The Battle of Leyte Gulf was a huge blow to the Japanese naval forces. As the Americans pushed forward toward the mainland, they were faced with desperate kamikaze attacks at Okinawa in a last ditch effort from the Japanese to win back ground. Japanese kamikaze pilots were chosen at random, and over 100,000 men were sacrificed for in the bloody battle for Okinawa. Japanese were ordered to fight to the death, with no end in sight for the Americans, the decision to drop the atomic bomb was made to avoid losing any more American lives. And with that, the war was over.