So, as of late I've been going crazy reading up about the Pacific campaign of World War 2 and have noticed a main reason for US victory after US victory was Naval and Air Support. Not to demean anything that the Army nor Marines did, which was amazing in itself, but it's kind of hard to miss the fact that so many dead Japanese soldiers were from constant artillery barrages. The fact they even lasted as long as they did and managed to inflict such casualties is beyond an amazing feat. Although I have a constant nagging feeling in the back of my head that the Japanese casualties may be exaggerated. I understand they would fight to last man or barely surrender, but KIA differences of dozens of thousands just seems a bit exaggerated. Although I'll accept them. Anyways, my question for the discussion is: If US Naval/Air Forces were significantly weaker, or even not present during major ground battles like Tarawa, Saipan, Peleliu, Iwo Jima and Okinawa, apart from the superior number of US infantry in these battles, how long would have each battle lasted and how much higher would the casualties have been? Could the allied forces had taken those islands with those forces shown? Which ones would have most likely resulted in US defeat? How long would the war have gone on for (No atom bombs happening) by the time the US reached Okinawa? Here are the durations/stats for each of these battle: [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tarawa][b]Tarawa[/b][/url]: November 20 to November 23, 1943 Strengths: US (35,000 troops) Japanese (2,619 troops,1,000 Japanese and 1,200 Korean laborers) Casualties: US (978 KIA, 2,188 WIA) Japanese (4,690, great majority KIA) [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Saipan][b]Saipan[/b][/url]: 15 June – 9 July 1944 Strengths: US (71,000) Japanese (31,000) Casualties: US (2,949 KIA, 10,464 WIA) Japanese (At least 30,000 KIA) Civillians (22,000 KIA, mostly suicide) [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Peleliu][b]Peleliu[/b][/url]: September–November 1944 Strengths: US (28,484) Japanese (11,000 aprox.) Casualties: US (1st Marine Div. 1,252 KIA, 5,274 WIA [1/3 of entire divison] 81st Inf. Div. 542 KIA, 2,736 WIA) (Total: 1,794 KIA, 8,010 WIA) Japanese: (10,695 KIA, 202 POW's) [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Iwo_Jima][b]Iwo Jima[/b][/url]: 19 February – 26 March 1945 Strengths: US (70,000) Japanese (22,060) Casualties: US (6,821 KIA, 19,217 WIA) Japanese (21,844 KIA, 216 POW's) [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Okinawa][b]Okinawa[/b][/url]: 1 April – 22 June 1945 Strengths: US (183,000) Japanese (120,000) Casualties: US (12,513 KIA, 38,916 WIA, 33,096 Non combat losses) Japanese (+95,000 KIA, 7,400–10,755 POW's) Civilian (42,000–150,000 KIA) So, taking these battle statistics into mind, without the aforementioned superior US Naval/Air power, how would these battles had turned out? Which would have been Japanese victories? Would the US had suffered more casualties than the Japanese in all battles?