From above, my post:

For comparison, conquering Okinawa by conventional warfare cost upwards of 250,000 lives. ... Had Operations Coronet and Olympic (the Allied plan for invading Japan itself) gone forward, the casualty totals would have been in the seven digits.

The numbers for Japan were predicted (by the U.S. military) to be over a million by comparison to the results of smaller-scale conventional invasions of nearby islands. The casualties in Okinawa were primarily military on both sides-- no "scorched earth" policy was used.

Much, much more loss of life than the atomic weapon plan caused.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com