(06-05-2014 03:08 PM)49RFootballNow Wrote:  Otherwise know as Operation Olympic and Operation Coronet, the United States plan for the invasion of Japan. Estimates of American deaths range from several tens of thousands into the hundreds of thousands. Estimated Japanese deaths have a top end in the millions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Downfall

Alternatives ranged from a multi-year naval blockade to the eventual solution, the atom bomb.

Lots of unanswered here:

- What had the invasion gone ahead as planned?
- Support on the homefront was waning after the defeat of Hitler.
- Transferring troops home just to send them back to war on the other side of the planet.
- If you follow the "Iwo Jima" casualty model then its going to be bad
- Soviet domination of mainland Asia and possibly Soviet invasion of the Japanese northern island of Hokkaido

DISCUSS!!!!

Soviet Union had no intention of messing g with Japan. And the atomic bomb or a relentless bombing are really the only two logical options. I don't think the invasion would have ever happened, but more Japanese lives would have been lost in the long run.