The Allied invasion of Japan plus the use of multiple nuclear warheads.
Operation Downfall combined with More Nukes.
After Nagasaki the Officer Coup is successful. Japan doesn't surrender.
A-Bombs used to clear the Beaches in Olympic. Then used while waiting for Coronet. Used again to clear the beaches during Coronet.
Sorry, guys, but the blockade option is still worse. We could carpet bomb the Greater Tokyo Metropolitan Area with first-generation nuclear weapons and the death toll from the blockade plan (and the Soviets getting an occupation zone) would STILL probably be worse.
Let's look at the numbers for a moment:
Olympic and Coronet combined can be counted on to kill 2.5 million Japanese military personnel and civilians. Adding nukes might bring the total to 3.5 million. Adding in the starvation that did occur IOTL takes it up to 4 million.
In contrast, we try the blockade, and knock down the SIX railway bridges that were still keeping Japanese cities somewhat fed... deaths by starvation (and exposure, etc, due to lack of fuel) would conservatively hit the 5-10 million mark, at a bare minimum. Meanwhile, the Soviets take Hokkaido, and after the ultimate surrender receive the northern quarter to third of Honshu as their occupation zone. Thus, we get the Democratic Republic of Japan, or whatever.
Now, for a moment, look at OTL's "Rice Years" and Soviet policy in occupied Eastern Europe. The US was required, and able, to ship something like 500 calories per person per day to keep Japan fed through 1947, and still almost half a million died. The Soviets, meanwhile, were busily stealing food, industrial capital goods, and agricultural machinery from Eastern Europe, which at the time was capable of feeding itself, if barely. They would have been completely unable (and unwilling) to ship food to Japan at this point. It is also likely that they would have been stripping North Japan of what little ability it had to produce food. Thus, out of the maybe 20 million people who would wind up stuck in the Soviet Zone, I think 3-5 million deaths of starvation is a low-ball estimate.
All in all, you get maybe 8-15 million for the blockade vs. 3-4 million for the invasion. And almost complete societal destruction, the near breakdown of
civilization itself, with the blockade route.
No.
When this undead topic makes it's seemingly monthly appearance, it is always explained that it's not just a matter of growing enough rice, catching enough fish, or enough people becoming vegetarians. The crux of the problem is the distribution food and not simply the production of the same.
The US had all but shut down coastal freighting, the railway system had been cut to pieces, bridges were being smashed one by one, and the aerial preparations for Downfall planned on savaging what little was left of the Home Islands transportation network.
By 1945 it was becoming readily apparent that Japan would soon be unable to move food to where the people were or move people to where the food was. If the invasion preparations continued, followed by the invasions themselves, the Home Islands would have starved and Halsey's desire that Japanese only be spoken in Hell would come frighteningly close to reality.
Quite honestly, this point has been covered dozens of times here in the last year alone. Considering the number of times this topic is dragged from it's coffin - at least twice today alone - there's no good reason apart from being a recent arrival for most active members not to be aware of it.
Did you actually READ the rest of his post? He essentially says that when conditions were perfect they could feed most of the population; then tells us why they never would have pulled it off IOTL, reason one being that the US had completely shattered their distribution system. Read the whole post next time.