[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In the spring and summer of 1945, the war in the Pacific against the Empire of Japan reached a crescendo. The rationale for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, that in a year or two Japan could solidify its aggression in East Asia and reach a negotiated settlement with the United States, had proven to be a fatal mistake. The United States and its allies, insisting on unconditional surrender, had pushed Japanese forces back across the Pacific and by the spring of 1945 the air and sea blockade was strangling the Japanese island homeland. The B-29 strategic bombing offensive had brought the war home to Japan, smashing her cities, resulting in millions of evacuees, and imploding morale and war production.
