This is quite correct. The Japanese were a proud and hard enemy for whom surrender was unthinkable. They even encouraged a mass suicide among the people of Okinawa, so the idea that large scale civilian deaths would move them to give up is something from fantasyland.
A former Imperial Japanese officer was a member of my dad’s class at the U.S. Army Staff and Commmand College in the mid 1950’s. This officer gave a presentation where he told the class that America’s strategy for winning the war had been correct.
He showed the class maps of the region where the American invasion force had been scheduled to land. As soon as you left the beaches it was all up and down, very mountainous and riddled with caves and tunnels. A dream for the defenders.
Japan had no intention of giving up. The culture was heavily influenced by Boshido where war is purifying and death a duty. It took something almost otherworldly to break their will to fight. And since Godzilla wasn’t around to help us the atomic bombs would have to do.
Thanks so much for sharing your & your Dad's experience.
My Dad was part of the invasion force which did land on those Japanese beaches, in September 1945.
On coming ashore they were met, not by suicidal fanatics determined to kill as many Americans as possible, but rather by Japanese children, holding flowers.
Our guys were treated with respect by the Japanese, and returned the same.
We tried to do right by them, and I don't we did so badly.
Japanese were courageous beyond all measure in war, honorable to a fault in peace, we could not have better allies today.