A controversial new analysis of the impact of the atomic bombings on
Japan and the world.
It has always been a difficult concept to stomach--that the atomic bombs
dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, causing such horrific
suffering and destruction, brought about peace.
Since the initial grateful acknowledgment of the success of the A-bomb
attacks in ending World War II, there has been a steady reversal of
opinion and sentiment: from a first hearty appreciation to widespread
condemnation of the United States for its actions.
Atomic Salvation investigates the full situation of the times to a
previously unplumbed depth. It examines documents from both Japanese and
Allied sources, but it uses in-depth analysis to extend beyond the mere
recounting of statistics. It charts the full extent of the possible
casualties on both sides had a conventional assault akin to D-Day gone
ahead against Japan. The work is not concerned solely with the military
necessity to use the bombs, it also investigates why that necessity has
been increasingly challenged over the successive decades.
Controversially, the book demonstrates that the Japanese nation would
have suffered far greater casualties--likely around 28 million--if the
nation had been attacked in the manner by which Germany was defeated: by
amphibious assault, artillery and air attacks preceding infantry
insertion, and finally by subduing the last of the defenders of the
enemy capital.
The book also investigates the enormous political pressure placed on
America as a result of their military situation. The USA's Truman
Administration had little choice but to use the new weapon given the
more than a million deaths that Allied forces would undoubtedly have
suffered through conventional assault.
Through investigation of reactions then and since, Atomic Salvation
charts reaction to the bombings. It looks briefly at a range of
reactions through the decades and shows that there has been relentless
pressure on the world to condemn what at the time was seen as the best,
and the only, military solution to end the war.
Never has such an exhaustive analysis been made of the necessity behind
bringing World War II to a halt.
