Looks like Japan '45 is up on the JTS site. For those who have purchased - how is it ? I for one am curious about this title, but unsure ... my knowledge of the Pacific theatre is spotty at best.
"Plans are nothing; planning is everything." Dwight D. Eisenhower
As a playtester I think a lot of people will be surprised on how tough the Japanese will be fighting on the home island prepare yourself for the casualties you will take getting off the beaches.
As a playtester I'll echo what Dennis has said. The army will find it a real bitch to get off their beaches. That Japanese artillery will slap you silly and take your lunch money if you don't get off those beach hexes in a hurry and in getting off those beach hexes in a hurry is pretty difficult.
That really shouldn't be a surprise, given what we know about the casualties the U.S. War Department was projecting. Nothing short of hideous. I used to work with a guy whose father survived the Battle of the Bulge and the end of the war in Europe, and whose outfit was in transit to the Pacific when the Japanese surrendered. He said he'd pretty much resigned himself to dying, and he figured the surrender saved his life.