Sea Mines & Railroads.

This is coolbert:

Once again, the mine as an offensive weapon, in this particular case sea-mines to be exact.

Most persons conversant with various aspects of the Second World War are aware of the strategic American submarine offensive directed against Japanese military warships and merchant shipping in those waters primarily EXTERNAL to Japanese home waters.

A very successful campaign, crippling the Japanese war effort significantly, perhaps even fatally.

Perhaps even more successful and significant than the strategic submarine offensive was the laying of sea-mines in Japanese coastal waters at the end of the war, as done by American B-29 bomber aircraft. This was Operation Starvation!

"Operation Starvation was an American naval mining operation conducted in World War II by the Army Air Force, in which vital water routes and ports of Japan were mined by air in order to disrupt enemy shipping."

An aerial offensive, the laying of sea-mines, denying to Japanese naval vessels and merchant shipping  the use of Japanese INTERNAL home waters!

"This mining proved the most efficient means of destroying Japanese shipping during World War II. In terms of damage per unit of cost, it surpassed strategic bombing and the United States submarine campaign."

"Operation Starvation sank more ship tonnage in the last six months of the war than the efforts of all other sources combined."

Japanese naval commanders ordering their naval warships and too commercial vessels to run the gauntlet of sea mines, heedless of losses, in an effort to keep supplies and war munitions flowing. MERCHANT SHIPPING AS WELL NOT ABLE TO FREELY MOVE NEEDED RICE FOOD STOCKS FROM ONE AREA OF JAPAN TO ANOTHER!! VITAL NECESSITIES NO LONGER COULD FLOW, THE CIVILIAN POPULACE ON THE VERGE OF MASS STARVATION!!

"After the war, the commander of Japan's minesweeping operations noted that he thought this mining campaign could have directly led to the defeat of Japan on its own had it begun earlier."

And from comments to the National Review Online article: "The Blunders of Statesmen".

"or to destroy Japan's rail system with conventional bombing (already ijn the planning stages) at ehg cost of starving 8 million Japanese from the resulting disruption of rice distribution."

NOT ONLY a campaign of sea-mines denying the inland waterways of Japan to Empire naval and merchant vessels, but a planned campaign already underway to some extent - - the destruction of the Japanese railroad system - - would have further exacerbated an already dire situation, mass starvation of the Japanese populace a horrible and very really consequence.

"Had the war continued past August 1945, the next target for strategic bombing was to be Japan's rail system. Because of Japan's mountainous terrain, the rail system was unusually vulnerable to attack [tunnels I would presume], which would have made it impossible to move vital commodities such as rice. [it has been] argued that this would have led to widespread famine that would have forced a surrender without the nuclear attacks, but at the cost of perhaps as many as ten million deaths by starvation."

Again, a bombing campaign against the Japanese rail system already underway to some degree:

"Also of strategic importance was the sinking by carrier aircraft on 14-15 July 1945 of eight of the twelve railway ferries that carried traffic between Hokkaido and Honshu. This immediately halved deliveries of coal to Honshu."

Surrender today or famine tomorrow! Flippant yes, realistic also! No one ever said war was easy, did they!

coolbert.