In WW2, why did the Japanese suffer higher casualties than the Americans in many of the battles, when they had a defensive advantage?

by Plus1-Hotdog

I often hear about how the island hopping of WW2 had high casualties for the Americans, but why were they higher for the Japanese defenders? Shouldn't they have been higher for the Americans since they had to attack the islands?

the_howling_cow

Not to discourage further responses, but u/Illius_Willius answered a similar question here, u/AsiaExpert did so here, and a user who has since deleted their account did so here.