At work I sat across the aisle from a man who was on a ship ready to invade Japan. They knew there was little chance for survival. He was devastated by the people who protested dropping the bombs which saved his life.
The military made 1M purple hearts for the invasion. They still are using that batch for all the wars since WW2.
I read an article once from the son of a man who was on one of those ships that was turned around mid-ocean. He knew he wouldn’t have been here except for those bombs being dropped which saved his father’s life.
He said there were mass celebrations on the ship b/c all of them knew when they left there was little to no chance of any of them surviving.