Growing Tired
After years spent fighting in the Pacific Theater, the American troops were growing tired and the hopes of a Japanese surrender were not looking too bright. The heavily relied on tactic of island hopping was a tedious, time consuming, and deadly one costing many American lives with each island invaded. Every one of the lives lost was leading up to the time when the American troops would be able to capture an island with an airfield, close enough to mainland Japan, to carry out such an operation as this one; the atomic bombings. So many young lives had been lost for the cause that it would not have been responsible of the U.S. government to not take the actions it did, and do less at such a crucial point.
Total Casualties
American deaths at...
- Saipan: 16,612
- Leyte: 15,584
- Iwo Jima: 26,821
- Okinawa: 49,151
Imperial Japan
As Japan became an empire and began to expand it also began to colonize new territories. They treated the inhabitants of the areas they invaded terribly, as seen in the Rape of Nanking. They also treated prisoners of war just as horrifically, the majority of the time simply killing them. The Japanese justified this because their philosophy was that it is always more honorable to fight to the death rather than ever surrender, and because the prisoners of war did, they were seen as a shameful, subhuman group, who all but deserved death. Because of the die fighting before surrendering idea, the Japanese military began sending kamikaze planes to attack the Americans, armed with pilots ready to commit suicide in order to kill Americans and die fighting for their country. Another way that logic was enforced upon everyone in the culture was the Japanese government ordering the Japanese civilians to arm themselves and be prepared to fight any American soldier they see, to the death. The U.S.'s dilemma was obvious. How can a country fight another that is full of people that would rather die than surrender? The atomic bomb was the only viable option that would kill millions and millions of people on both sides, along with wiping out the United States' funds left for the war.