On the monument of war dead in my hometown in New Zealand is the name of a soldier who was beheaded on what was called Devil’s Island...
It was a well known fact that the Japanese were much worse than the German Nazis, and the chances of coming home alive from Europe were better than an assignment to the Pacific...
Only if you were a POW. 50,000 Americans died in the Pacific Theater, vs 350,000 in the European and North African Theaters. The Germans were both better-armed and better soldiers than the Japanese.