As someone who has actually studied world war 2, and am right in the middle of the phenominal "hell to pay” study which documents the actual American plans for invasion of the home islands in light of revision criticism that the bombings where only there to keep the soviets out, this article is highly intellectually dishonest.

Lets start with what the author does get right. It was a time of racism and brutality. The eastern Europe front was a war of genocide - and both sides won. The only American theater even remotely like the sheer savagry of the East was the pacific theater.

However, the mechanisms of firebombing did not originate as some sort of evil white man plot (tm). In fact, it occured in Europe first by accident. It was predicted before the war, and the idea that "the bombers would always get through" and destroy cities was burned into the imaginations and strategies of all of the worlds powers before World War II. Japan counted on the vast distance between San Fransisco and Tokyo to protect them from the horrors that they had unleashed on China, the Philippians and countless other peoples in the Southeastern Pacific. They were wrong.

The US in Japan, just like the Japanese in Asia, and the Europeans had moved to strategic bombing to attempt to remove the will to fight from the population, so a invasion would not be necessary, or at least, as easy as possible.

The author assumes that Japanese saw the sheer causalities coming out of the pacific, and concluded that they were defeated The opposite was actually true. The high casualties (and more notably, the high casualties imposed on the Allies) where encouraging the military. As Hattori Takushiro - The Complete History of the Greater East Asia War noted:

"The Okninawa operation achieved it's objective, which was more important then the aforementioned figures of war results. This strenuous fighting provided us with valuable time to complete the general preparation for the homeland decisive operation and to delay the enemy's attack. Moreover, the brave resistance of soldiers an civilians struck the enemy with horror, and made him cautious about attacking the homeland."

At this time - the Minister of War in Japan recorded this:

“[Diplomacy will have a better chance] after the United States has sustained heavy losses. We cannot pretend to claim that victory is certain, but it is far too early to say that the war is lost. That we will inflict severe losses on the enemy when he invades Japan is certain, and it is by no means impossible that we may be able to reverse the situation in our favor, pulling victory out of defeat”. (General Anami Korechita).

Interestingly enough the thing that could convince them otherwise was what the author is attacking - wholesale destruction of Japan’s ability to make war. This was because Japan had attempted de-centralized their economy to protect it - putting workshops into backyards. This effort was never (as the author claimed) canceled. Japan never had the industrial power to pull off this migration in the first place.

The Author also makes a huge mistake in buying the myth that Japan was destroyed prior to the firebombing of Tokyo, and in fact, prior to the the atomic bombings. Japan had it’s fleet wiped out at the Battle of Leyte Gulf, and moved completely to Kamikaze attacks. These Kamikaze attacks severely damaged more then 400 ships, and killed around 5000 sailors. Where it not for the absolutely insane logistics structure the Americans and built, and the floating pearl harbor in Ulithi Atoll, the American fleet would have had to retreat. (Same source -Hell to pay by D.M Giangreco). The Japanese had also used this time to pull the Kwangtung army out of China, and into position to defend (correctly) anticipated attacks and Kyushu. As a side note - if that invasion had occurred it would have been a disaster for the US. The US badly underestimated the troops there, the beaches where known, and the Japanese had ten times the fuel, and twice the fighters anticipated. They had the US figured out.

The Japanese estimated that the two invasions would cost 20 million Japanese lives, and that Americans estimated could cost 10 million Japanese casualties (how many deaths versus injuries where unclear). 20 million is the Japanese number.

American estimates from Intelligence, Army and Navy, as well as independent analysis by former president Hoover pegged the American deaths greater then 1mm.

The firebombing of Tokyo and the nuclear bombs must be viewed in this light.

On the diplomacy side, the author again simply ignores facts. Wikipedia has a decent overview of what really occurred with the Japanese overtures:

Satō advised Tōgō that in reality, "unconditional surrender or terms closely equivalent thereto" was all that Japan could expect. Moreover, in response to Molotov's requests for specific proposals, Satō suggested that Tōgō's messages were not "clear about the views of the Government and the Military with regard to the termination of the war," thus questioning whether Tōgō's initiative was supported by the key elements of Japan's power structure.[47]

On July 17, Tōgō responded:

Although the directing powers, and the government as well, are convinced that our war strength still can deliver considerable blows to the enemy, we are unable to feel absolutely secure peace of mind ... Please bear particularly in mind, however, that we are not seeking the Russians' mediation for anything like an unconditional surrender.[48]

In reply, Satō clarified:

It goes without saying that in my earlier message calling for unconditional surrender or closely equivalent terms, I made an exception of the question of preserving [the imperial family].[49]

On July 21, speaking in the name of the cabinet, Tōgō repeated:

With regard to unconditional surrender we are unable to consent to it under any circumstances whatever.

As the author notes - the Allies read this in real-time. Also Tōgō was in fact in the peace party at this point. Even after this firebombing, other Japanese cities being destroyed, the imminent arrival of the Soviets into the War, and the atomic bombings, the peace party and the militarists still deadlocked. It took the emperor finally speaking up to end the war, and even that was almost derailed by a coup attempt. Japan was not ready to accept any sort of unconditional surrender.

More the point, America and Europe had just finished a brutal war in Europe. The point of view then was that the war occurred because Germany had no truly been defeated in World War I. All where concerned with not seeing another world war. Marshall talked about this at length after the war.

The assertion that the United States wanted Soviets out of the war is easily disproven. The Soviets in fact where out of the war at this point. The US was pleading with the Soviets to get involved. There were hawks that were concerned (rightfully, as it turns out) that the Soviets would try to grab as much of Asia as they could, similar to what they would do to Asia, but anyone who thinks that the US wasn’t focused on Japan, is being just as racist by dismissing what the Japanese actually where at this point in history.

Finally, the point that the author pours scorn on - that the Japanese were so poor they were now building planes out of wood - ignores that the Japanese had actually stumbled onto a amazing surprise. Wood planes where invisible to radar. That made them perfect for attacking the US fleet, where Radar had made common attacks impossible.

If people really want to understand this - take a look at Dan Carlins’ “Logical Insanity” podcast. Trying to judge this time, by present standard - to say nothing about left-wing trolls - is nonsensical.