myself-Aug 1997 Demo" (Chris Murphy) - 1:48
 * 7) "Helen-Oct 1997 Demo" (Andrew Scott) - 3:29
 * 8) "Yours to Steal-July 1997 Demo" (Chris Murphy) - 1:32
 * 7"1
 * 1) "Rock Star Admit It-July-Aug 1996 Demo" (Chris Murphy) - 3:13
 * 2) "Out to Lunch-Aug 1997 Demo" (Patrick Pentland) - 2:30
 * Hammond Jam
 * 1) "Hammond Jam Pt 1-Studio Outtake" - 2:20
 * 2) "Hammond Jam Pt 2-Studio Outtake" - 2:08

Trivia

 * "She Says What She Means" was the last song recorded for the album. Chris Murphy wanted to make a hard rock song because he was jealous of Patrick Pentland's rock songs "Money City Maniacs" and "Iggy & Angus".
 * Murphy took the title of his song "Chester the Molester" from a name of a character in a Hustler magazine cartoon strip that his cousins used to call him. Murphy was reminded of the name by Mark Gaudet, the drummer from the Canadian bands Elevator To Hell and Eric's Trip.
 * The lyrics for "I'm Not Through With You Yet" were the original lyrics for "Worried Now" from Sloan's 1994 album, Twice Removed. Pentland originally titled the song with the words "Cotton Picking" because of its supposed "Southern feel", but changed it out of fear that it might be taken as racist.

title: Navy Blues (album)


text:
Johnston

Johnston may refer to the surname Johnston or people with that name. It may also refer to:

Australia

 * Johnston, Northern Territory
 * Electoral division of Johnston, an electoral division in the Northern Territory

United Kingdom

 * Johnston, Pembrokeshire, Wales, United Kingdom
 * Johnstown, Wrexham, Wales, United Kingdom
 * Johnston railway station, serves the village of Johnston in Pembrokeshire, Wales

United States
+ Johnston High School, Johnston, Iowa
 * Johnston, Iowa
 * Johnston, Pennsylvania
 * Johnston, Rhode Island
 * Johnston, South Carolina
 * Johnston County, North Carolina
 * Johnston County, Oklahoma
 * Port Johnston Coal Docks at Constable Hook
 * A.S. Johnston High School, Austin, Texas

Elsewhere

 * Johnston Atoll, in the central Pacific Ocean
 * Johnston Parish, New Brunswick, Canada

People

 * Edgar Johnston (1896-1988), Australian fighter pilot
 * Johnston McCulley (1883–1958), American writer best known as the creator of Zorro

Other uses

 * Johnston (typeface), the typeface used on the London Underground
 * Johnston Press, a newspaper publishing company in the UK
 * Johnston Model D1918 machine gun
 * USS Johnston, two ships named in honor of United States Navy officer Johnston

title: Johnston


text:
Sancho I of Portugal

Sancho I of Portugal, nicknamed "the Populator" ("o Povoador"), King of Portugal (Coimbra, 11 November 1154 – 26 March 1211) was the second but only surviving legitimate son and fifth child of Afonso I of Portugal by his wife, Maud of Savoy. Sancho succeeded his father and was crowned in Coimbra when he was 31 years old on 9 December 1185. He used the title King of Silves from 1189 until he lost the territory to Almohad control in 1191.

Early life
Sancho was baptized with the name Martin (Martinho) since he was born on the feast day of Saint Martin of Tours. On 15 August 1170, he was knighted by his father, King Afonso I, and from then on he became his second in command, both administratively and militarily. At this time, the independence of Portugal (declared in 1139) was not firmly established. The kings of León and Castile were trying to re-annex the country and the Roman Catholic Church was late in giving its blessing and approval. Due to this situation Afonso I had to search for allies within the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal made an alliance with the Crown of Aragon and together they fought Castile and León. To secure the agreement, Sancho married Dulce, younger sister of King Alfonso II of Aragon, in 1174. Aragon was thus the first Iberian kingdom to recognize the independence of Portugal.

