Not 1 US Soldier Died in Hostile Action While Occupying Japan: Why?

[gcrookston]

Stone, I believe the bombing of civilian population centers was one the cornerstones of Lemays strategy over Japan. Over 100,000 people were killed alone in the bombing of Tokyo. Lemay was a gloves off dude.

Much of Japan's military manufacturing was cottage based. Small factories in homes throughout the country. LeMay (and others), made a strong argument that civilian homes harboring military manufacturing were legitimate targets. Some interesting observations of these home based factories have been reported by former P.O.W.s. Most recently I read another observation of this in Unbroken.

As for bombing a people into total submission... I know of no instance in history that the outcome was any different than that experienced by the Nazis undertaking the London Blitz...

[Pancho Villa]

Much of Japan's military manufacturing was cottage based. Small factories in homes throughout the country. LeMay (and others), made a strong argument that civilian homes harboring military manufacturing were legitimate targets. Some interesting observations of these home based factories have been reported by former P.O.W.s. Most recently I read another observation of this in Unbroken.

As for bombing a people into total submission... I know of no instance in history that the outcome was any different than that experienced by the Nazis undertaking the London Blitz...

Uhm, Japan? No land invasion, just the threat of total annihilation from the air.

Fun fact: The Japanese had a "final battle" mentality wherein their thinking was that if they could inflict enough casualties on the invading Americans they would be able to preserve their "national spirit" (ie political-religious system.)

Slogans like "100 million deaths before surrender" became popular in the propaganda press. The strategy went something like this: throw millions of sketchily armed japanese old men, women and children at the beachheads in the hopes of inflicting enough casualties to cause the Americans to withdraw.

Schooling beyond the 6th grade was suspended; children aged 12 and older were expected to take part in the national banzai charge. Hiroshima was the HQ for Army Group South, which swelled to 900,000 strong, mostly those too old, too young and females.

When the US found out about this, they sent out the famous missive..."THERE ARE NO CIVILIANS IN JAPAN." They were correct.

The reason the Japanese were not ready to surrender was because they held out a final hope for a "last victory" if they could simply throw enough bodies at the Americans and make it not worth our while to continue. Once we demonstrated the ability and the will to reduce Japan to a radioactive wasteland, if pushed to, all hope for the preservation of the "national spirit" faded and unconditional surrender followed.

FWIW, I believe that is why you saw insurgent activity in Germany. They held out hope that the Americans would begin to fight the Soviets and Germany could emerge as a power again somehow when those two exhausted each other. The will to fight is largely dependent on the hope of final victory - not necessarily that you will live (not everyone is afraid of death,) but that your side will eventually come out on top - that your death will not be in vain. Japan, with such dramatic demonstrations of how outclassed they were and such a stark alternative - surrender or total annihilation - had no such outlets, and so lacked even the relatively minor insurgency of Germany.