By the logic of today’s incredibly compassionate, well-educated, thoroughly-informed and self-aware international overclass public, because there was some unknown number of innocent Germans and Japanese (at minimum, the children!), we shouldn’t have fought Germany and Japan to defeat and unconditional surrender. To stop the bloodshed, we should have fought to a truce, and left Hirohito and Hitler in power.

I need to dig around and see if anyone has written alternative history fiction on this scenario.

I can’t think of any scenario where a person of the contemporary “left” would will a military victory and surrender of any power willing to fight to the death. And the main obstacle to this would be belief such powers exist. Because, as I’ve said, this kind of mentality cannot comprehend radical evil, cannot comprehend that anything might exist that transcends its comprehension, therefore denies what transcends its comprehension, therefore denies the existence of radical evil, therefore becomes the banal servant of radical evil. They’re just keeping their heads down, doing their job, saving for retirement: la la la la.