I think it’s much harder to justify systemic rape and murder of civilians across months as being the “lesser” evil, but maybe that’s just me…

A large number of rapes were done systematically by the Japanese soldiers as they went from door to door, searching for girls, with many women being captured and gang-raped.[49] The women were often killed immediately after being raped, often through explicit mutilation,[50] such as by penetrating vaginas with bayonets, long sticks of bamboo, or other objects.

Your pleas to only target military and government targets would fall on much more sympathetic ears if the same country did not do this less than a decade prior.

Again. This seems so much crueler than getting nuked. The decision to take civilian lives are being repeatedly made, over the course of months, in the sickest way possible for the enjoyment of the soldiers.

At least 200k civilians killed, estimates of up to 80k women raped.

Can you honestly look me in the eye and tell me that the japanese people of that time believed only military and government should be targeted?