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Title: Prompt and Utter Destruction: President Truman and the Use of Atomic Bombs Against Japan by J. Samuel Walker ISBN: 0-8078-4662-7 Publisher: University of North Carolina Press Pub. Date: 01 September, 1997 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.43 (7 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: very good overview
Comment: This book gives a good overview but just that - an overview. The events and circumstances surrounding the use of the A-bomb simply must be addressed in greater depth for one who wishes to become truly knowledgable on the subject. However, its brevity is also a strength in that for one just getting into the subject it serves as a fabulous introduction and for those already familiar with the subject, it sums things up into a nice recap. Contrary to some reviews of the book, the author does NOT ever say or even imply that the bomb should not have been dropped. Quite the opposite, he provides compelling reasons why the decision to use the bomb was sound and wise militarily, politically, diplomatically, and morally. Nor is this book any where near a "one-stop-shop" on the subject. So while not the final say, this book would be a good addition to a collection for the reasons mentioned above. The research is credible and the arguments are as a whole very sound. Highly recommended.
Rating: 4
Summary: Probably the final say on the subject
Comment: This book is an important contribution to the ongoing (and seemingly never-ending) debate on the reasons why the U.S. chose to drop two atomic bombs on Japan. The author took it upon himself to clearly determine whether the bomb was militarily necessary - as has been suggested by many U.S. historians writing before J. Samuel Walker - or whether it might have been used for purely political reasons such as intimidating the Soviet Union.
The results he comes up with are in many ways quite remarkable. For instance it becomes evident that then president Harry S. Truman was never confronted with the categorical choice between using the bomb and invading the Japanese main islands (which might have involved heavy U.S. losses). Indeed, by the beginning of summer 1945 Japan was believed to be so weak that the war was expected to come to an end before an invasion began, and even if it had been necessary to proceed with an invasion, the resulting casualties were supposed to be much fewer than Truman and his top-level advisers claimed after the war. However, Walker demonstrates rather convincingly that whichever alternatives might have existed, the bomb nevertheless proved to be the best means to win a decisive victory at the lowest cost in American casualties. Taking into account the element of time, one begins to understand how great the temptation must have been for Truman and his cabinet to drop the bombs and thereby finish the war with a clean stroke. Although other reasons, too, played an important part in the ultimate decision, the finding that using the bomb simply provided the president and his advisers with the most convenient measure to end the war is a compelling one and without doubt the book's most valuable message.
J. Samuel Walker has to be applauded for presenting the reader with this highly readable account of the line of reasoning behind the U.S. decision to use atomic bombs against Japan. The book is both concise and completely free of any emotion otherwise detrimental to a scholarly approach to this debate: a truly outstanding work - and probably the final say on the subject!
Rating: 4
Summary: The Myth of Decision
Comment: This is a jewel of a book on the end of World War II. There have been many myths about Truman's decision to drop the bomb-he even made a brief film explaining how he made the decision, but this clears the air. Truman never actually decided. Everyone involved simply assumed, and correctly so, that once it was completed, it would be used. The author points to many reasons why the atomic bomb should not have been dropped on Japan, most of them valid and discussed previously in historical circles. However, there is a very interesting tidbit about Stalin and some other surprises. It is well worth reading.
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Title: The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb by Gar Alperovitz, Peter Dimock, Sanho Tree ISBN: 067976285X Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 01 August, 1996 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: Hiroshima in America: A Half Century of Denial by Robert Jay Lifton, Greg Mitchell ISBN: 0380727641 Publisher: Quill Pub. Date: 01 August, 1996 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: Hiroshima : Why America Dropped the Atomic Bomb by Ronald Takaki ISBN: 0316831247 Publisher: Back Bay Books Pub. Date: 01 September, 1996 List Price(USD): $14.99 |
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Title: The Wizards of Armageddon (Stanford Nuclear Age Series) by Fred Kaplan ISBN: 0804718849 Publisher: Stanford University Press Pub. Date: 01 October, 1991 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: Three Mile Island: A Nuclear Crisis in Historical Perspective by J. Samuel Walker ISBN: 0520239407 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: 01 March, 2004 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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