[DickBrannigan]

My father was on a yard mine sweeper (YMS 389) and would have been in that first wave trying to sweep mines in Tokyo harbor. Do you think he ever regretted them being nuked? Neither do I.

[colorado tanker]

The Navy was delusional thinking they could starve Japan into surrender. Food was already short and LeMay had burned down everything there was to burn. Still, no surrender. Civilians were being told to fight with pitchforks and knives. Bunkers had been prepared near Nagano for the Royal Family and high command. (The Japanese were really scared some reporter would find the bunkers during the Olympics and do a story, but none did.) So, what if we take the Tokyo Plain? How many men were we willing to sacrifice to root them out of the mountains?

The math is easy and horrific. Take the Japanese, American and civilian deaths on Okinawa and extrapolate those to the Home Islands population and armies that would have been engaged. It added up to death on a horrific scale on both sides. Still, no surrender.

The ONLY thing that got the Japanese to surrender were the bombs. And even at that the Army darn near rebelled.