DBWI: No Invasion of Japan

Well, as you all know, WWII ended as a Pyrrhic Victory for the US, having been bled dry by Japan until the Soviets finally joined the Pacific Theatre in 1949.

So, I have 2 questions:
  1. Is there any way for the US to avoid the costly invasion of Japan?
  2. How would post-war dynamics change if the US somehow avoids the invasion and had not exhaused itself?
 
Well the general consensus is that Roosevelt could have strong armed the Soviets into giving a timetable for their invasion during the Cairo Conference in 1943, rather than a mild assurance. That way you might get the 'terrible shock' being delivered in 1946 or even late 1945, and a Japanese surrender soon after. There was the old 'Let's Anthrax Tokyo' plan from '47 that gets brought up as well, but I sincerely doubt the British would be willing to go along with such an action.
 
Well I suppose the most obvious answer is that absent the disaster suffered by the Soviets during their failed invasion we might not have see the military overthrow Stalin (though I suspect Zhukov et al still would have found a need to get rid of him).

Also the Chinese economy might not be as dominant if the Japanese didn't have so much work in post war recovery.

I suppose if you have a weaker Chinese economy and Stalin still in power you might see Chang lose to Zhou (or perhaps Mao if he survived the war).

A communist Russia and China certainly could make things interesting, though the nationalist Russia hasn't been that good from our POV either
 
Well, we'd actually have diplomatic relations with Japan and President McArthur wouldn't be remembered by the Japanese as the Butcher of Osaka.
 
All it really required was patience. The US could have simply decided to starve Japan out. A naval blockade and regularly bombing would have worn the Japanese to the point of either coming to terms or weakened them enough to make the invasion much less bloody. You would still have Japan conquered by '49, and we would have been spared the bloodbath that was the failed Downfall invasion in '45.

Of course the simplest solution would have been if Hirohito had seen the situation for what it was and made peace sooner. People seem to think he was a puppet, but remember that by the fall of '44 the military had isolated him on the grounds of 'keeping the divine presence safe.' He was spoon fed the information the generals wanted him to receive and was never allowed to really see how bad things were.

The story is that when he was captured by the marines he told them, 'how did your handful of men manage this?' Talk about delusional. It almost makes you sad that he was hanged after his trial.
 
An earlier Soviet entry could have helped. Weren't the Soviets planning to occupy northern Korea and Manchuria in 1945, after the defeat of Germany?
 
I hear that they were developing "superbombs", I wonder what would have happened if they were completed, I know that this is a favorite along alternate historians, almost as cliche as "you know what".

Do you think that America would actually deploy the superbombs if they had them, or were they a myth?
 
I hear that they were developing "superbombs", I wonder what would have happened if they were completed, I know that this is a favorite along alternate historians, almost as cliche as "you know what".

Do you think that America would actually deploy the superbombs if they had them, or were they a myth?
I think that only the Germans were developing a superbomb, but if we got a hold of them, we could have used them.
 
A series of setbacks killed de A-Bomb project, but by now all the documents and reports have been released that show it was almost a thing. It would have also been easier to prevent the Soviet Invasion of Europe and Japan, but it was completely scrapped after the Soviet was defeated.
 
A series of setbacks killed de A-Bomb project, but by now all the documents and reports have been released that show it was almost a thing. It would have also been easier to prevent the Soviet Invasion of Europe and Japan, but it was completely scrapped after the Soviet was defeated.

You conspiracy theorists, America would never develop such deadly and devastating weapons.

Actually I shouldn't say that, didn't they invest heavily in bacterial weapons after the war was over?
 
It's not a conspiracy theory, we do use atomic energy for peaceful purposes, it's possible in theory to create a weapon. However in the late 50s with Europe devastated three times over, the state of Japan abolished, and Russia occupied, it was decided that such weapons were against the interests of mankind as a whole - the are banned by the U.N. since
 
Maybe if Nimitz survived Midway? Or at least have somebody more competent than Mac the Butcher.

And maybe avoid the Indian "troubles".

The results of the latter could be far ranging. What might the subcontinent look like today if decoloniation went as well as it did in Africa?
 
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