Reign
With the death of Afonso I in 1185, Sancho I became the second king of Portugal. Coimbra was the centre of his kingdom; Sancho terminated the exhausting and generally pointless wars against his neighbours for control of the Galician borderlands. Instead, he turned all his attentions to the south. With the help of some soldiers on their way to join the Third Crusade, he sacked Alvor and took Silves in 1189, an event recounted in detail by an eyewitness in De itinere navali. Silves was an important city of the South, an administrative and commercial town with population estimates around 20,000 people. Sancho ordered the fortification of the city and built a castle which is today an important monument of Portuguese heritage. At the time he also styled himself "By the Grace of God, King of Portugal and Silves (Dei Gratiæ, Rex Portugalliæ et Silbis)". However, military attention soon had to be turned again to the North, where León and Castile threatened again the Portuguese borders. Silves was again lost to the Moors in 1191.

Sancho I dedicated much of his reign to political and administrative organization of the new kingdom. He accumulated a national treasure, supported new industries and the middle class of merchants. Moreover, he created several new towns and villages (like Guarda in 1199 ) and took great care in populating remote areas in the northern Christian regions of Portugal – hence the nickname "the Populator". The king was also known for his love of knowledge and literature. Sancho I wrote several books of poems and used the royal treasure to send Portuguese students to European universities. He died in Coimbra, aged 56.

Marriage and issue
Sancho married Dulce of Aragon, daughter of Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Barcelona and Petronilla, Queen of Aragon. Eleven children were born from this marriage, eight of whom reached adulthood:

 * Theresa (1175/1176 – 18 June 1250), married Alfonso IX of León and was beatified in 1705;
 * Sancha (1180 – 13 March 1229), founded the Monastery of Celas near Coimbra where she lived until her death. Her sister Theresa arranged for her burial at the Monastery of Lorvão. She was beatified by Pope Clement XI in 1705, the same year as Theresa;
 * Constanza (May 1182 – before 1186 or August 1202). According to Rodrigues Oliveira, she must have died before 1186 since her name is not registered in any of the documents of the chancellery of Sancho I which begins in that year. However, the necrology of São Salvador de Moreira records the death "III Nonas Augusti" in 1202 of "Domna Constantia Infantula filia regis domni Sancii et reginæ domnæ Dulciæ";
 * Afonso (23 April 1186 – 25 March 1223), succeeded his father as the third king of Portugal;
 * Raimundo (1187/88 – 9 March bef. 1188/89), died in infancy;
 * Peter (23 February 1187 – 2 June 1258), married Aurembiaix, Countess of Urgell;
 * Ferdinand (24 March 1188 – 27 July 1233), married Joan, Countess of Flanders;
 * Henry (aft. March 1189 – 8 Dec aft. 1189), died in infancy;
 * Mafalda (1195/1196 – 1 May 1256), married Henry I of Castile and was beatified in 1793;
 * Branca (1198 – 17 November 1240), probably the twin sister of Berengaria, was raised in the court with her father and his mistress "a Ribeirinha" and, when she was eight or ten years old, was sent to live with her sisters at the Monastery of Lorvão. She was a nun at a convent in Guadalajara and was buried at the same monastery as her mother;
 * Berengaria (1198 – 27 March 1221), probably the twin sister of Branca, married Valdemar II of Denmark in 1214.

