surrendered in May 1945. In the Pacific, Japan was in retreat. It had lost most of the lands it had conquered. The fighting became harder as the Americans came closer to Japan because many Japanese soldiers would rather die fighting than surrender. The Emperor they worshipped told them soldiers who died in battle would have a glorious afterlife. Japanese suicide pilots called “kamikazes” sank American ships by crashing their planes into them. It looked as though Japanese would have to be defeated