z,
total war is different from limited war. the US economy was beginning to overheat by late 1944, which is why the US began massively throttling back by then. everyone was tired and just wanted to finish it. again, this and the threat of the Soviets coming in drove the timeline. in the absence of this (and of course the atom bomb), I'd agree that the Navy plan was better.
not really a huge driver from my POV, although it was for MacArthur (more of a matter of PERSONAL honor for him). given the blockade operations the japanese on the Philippines were effectively imprisoned while the main action would be on the japanese mainland.
IIRC the manhattan project was scaled way back in '46 because each bomb was ungodly expensive. they cranked out two more anyway for tests by Jul '46. keeping the line open, you probably could have had rather more given the expected length of Operation Downfall.
Not so sure I buy that, we lasted through Vietnam and GWOT... I think a plain statement that we were going to starve them out before an invasion would have been acceptable. There still would have been a lot of freed up production for consumer goods regardless.
We had to go back to the Philippines, it was a matter of national honor.
Would we have that many bombs available?
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