The Wikipedia article on WWII deaths shows Japanese civilian dead somewhere in the range of 550,000 to 800,000, which I suspect is low. I would have guessed around 1,000,000.
The population of Japan at the time was a little over 70,000,000.
The blockade/starvation option may have killed half the civilian population. 30,000,000+.
One million versus ten or twenty or thirty times that.
“Oh, but that would have been allowable under the Geneva Convention”.
Yeah, you’re inhumane.
Key word there is “may”.
Yeah well they may have surrendered as well.