This is coolbert: If an invasion of Japan had actually occurred during WW2, the battleships of the U.S. Navy would have been put to good use in several ways. The battleships the Navy possessed at the time could be put into two categories. One was the WW1 era battleships, refurbished, that sported 14 inch guns in their main batteries. The second category was the modern fast battleships of the Iowa Class, sporting 16 inch main guns. The former were to be used as floating pillboxes. At the invasion beaches, accompanying the landing troops, would be the WW1 battleships. With skeletal crews, the ships would be run aground, and the ships basically evacuated except for gun crews. These gun crews would fire in support of the landing troops, additional ammo, powder, food, etc., being brought to them as needed. The second category of battleships, the Iowa Class ships, Iowa, Missouri, New Jersey, and Wisconsin, would join forces and cruise up and down the coast of Japan, bombarding all targets within range of the sixteen inch guns. Since 90 % of the Japanese population lived within 10 miles of the coast line, as did most of the Japanese infrastructure, the battleships would be presented with almost an unlimited range of targets. Anything within reach would be fair game. These fast battleship sorties would continue before, and during the invasion and subsequent conquest of Japan. These ships would have been able to wreak real crippling devastation.

coolbert.