The ratio of Japanese combat deaths to American was over 10 to 1 on Okinawa. It might have been marginally lower if fighting had proceeded to the enemy's heartland, where reinforcements would have been more easily available than to the Japanese garrisons on the cut-off islands. However, civilian deaths from conventional combat surely would have been much higher, if only because the mainland had many more civilians who were committed to die for Emperor and country. The best estimates of total Japanese deaths in a conventional mainland campaign are five to ten million. If civilian suicides and
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