I know American forces committed atrocities against civilian populations in the Pacific. Yet they never did anything on the scale of the rape of Nanking. But then I read about American attitudes towards the Japanese at the time, which some have called borderline genocidal. And then I hear of the sheer horror of the fighting. From what I understand the Rape of Nanking and various other atrocities happens because the Japanese forces had fought a grueling campaign against the Chinese, who they held to be racial inferiors, and took their frustration out on the civilian population. That seems similar to the circumstances the US Army encountered on Okinawa, the prior battles had been brutal but the Americans hadn’t encountered a large population of Japanese civilians. So what was it that made the Americans react in a relatively humane way?
Hey there,
Just to let you know, your question is fine, and we're letting it stand. However, you should be aware that questions framed as 'Why didn't X do Y' relatively often don't get an answer that meets our standards (in our experience as moderators). There are a few reasons for this. Firstly, it often can be difficult to prove the counterfactual: historians know much more about what happened than what might have happened. Secondly, 'why didn't X do Y' questions are sometimes phrased in an ahistorical way. It's worth remembering that people in the past couldn't see into the future, and they generally didn't have all the information we now have about their situations; things that look obvious now didn't necessarily look that way at the time.
If you end up not getting a response after a day or two, consider asking a new question focusing instead on why what happened did happen (rather than why what didn't happen didn't happen) - this kind of question is more likely to get a response in our experience. Hope this helps!