I have a letter that my uncle wrote while sitting on Leyte waiting for the next phase of the war to start.
He wrote, “I heard about the atomic bomb used on Japan. It sounds like a horrible weapon. But Japan could have surrendered whenever they wanted.”
He was exhausted and was just happy the war ended. He never held a grudge against the Japanese…but he wasn’t a fan either. I think that applied to a lot of people in his position.
My Dad, who lost a brother and who did War Crimes Investigations in Japan, was another story.
It sounds like your uncle got to Leyte in the waning stages of the war...had he been there in late 1940/early 1941, i’m sure he would’ve held a big grudge, had he made it out alive...
Ask anyone that survived the invasion of Okinawa about the wisdom of dropping the bomb.
My father and most of his brothers served in the Pacific in WW2, and they said the same things as your father. Three of my mother’s brothers also served in the Pacific and they also were of the same opinions.
None of them held a grudge against the Japanese, and were only sorry that it was necessary to drop the bomb.