United States History - 20th Century - General & Miscellaneous, Japanese History, Strategy & Weapons of War, Physics, United States History - 20th Century - 1945 to 2000, Military Policy, U.S. Politics - General & Miscellaneous, Physics, World War II, U.S
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Overview
On the morning of August 6, 1945, the American B-29 Enola Gay released an atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. On August 9 another bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. Fifty years have passed since these catastrophic events, and the bombings still remain highly controversial. The official justification for using these weapons was that they prevented enormous losses on both sides by avoiding an Allied invasion of Japan. Many diplomatic historians, however, have asserted that the bombings were unnecessary. One extreme argument is that Truman knew the Japanese were ready to surrender but wanted to use the bombs to intimidate the Soviet Union. Robert Maddox examines all these claims in Weapons for Victory as he strives to dispel the many myths that have been accepted as fact. In addition to Maddox's valuable recasting of the circumstances leading to the bombings, he also confronts the proposed Smithsonian Enola Gay exhibit with careful historical analysis.Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
The controversy over the atomic bombing of Japan is heating up as the 50th anniversary approaches. In his well-considered study of the 1945 bombings, Maddox (The United States and World War II) exposes what he feels are distortions. The most outrageous, in his opinion: that President Truman, convinced by advisers that the bomb was not needed to force Japan's surrender, deliberately prolonged the war until he could deploy the new weapon against Japan-to cow the Soviets. Maddox concludes that the President ordered the bomb dropped for the very reasons he stated: to bring the war to an end as soon as possible and thus avoid the massive casualties of an invasion. Commenting on ``the fondness of many academics for tales of conspiracy in high places,'' the author credibly refutes several of the more prevalent theories about the bomb, demonstrating, for instance, that American officials were not aware of the effect radiation fallout would have on the inhabitants of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. (Sept.)Book Details
Published
September 1, 1995
Publisher
Columbia ; University of Missouri Press, 1995.
Pages
200
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780826210371