9. Japanese Leaders’ Stubbornness Sets the Stage
Continuation of the war came at a cost. Every single day that the war dragged on was another day in which millions suffered, and which thousands more became casualties. In the meantime, the Japanese government, run by militarists hopped up on bushido and machismo, vowed to fight to the end. So America correctly saw Japan as a formidable foe that was inflicting significant harm every day, and that would continue to do so indefinitely if not stopped.
In a nutshell, Japan was a menace that needed putting down, and the sooner the better. However, a simple mistake in translation might have determined when and how the US went about putting Japan down, and led to the decision to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. As such, it might have been the most momentous translation mistake in history.
