12. Every Day That WWII Dragged On Was Another Day in Which Thousands Were Killed and Millions Suffered
In the summer of 1945, Japan also had millions of soldiers stationed in her overseas empire in Asia and the Pacific, who were pitted against millions of Allied opponents. As a result, thousands of casualties were inflicted and suffered by both sides each day. Every single day that passed while the Japanese home islands were blockaded in the hope that doing so would bring Japan’s leaders to their senses, was another day in which thousands of Allied and Japanese soldiers were killed and wounded.
In addition, the Japanese held hundreds of thousands of Allied POWs in the summer of 1945. Japan, which had signed but not ratified the 1929 Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War, did not treat POWs in accordance with international agreements. Instead, POWs were subjected to barbaric treatment every single day, and were routinely beaten, starved, denied medical care and treatment, or casually murdered. Casualties from continued fighting and from Japan’s atrocious treatment of POWs would have continued to mount every single day that the war continued, while the Allies waited for Japan’s surrender.
