Like Hitler, the Japanese did not know when to quit.
They didn’t know how to quit.
Surrender was not part of their culture.
Quite true. The Japs went to war, imbued in the culture of Bushido. The Way of the Warrior. Japan was a warrior type society, there had been interniibable wars in Japan for centuries, and the Code of Bushido went back 2,000 years.
It was anathema to a Japanese warrior, a Samurai, to surrender. They far preferred suicide to surrender and they thought that surrender in war was the way of the coward. Quite different from the German or English view of warfare, in which, one could surrender and hope to be honorably treated by the enemy.
This is why the Japs were so harsh and cruel to American captives.
