Detonating a nuclear weapon wasn’t the only doomsday strategy the U.S. was working on to stop the Japanese and end World War II, they had other equally insane ideas, like Professor Harold Whitnall’s volcano-bombing plan. The “eminemt geologist” from Colgate University wrote an article for Popular Science in 1944, outlining his vision for world peace:
Since shortly after Pearl harbor, I have recommended that our all-out attack on the Japanese homeland be accompanied by bombing raids on Japan’s volcanoes. I believe that explosives dropped down their throats may cause such a vomit of lava and ash as to hasten the day of unconditional surrender.
As crazy as that theory sounds, it has been tested before, by nature, and was pretty effective.
He also suggested taking advantage of all the tectonic activity taking place below the islands:
Applying the same argument to earthquakes, it is by no means unreasonable to suggest that a terrific jar produced at a time when an earthslip is in the making might accelerate the dislocation.
Note that the "insane" proposals to end World War II (including the atomic bomb) incorporated more technology than personnel. The U.S. entertained these "insane" ideas to avoid sacrificing 250,000 to 1,000,000 American soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen by invading the Japanese mainland. The range of Japanese casualties during and after a conventional invasion was expected to have been somewhere between 250,000 and 3,000,000, while an estimated 150,000 to 250,000 Japanese died from the two atomic bombs that were dropped. To put it in perspective, as of March 11th, 5,376 U.S. service members have died in Operations New Dawn and Enduring Freedom. Estimates of total global dead from World War II (civilians and military, from war-related injury, disease, starvation, etc.) range as high as 80 million.
Grim numbers, but it was a grim time.
We should have just stayed out of that war altogether, or else allied with the Axis and conquered Mexico, Canada, and the Caribbean.