Having been an army replacement infantryman on Leyte on Leyte being readied for the invasion of Japan I can say I had mixed emotions. My only brother had been killed on Okinawa a few months earlier and I was wanting to see every Jap killed even with my participation. A few months on Leyte after the war ended I was glad the bombs were dropped and I and thousands of others did not have to go into Japan.
MY FIL was on the Saratoga during Iwo Jima. As he put it: “Anything to stop those bastards because they weren’t going to just quit.”