The Allies attacked civilian and military targets in Japan c. to force the Japanese government to negotiate for peace. Before the atomic bombs were developed, American leaders feared the war would result in a mainland invasion of Japan, which they believed would result in astounding losses on both sides due to the fanaticism held by the Japanese population. Instead, the US maintained consistent firebombing efforts to both cripple the Japanese military as well as to demoralize the population. In the end, the dropping of the atomic bombs was not so much an attempt to scare the population to call for peace (since, unlike the US, Japan was not a democracy), but instead the goal was to show the Japanese military just how swiftly and completely the US could decimate entire cities.