Children out of wedlock
With Maria Aires de Fornelos, daughter of Aires Nunes de Fornelos and Maior Pais, who was buried at the Monastery of Santo Tirso in accordance with her last will, Sancho had two children, both born before his marriage to Dulce of Aragon: After Dulce's death, he had an affair with María Pais de Ribeira "a Ribeiriña" for whom he is often said to have written and dedicated a cantiga de amigo, A Ribeirinha, composed in 1199, the oldest text known in Portuguese poetry. That is contested nowadays by the Portuguese historian António de Resende Oliveira, who claims this cantiga was composed by Alfonso X of Castile or perhaps Sancho II of Portugal. At least six children were born of this relationship:
 * Martim Sanches (born before 1175) Count of Trastámara. Martim married Elo Pérez de Castro, daughter of Pedro Fernández de Castro, with no issue from this marriage;
 * Urraca Sanches (born before 1175), was married to Lourenço Soares, son of Soeiro Viegas and Sancha Bermúdez de Traba.
 * Rodrigo Sanches (died 1245), had a bastard son with Constança Afonso de Cambra called Afonso Rodrigues, a Franciscan friar and the "Guardian of the Convent of Lisbon";
 * Gil Sanches (died on 14 September 1236), a cleric and troubadour, his father left him 8,000 morabetinos in his will. Gil granted fueros to the settlers of Sardezas in 1213;
 * Nuno Sanches, died during childhood on a 16 December in an unknown year. He could have been the son of Maria Aires de Fornelos;
 * Maior Sanches, also died at an early age on 27 August of an unknown year;
 * Teresa Sanches, her father left her 7,000 morabetinos in his will. She was the second wife of Alfonso Téllez de Meneses whom she married before 1220 and with whom she had issue;
 * Constança Sanches (1204 – 8 August 1269). Her father left her 7,000 morabetinos in his will. She was the godmother of her grand-niece Infanta Sancha and left her half of Vila do Conde, Avelaneda, Pousadela, Parada and Maçãs. She also owned estates in Torres Vedras.

Sancho had a son with Maria Moniz de Ribeira, daughter of Munio Osorio, tenente of the comarca of Cabreira and Ribera, and of Maria Nunes of Grijó:
 * Pedro Moniz, who married a woman whose name is not recorded, and was the father of Maria Peres de Cabreira, the wife of Martim Peres Machado, the first to use the last name Machado.

title: Sancho I of Portugal


text:
Sancho II of Portugal

Sancho II (8 September 1207 – 4 January 1248), nicknamed the Cowled or the Capuched (o Capelo), alternatively, the Pious (o Piedoso), was King of Portugal from 1223 to 1248. He was succeeded on the Portuguese throne by his brother, King Afonso III, in 1248.

Sancho was born in Coimbra, the eldest son of Afonso II of Portugal by his wife, Urraca of Castile.

Military career and reign
By the time of his accession to the throne, in 1223, Portugal was embroiled in a difficult diplomatic conflict with the Catholic Church. His father, Afonso II, had been excommunicated by Pope Honorius III, for his attempts at reducing the Church's power within the country. A treaty of 10 articles was signed between the Pope and Sancho II, but the king paid little attention to its fulfillment. His priority was the Reconquista, the reconquest of the southern Iberian Peninsula from the Moors. From 1236 onwards, Sancho II conquered several cities in the Algarve and Alentejo, securing the Portuguese position in the region.

Dispossession from throne
Sancho II proved a capable commander but, with regard to equally important administrative issues, he was less competent. With his total attention focused on military campaigns, the ground was open for internal disputes. The nobility was displeased by the king's conduct and started to conspire against him. Moreover, the middle class of merchants quarrelled frequently with the clergy, without any intervention from the king. As a result, the bishop of Porto made a formal complaint to the pope about this state of affairs. Since the Church was the dominant power of the 13th century, Pope Innocent IV felt free to issue bull Grandi non immerito, ordering the Portuguese to choose a new king to replace the so-called heretic.

In 1246, recalcitrant nobles invited Sancho's brother Afonso, Count of Boulogne, to take the throne. Afonso immediately abdicated from his French possessions and marched into Portugal.

Exile and death
After a civil war lasting from late 1245 to mid 1247 and a Castilian intervention by the Castilian heir, Prince Alfonso, he fled in exile to Toledo, Spain when Alfonso retreated his forces to support his father in the siege of Seville. He died in Toledo on 4 January 1248 and was buried in its cathedral.

