page_title: Operation Starvation
section_title: Aftermath
hierarchical_section_title: Operation Starvation / Aftermath
caption_attribution_description: English: o.173 auxiliary patrol boat of the Imperial Japanese Navy at Tokushima Shipbuilding, Japan. 日本語: 日本海軍哨戒特務艇第173号、1945年（昭和20年）1月10日、徳島造船。『世界の艦船-日本海軍護衛艦艇史』115ページより。
context_page_description: Operation Starvation was a naval mining operation conducted in World War II by the United States Army Air Forces, in which vital water routes and ports of Japan were mined from the air in order to disrupt enemy shipping.
context_section_description: After the war, the commander of Japan's minesweeping operations noted that he thought this mining campaign could have directly led to the defeat of Japan on its own had it begun earlier. Similar conclusions were reached by American analysts who reported in July 1946 in the United States Strategic Bombing Survey that it would have been more efficient to combine the United States' effective anti-shipping submarine effort with land- and carrier-based air power to strike harder against merchant shipping and begin a more extensive aerial mining campaign earlier in the war. This would have starved Japan, forcing an earlier end to the war.
caption: No.1-class auxiliary patrol boats played an active part in the post-war minesweeping effort
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