The US didn't Nuke Iwo Jima....... It was hiroshima, and bare in mind alot of people were severly burnt from the radiation exposure from even looking at the blast.
I just wanted to show context of the decision: normal routine of invasion which meant similar collateral losses on every island and every town (bearing in mind kamikaze squadrons, Okinawa's suicidal deaths) till Tokio plus daily bombardings of main cities or 2 severe strikes.
But essentially these people that died signed their life to their nations 'cause'. I know there were certain conscriptions etc but they fought, [especially those as Kamikaze pilots] willing to die.
Innocent children, civilians on an island, need not get bombed just so the enemy 'surrender' when they could have just sent all their troops home and let Japan do what it wanted, cos they had nothing left to fight with anyway.
my grandfather who was a precision mechanic used to draw strings across the ground when he was spreading earth for a new lawn or for trmming the hedges