Marriage
Sancho married, circa 1240, a Castilian lady, Mécia Lopes de Haro, widow of Alvaro Peres de Castro, and daughter of Lope Díaz II de Haro and Urraca Alfonso de León, an illegitimate daughter of Alfonso IX of León, but they had no legitimate sons.

title: Sancho II of Portugal


text:
USL First Division

The USL First Division (usually referred to as USL-1) was a professional men's soccer league in the United States and Canada from 2005 to 2010.

During its existence, it formed the second tier of soccer in the United States soccer league system behind Major League Soccer. It was operated by United Soccer Leagues (USL) and was known as the A-League, from 1997 until 2004.

Several teams left the league in 2009 to form the new North American Soccer League, with the intent of running their own second-tier league. Following a brief legal dispute, the two leagues operated in tandem under United States Soccer Federation (USSF) mediation as the USSF Division 2 Professional League in 2010 before the split became final. The teams that remained in the First Division were merged with the USL Second Division in 2011 to form USL Pro.

History
When the A-League became the USL First Division in 2005, the league comprised 12 teams: Atlanta Silverbacks, Charleston Battery, Minnesota Thunder, Montreal Impact, Portland Timbers, Puerto Rico Islanders, Richmond Kickers, Rochester Raging Rhinos, Seattle Sounders, Toronto Lynx, Vancouver Whitecaps, and Virginia Beach Mariners. The Calgary Mustangs, Edmonton Aviators, and Syracuse Salty Dogs, all of whom competed in the final A-League season in 2004, folded during the offseason, and did not take up their places in the new league.

The Seattle Sounders won the inaugural USL1 championship, beating Richard on penalty kicks in the championship game after a 1–1 tie in regulation time. The Vancouver Whitecaps won the first of their two USL1 titles in 2006 by beating the Rochester Raging Rhinos 3–0 in the championship game, while Seattle won their second title in 2007 by overcoming the Atlanta Silverbacks in a one-sided 4–0 final. Vancouver won their second USL1 championship in 2008 by beating the Puerto Rico Islanders 2–1 in the first USL1 final to feature no American teams; the championship went north of the border again in 2009 when Montreal Impact won their first USL1 title, beating Vancouver 6–3 on aggregate over two legs in the first all-Canadian affair.

On August 27, 2009, Nike agreed to sell its stake in the United Soccer Leagues (USL) to Rob Hoskins and Alec Papadakis of Atlanta-based NuRock Soccer Holdings, instead of to the USL Team Owner's Association (TOA), a group comprising the owners of several USL First Division clubs. In the months that followed, several prominent TOA members began to voice their concerns about the state of the league in general, its management structure and ownership model, the leadership of USL president Francisco Marcos, and about the sale of the league to NuRock, which the TOA felt was counter-productive and detrimental to the development of the league. Within several weeks, a number of TOA member clubs threatened to break away from USL and start their own league; this break away became official on November 10, 2009, when the majority of USL-1 clubs, as well as one of the expected 2010 expansion franchises, applied to the United States Soccer Federation, the Canadian Soccer Association, and FIFA for approval to create a new North American Soccer League, reducing the league's membership to just three teams.

After lawsuits were filed and heated press statements exchanged, the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) declared they would sanction neither the NASL nor the USL First Division in 2010, and ordered both "camps" to work together on a plan to temporarily allow their teams to play a 2010 season. The interim solution was announced on January 7, 2010, with the USSF running the new USSF D2 Pro League comprising clubs from both USL-1 and NASL. All 12 teams from the USL First Division and the NASL competed in the USSF D2 Pro League in 2010, which was won by the Puerto Rico Islanders.

On September 8, 2010, the USL announced the formation of USL Pro which would merge the USL First Division and USL Second Division to begin play in 2011. The merger is meant to consolidate USL's position within the American professional soccer landscape and focus on commercial growth and professional development of soccer in 4 main regions throughout the U.S., Canada, and the Caribbean. The First Division was formally dissolved following the completion of the temporary season to make way for USL Pro.

