ighting. Consequently, there was little left to resist the Allied offensives within the German borders. Japan, on the other hand, was an island group within whose borders no Allied troops had landed. While the majority of the Japanese Army was engaged in China, there remained a very large residual force in the home islands which had not been engaged in combat; this large ground force could inflict massive casualties on the invasion forces.
Most American leaders, however, never seriously considered other options besides that of unconditional surrender. Suggestions that the Allies consider offering more lenient terms to the Japanese ironically came from the Joint Intelligence Staff (JIS), attached to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Asked to estimate Japanese resistance to an invasion, they reported that the Japanese government would probably recognize military defeat by the Autumn or Winter of 1945. On the other hand, the Japanese would probably not accept unconditional surrender, since they did not recognize the term; the Japanese understanding of "unc
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