I think you answer your own question, and don't even realize it.
You would set up the republic of Wardaddy. I don't think the consular services of the various foreign nations would be sending you ambassadors. You could add an extra cup of water in the soup, if they all wanted to come for dinner.
I guess if you pinned some of the fire eaters down, they would have said something like, "oh yes, the yankees have the potential to produce 5,000 rifles a DAY (which they did) and we only have the capability to produce 100 a day (which also happened), but the yankees won't fight."
Well, that's just what the Japs thought -- the Yankees won't fight.
Of course even under the worst of Sherman's depredations, few were more than dispossessed of their homes, belongings or food.
In the one Tokyo firebombing in March, 1945, masses of Japanese civilians rushed to and fro trying to escape the raging firestorms created by U.S. bombers. Over 70,000 were incinerated or suffocated in just that one night.
Walt