Expansion and contraction
Prior to 2010, the league had a steady rate of expansion and contraction. Richmond was voluntarily relegated to the USL Second Division in 2006 to cut costs, Toronto was voluntarily relegated to the USL Premier Development League in 2007 because of MLS expansion, and on March 30, 2007, the Virginia Beach Mariners folded just prior to the start of the 2007 season due to an ownership dispute which left the team without financing. These teams were replaced by two new teams: the Carolina RailHawks from the Triangle region of North Carolina, playing out of Cary, and California Victory, a team in Northern California under the ownership of Dmitry Piterman (chairman of Spanish team Deportivo Alavés) which folded after the end of the 2007 season, having played only one season.

In November 2008, the Atlanta Silverbacks announced that they would sit out the 2009 season to "reassess the landscape," and would possibly return at a future date. Similarly, the Seattle Sounders left prior to the 2009 season due to the imminent entrance of Seattle Sounders FC into Major League Soccer. Their spot in the league was taken by the Cleveland City Stars, who won the USL Second Division title in 2008, and voluntarily moved up to USL-1 for the 2009 season, folded at the end of the year. On December 2, 2009, Inside Minnesota Soccer reported that the USL had asked the City Stars to terminate the contracts of all the players, as the franchise was to be dissolved. Posting an email addressed to all players under contract with the Cleveland City Stars and written by team president Jonathan Ortlip and executive director Aaron Tredway, the club executives went on to accept the decision to terminate the franchise.

On June 19, 2008, an announcement was made that an expansion slot had been awarded to a Tampa Bay, Florida-based franchise led by main investors Andrew Nestor (CEO) and Hinds Howard (chairman) of Citrus Ventures. The plan was for the club to join the league in 2010 and be named the Tampa Bay Rowdies.

Expansion rumors
Possible cities mentioned for future campaigns included Fort Lauderdale, Florida and Syracuse, New York. Syracuse had had a highly attended team in the A-League from 2002 to 2004, but it folded due to stadium issues, having ground-shared with the local baseball team. Fort Lauderdale also had a history of teams from the NASL, American Soccer League, and USL First Division. There was also discussion that Argentinian team River Plate is interested in putting a second USL team in Puerto Rico, as well as discussion that recent start-up team, the San Diego Flash may also join either the USL or NASL.

Prior to the 2009 NASL split several other cities had been mentioned as being locations where future USL-1 franchises might launch, including St. Louis, Missouri (led by the current USL Premier Development League (PDL) franchise St. Louis Lions); Orlando, Florida (with Mexican side Pachuca being rumored as connected to it); Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Detroit, Michigan; Hamilton, Ontario; San Antonio, Texas; and Ottawa, Ontario. On September 1, 2009, a group from Ottawa formally applied for USL-1 team, contingent on the approval of updates to Lansdowne Park. The team would share a field with the Ottawa Redblacks football team. The Ottawa group subsequently committed to the NASL.

Structure
Unlike most other nations, there is no system of merit-based promotion and relegation in the American and Canadian pyramids, meaning that the champions of USL-1 could not move up to Major League Soccer and, similarly, the worst teams in MLS were not in danger of being demoted to USL-1. However, some USL-1 teams had in the past chosen to take voluntary relegation to a lower level of the USL system, often to reduce operating costs, while teams had also decided to move up to USL-1 after finding success at the lower levels.

Playoff format
The top seven teams advanced to the playoff tournament, with the Commissioner's Cup winner (regular season champion) receiving a bye into the semi-finals. Each round consisted of two legs, the lower seeded team hosting the first leg, and the higher seed hosting the second. Prior to 2009, the final was played as a single leg at the higher seed's stadium. After the first legs were completed, the lowest remaining seed played the Commissioner's Cup winner, and the higher seeds played each other. The highest remaining seed hosted the penultimate game of the Finals. The playoffs started the week after the completion of the regular season, and typically ended in mid-October.

