Germany was a greater threat than Japan, but apparently like you I’m pretty sure the decision of V-E first was a politically motivated one. The Japanese were in a similar situation, that of being stretched across a big chunk of Asia, involved in a massive land war for years before Pearl Harbor. Also, the enemy code system was cracked in both cases. The Germans generally had better strategy, but like the Japanese were more of a land war power. Japanese strategy in their side of the Pacific war worked against the British and Dutch, but didn’t work worth a damn against the US Navy and Marines and some of the commanders we were lucky to have in that theater. Another thing that didn’t work in the Japanese favor was the lack of British interference in the conduct of the Pacific war; we were the only big guns in the fight, and got exactly what we wanted. That was definitely not the case in the Europe and Med theater.
Excellent point. In the Pacific we could be nimble and imaginative with the island hopping strategy bypassing many big but strategically less important Japanese bases.
In Europe we were stuck with the stupid idea of fighting up the entire Italian peninsula, mountain by mountain, and with the broad front approach after D-Day that produced such gems as the completely unnecessary but extremely bloody Hurtgen Forest campaign.
The Germans are legendary for their mastery of the operational level of warfare, but strategically? No way. the Japanese, on the other hand, fufilled their strategic goals within the first six months of going to war. Their problems started whenthey faced the inevitable “what next?”. the Coral Sea and Midway operations only came into being when the Japanese sought to go beyond their original offensives.