Do you think it only would have been 10s of thousands of lives to take Mainland Japan?
I know that’s a HORRIFIC number.
But I’ve read Hundreds of thousands of lives.
Thank God we never had to find out.
You’re right. It could have half a million. The Japanese were ready to fight to the last man.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff estimated that Olympic alone would cost 456,000 men, including 109,000 killed. Including Coronet, it was estimated that America would experience 1.2 million casualties, with 267,000 deaths.
Staff working for Chester Nimitz, calculated that the first 30 days of Olympic alone would cost 49,000 men. MacArthur’s staff concluded that America would suffer 125,000 casualties after 120 days, a figure that was later reduced to 105,000 casualties after his staff subtracted the men who when wounded could return to battle.
General Marshall, in conference with President Truman, estimated 31,000 in 30 days after landing in Kyushu. Admiral Leahy estimated that the invasion would cost 268,000 casualties. Personnel at the Navy Department estimated that the total losses to America would be between 1.7 and 4 million with 400,000 to 800,000 deaths. The same department estimated that there would be up to 10 million Japanese casualties. The ‘Los Angeles Times’ estimated that America would suffer up to 1 million casualties.
My dad was on a troop ship headed to the amassing invasion force when the bombs were dropped. He became part of the occupation force.
We would have had to invade with over half a million men. The Japanese were preparing for a multi-year insurgency right down to making spears and homemade bombs. It would have been a drawn out bloodbath on both sides.
Don’t forget the costs of taking Iwo and Okinawa. We virtually had to kill every soldier right down to the end of the battles. They were fanatics. All the while Kamikazes were swarming the navy and doing horrendous damage to the fleet.
The Japanese felt surrender was shameful to the point death was preferred. They treated POWs as sub human because they had surrendered.
This is all called context. Something that isn’t taught with history today.
I remember my mom telling me at that time in 1945 people were getting sick of the war and welcomed the atom bombs to end it already. All you heard was families in the neighborhoods where they lived in the Bronx constantly losing loved ones. It was really wearing on people.
Had this gone the way of an invasion and multiyear bloodbath and it was found out we had a weapon that could have ended it a lot sooner, Truman would have been run out of town on a rail.
The government ordered enough Purple Hearts for the invasion of Japan that they only ran out a few years ago.