Teams

 * Atlanta Silverbacks (2005–08)
 * Austin Aztex (2008–09) (2010 season played in USSF D2 Pro League)
 * California Victory (2007)
 * Carolina RailHawks (2007–09) (2010 season played in USSF D2 Pro League for NASL Conference)
 * Charleston Battery (2005–09)
 * Cleveland City Stars (2009)
 * FC Tampa Bay (2010) (2010 season played in USSF D2 Pro League)
 * Miami FC (2006–09) (2010 season played in USSF D2 Pro League for NASL Conference)
 * Minnesota Thunder (2005–09)
 * Montreal Impact (2005–09) (2010 season played in USSF D2 Pro League for NASL Conference)
 * Portland Timbers (2005–10) (2010 season played in USSF D2 Pro League)
 * Puerto Rico Islanders (2005–10) (2010 season played in USSF D2 Pro League)
 * Richmond Kickers (2005)
 * Rochester Rhinos (2005–10) (2010 season played in USSF D2 Pro League)
 * Seattle Sounders (2005–08)
 * Toronto Lynx (2005–06)
 * Vancouver Whitecaps (2005–09) (2010 season played in USSF D2 Pro League for NASL Conference)
 * Virginia Beach Mariners (2005–06)

†The Austin Aztex have been awarded a USL Pro franchise and will begin play in 2015 in that league.

undefined undefined undefined undefined undefined undefined undefined undefined

 * See also A-League

All-time USL leaders

 * Note: includes stats from the old A-League

title: USL First Division


text:
Svea

Svea may refer to:

Name

 * Svea (name), Swedish female given name meaning "Swede"
 * Mother Svea, personification of Sweden
 * Svea (singer) (Svea Virginia Kågemark, born 1999), a Swedish singer

Places

 * United States
 * Svea, Florida, unincorporated community
 * Svea, Minnesota, unincorporated community
 * Svea Township, Kittson County, Minnesota
 * Svealand, the historical core of Sweden, around Stockholm
 * Svea Research Station, Antarctica
 * Sveagruva, also called Svea, a mining settlement in Svalbard, Norway
 * Svea Airport
 * Svea Glacier

Svealand military units

 * Svea Life Guards, 1521–2000
 * Svea Artillery Regiment, 1794–1997
 * Svea Engineer Corps, 1855–1997
 * Svea Logistic Corps, 1891–1997

Vehicles

 * Svea-class coastal defence ship, a class of three Swedish Navy ships
 * Any of the ships named MS Svea
 * Svea, a J-class yacht
 * Svea Velocipede, 19th-century bicycle

Companies

 * Rederi AB Svea, shipping
 * Svea Fireworks, fireworks importer
 * Svea Flyg, airline

Other uses

 * Mother Svea, personification of Sweden
 * Svea Court of Appeal, appellate court in Stockholm
 * Order of Svea, a Swedish fraternal order

 * 329 Svea, a main belt asteroid
 * Svea 123, a model of liquid-fuel stoves
 * SVEA (slowly varying envelope approximation), a method in optics to solve the electromagnetic wave equation

title: Svea


text:
4 Nights at the Palais Royale

4 Nights at the Palais Royale is a live album released by the Canadian rock band Sloan in 1999. It was mostly recorded from four live shows performed at the Palais Royale in Toronto, Ontario in 1998, although some of the songs were taken from other concerts on their 1998 Navy Blues tour. The band and fans alike consider it a fairly accurate representation of a typical Sloan concert, with a mix of old and new songs and plenty of audience participation.

Sloan

 * Chris Murphy – bass guitar, drums, vocals
 * Andrew Scott – drums, guitar, vocals
 * Patrick Pentland – guitar, vocals
 * Jay Ferguson – guitar, vocals

Additional musicians

 * Ben Gunning – guitar (on "Underwhelmed")

title: 4 Nights at the Palais Royale