Alternatives to the Bomb - how to win against Japan?

How large/extensive would the Japanese civilian involvement be once the invasion begins?

How plausible is the idea of millions of Japanese civilians engaging American troops on the battlefield or through guerilla warfare?

The vast majority of the 30 odd-million civilians mobilized by the gov't would still have stayed behind to fulfill industrial and agricultural jobs, they were still the backbone of the country's workforce and would be needed to sustain the Army in the field. When the time came (ie, when their geographic region was threatened) they would be converted into logistic, combat, and partisan units to take a more active role in defense. The point of grouping them into People's Volunteer Corps was to essentially ensure that the GHQ in Tokyo would have absolute control over the main body of its adult population so that it could do as it saw fit with them; though this didn't exclusively refer to the fighting alone.
 
I think a soviet and American division of Japan will happen, Japan gets divided by the pacifists and communists(soviet supported).
 
I have my doubts about the "100 million sheep" proposition, especially in the face of heavy American use of leaflet drops & imminent famine. AFAIK, Saipan wasn't in so dire a circumstance as that, & the population was under tighter control (thanks to limited area).
 
I have my doubts about the "100 million sheep" proposition, especially in the faceAFAIK, Saipan wasn't in so dire a circumstance as that, & the population was under tighter control (thanks to limited area).

It's also important to remember that some of the suicides were forced, with civilians being ordered to jump off the cliffs at gunpoint.

The 'Hundred Million Bullets' was an incredibly successful act of imperialist propaganda that the rest of the world swallowed whole, to the extent that it continues to be resilient to this day. However it's unlikely that the imperialists believed it themselves, otherwise they wouldn't have been so concerned about the constant outbreaks of violence in northern Japan that occurred during the early thirties.
 
How many people died by the Two A bombs ?
The US Command In July MacArthur's Intelligence Chief, Maj. Gen. Charles A. Willoughby, warned of between 210,000 and 280,000 battle casualties in the push to the "stop line" one-third of the way up Kyushu. Even when rounded down to a conservative 200,000, this figure implied a total of nearly 500,000 all-causes losses, of whom perhaps 50,000 might return to duty after light to moderate care.[92] My father would of more then likely been one of these casualties
 
Top