The objective of warfare is to accomplish some goal (like winning the war) and then move into the future as peacefully as possible. Killing their emperor would have galvanized Japanese hatred of us for centuries.
You'd be surprised what sort of issues are the direct concern of the general staff. They learn to consider those sort of things in the War College. We learned to think that way once we were allowed to send officers the British Admiralty School.
“The objective of warfare is to accomplish some goal (like winning the war) and then move into the future as peacefully as possible.”
I still like General Patton’s thoughts on the matter. The politicians always get in the way of total victory.
I also dislike Genghis Khan’s idea to let the women and children live so that they could breed more evil.
“You’d be surprised what sort of issues are the direct concern of the general staff. They learn to consider those sort of things in the War College. We learned to think that way once we were allowed to send officers the British Admiralty School.”
And that ‘solution’ has not worked throughout history.