Barbaric in its results? Yes. An understandable decision at the time? Yes. Something to avoid in the future? Absolutely. I won't rehash what I've said elsewhere except to say again when it appeared that surrender was imminent, Japanese Army officers actually tried to overthrow the government in order to keep the war going.

People unfamiliar with the code of bushido, the recognition of the emperor as an infallible god, and the belief that mass death is preferable to national humilition cannot understand the cultural frame of mind that dominated Japan 60 years ago, no matter what reservations individual Japanese may have had.

War is indeed Hell, and in ways that most people do not even imagine. One hellish aspect is that, when the stakes are high enough, nations will use whatever means they have to win. That includes atom bombs, the disproportionate answer to kamikazes, nerve gas and germ warfare (both of which the Japanese had used in China and would have used again). At war in Hell, you fight fire with fire.