obviously the great american a bomb is still an option. then you have further blockade, perhaps more restrictive. (allowing only food to enter the country would not give the japanese the ability to rearm, modern armies need much more than that.) any modern nation would crumble in a material sense if it was only allowed food.

since the blockade bought time, there is more time for an internal rebellion (even people who have been lied to their whole life begin to see the light after a while) a true surrender that did not require vaporizing innocents,

point being the blockade kept options other than vaporizing folks (should have been the last idea in a country that praises itself as the defender of common peoples) on the table.

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