.... If the atom bomb had not been used what was the alternative?....
Maybe pursue some of the overtures to surrender that were being floated by Japan long before the bombings? It's possible the war could have been ended well before Okinawa.
Japan would not agree to unconditional surrender.
You're right, they would not have agreed to an unconditional surrender. There were no doubt some elements of the Japanese political and military establishment who saw that they were being beaten. But for the most part, to surrender would have brought shame and humiliation to the Japanese and their Emperor.
It was only after two weapons of war that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, that they realized it was futile to keep fighting. Two weapons the likes the world had never seen before.
Hundreds of thousands of Japanese Type 99 and Type 38 Arisaka rifles were turned in by the Japanese at the end of the war. Our military worked out a deal with the Japanese government to allow them to grind off the Chrysanthemum stamped on the receivers, which was the official symbol of the Emperor. The Emperor's symbol on the rifles basically meant that he owned them.
We allowed them to do that in order to to prevent from humiliating the Emperor. Many of those rifles were either brought back by returning soldiers, or exported to this country as collectibles. The rifles with the symbol still intact on the receivers, usually bring a higher price.
I still find those rifles at garage sales. Many times they have had the stocks cut shorter or sporterized, but the original ones that haven't been modified are quite collectible. You used to be able to buy them back in the 60's for $10 but these days, an unmodified Type 38 or Type 66 Arisaka with the Chrysanthemum still on it is fetching $500-$800 at the gun shows. The paratrooper models are bringing even more.
Toward the end of the war, Japan was cutting corners on their weapons manufacturing. They were using cheaper steel and were riveting the safety knob to the back of the bolt.. Those late-issue rifles are commonly referred to as "last ditch" models, and even those have become collectible. The last ditch models gave the Arisaka a bad name, back in the 60's, because they were more crudely-made and were though of as being unsafe to fire.
But the early and mid war production models have one of the strongest actions of any bolt-action rifle. The Type 38 model in 6.5 Japanese is accurate out to 500 meters, and can hold a 2" group at 100 meters, as long as the bore isn't worn out.
