1945 Pacific: Allies go home since Japan doesn't have fleet to supply Home Islands

[alephh]

By 1945 Japanese merchant navy was in the bottom of the sea. They didn't have natural resources and they couldn't import them to supply any kind of military/civilian economy.

So why didn't Allies just go home, collapse of Japan was pretty unavoidable?


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[hammo1j]

The big problem is POW's who were being starved to death. Certainly an alternative to an invasion would have been a blockade but that would bring on public unrest that failure to prosecute the war to their full ability would bring. Then there is the USSR's agreement to attack Japan in the autumn that would make this scenario unlikely.

 

[BCO]

By 1945 Japanese merchant navy was in the bottom of the sea. They didn't have natural resources and they couldn't import them to supply any kind of military/civilian economy.

So why didn't Allies just go home, collapse of Japan was pretty unavoidable?


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The lesson of WW1. You don't just leave be a defeated power. They will rearm and be back for more in 20 years.
The idea was that Japan needed to be occupied and reformed. It worked.

 

[Michele]

By 1945 Japanese merchant navy was in the bottom of the sea. They didn't have natural resources and they couldn't import them to supply any kind of military/civilian economy.

So why didn't Allies just go home, collapse of Japan was pretty unavoidable?
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"The Allies", as you'll remember, include China. And a very sizable part of China was under Japanese occupation. The Chinese couldn't "go home". That's reason enough.