Board Thread:New on Alternative History/@comment-99.22.178.235-20130524022357/@comment-24.251.80.18-20160702040016

Read "Journey To The Missouri" by Toshikazu Kase. He was a Japanese diplomat involved from the beginning of the war to the end. If it had been up to the military, who had dominated Japan for decades, the fight would be to the end. The only authority that could overrule the army was the Emperor, which is most likely why we didn't try to take him out during the bombing, conventional or nuclear. The efforts of Japan to surrender had crazy/stupid conditions, the US to disarm for example. Only the huge shocks of Russia entering the war and the atomic bombing coming close together pushed the Emperor, against ALL tradition, to overrule the generals.

The invasion of Japan would have followed the same story as the island hopping, horrible numbers of dead and wounded, a long drawn out fight, and millions of Japanese dead. Mixed in with this would be the near genocidal fire/nuke bombing and deliberately induced starvation (spraying of the rice crop). Remember, a 1944 poll indicated 13% of the American public was in favor of the extermination of the Japanese, before the invasion casualities. At the very least the horrified American public would demand that Japan be taken apart back to an agricultural society and kept there. Oh, and the Russians would occupy Hokkaido, as was already planned and shipping was being collected.

As Thorondin said above, "I'll take the outcome we actually got, thanks - even considering the awful devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki."