I have one simple view of war: War is about obliterating the enemy or forcing an unconditional surrender. Nothing less is war. If you don’t like war, then don’t wage war.
Japan was attacking everything within its reach at the time. We were just another target destined to be attacked since there was no way we would have given in to their demands at the time or perhaps the demands they had been making in the region sometime in our future.
That's one perspective.
Clausewitz disagree. He thought war was politics by other means. If so, then utterly destroying an enemy is certainly not always the best strategy.