[Nyororin]

Was it necessary? Probably not. There were other ways to end the war...
The thing is, it needed to be put to an end quickly and there was no time to come up with another good way. So it happened. The war ended.

I think a lot of people tend not to realize that - especially when you get closer to the end of the war - most of the soldiers were only a piece of paper away from being a civilian. Basically drafted, sent immediately off to war with no training and no experience... To die. Even when things got to this point, the Japanese government (ignore the feelings of the normal citizen) had no interest in quitting. Someone dies? Pull some random guy out of his home and send him off to fight. When he dies just replace him with another. Who cares if the new guy is only 16, has been studying calligraphy for 2 years, and has never even seen a gun! Put him on the next ship out!

My husband`s great grandmother had 11 children. Two girls and 9 boys. Her husband died when he went off early in the war to try and make money as a soldier to make up for an extended period of hardship.
Of her 9 sons, only one survived the war. None of them volunteered. Two were fishermen, one was off in the city studying calligraphy. One was an elementary school teacher. One was drafted the day he graduated junior high school. Two were farmers, and another was doing small jobs to make money to try and study music to be a music teacher. (There were plans to build a new junior high school soon)

None of the sons were "soldiers". The one who did survive was the oldest, and he only survived because he was injured and became infected keeping him hospitalized through the end. One of the two daughters starved to death trying to keep her children healthy, but lacking any men to actually do any of the serious farming.

This was happening all over Japan. The government had no plans to give up until they had exhausted every single path for replenishing soldiers. Extending the war would have just made more and more "soldiers" dragged off to be shot.

In the town cemetery, there are three graves dedicated to those who died in the war. One to the soldiers of the area, one to those who died of "hardships" during/just after the war... And one to the men of my husband`s family. It was originally the grave for the great-grandfather, as he was apparently decorated and a pride of the town before he was killed... But it was changed after the war ended.

ETA;
I have never heard of anyone who actually did any of the real fighting who believed that the emperor was divine. That Japan had any divine right to anything, etc. Except for a few exceptions, all the attitudes I have actually encountered from people who volunteered are that it was either because they a) Wanted money and possibly honor for the family by being a decorated war hero... or b) They believed that if they didn`t go to fight that America would make it`s way to the mainland and kill their family.
The majority were, as I said, drafted.