Hiroshima 70 years ago

[Wyrd of Gawd]

The best way to quickly end a major war is to kill all of the enemy's accessible civilians.  After all, they are the ones who operate the war machinery and feed the troops in the field.  Kill enough of their civilians and the troops will have to surrender.  Besides, it costs too much to take on enemy troops if they are at full strength.  Of course that might leave your own civilians open to major attacks but in war everyone fights.  Only fools think that they are safe from attack.

However, that wasn't how it worked in Japan. The military didn't care how many civilians died, or how much it fucked up the infrastructure. They wanted the entire population to die if that's what it took to save their "honor". 

The sad thing is the "bushido code" they operated under was a bastardization of the original that was foisted on them in the early '30s.

As I said before, we would have gladly killed every single person in Japan if they hadn't surrendered.  The nukes saved lives all around.