Prompt and utter destruction : Truman and the use of atomic bombs against Japan / J. Samuel Walker. [electronic resource]

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Walker, J. Samuel.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Truman, Harry S., 1884-1972.

Truman, Harry S.

World War, 1939-1945--United States.

World War, 1939-1945.

World War, 1939-1945--Japan.

Atomic bomb.

United States--Foreign relations--1945-1953.

United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiii, 142 p. ) ill. ;

Place of Publication:

Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, c1997.

Summary:

More than fifty years later, the decision that brought prompt and utter destruction to the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki continues to generate enormous interest and controversy. In this concise and balanced account, J. Samuel Walker offers a new look at the events and circumstances that lay behind President Truman's use of atomic bombs against Japan.

Combining extensive documentary research with a critical reading of both American and Japanese scholarship, Walker examines the popular mythology about how the decision was made, delineating what was known and not known by American leaders at the time and evaluating the role of U.S.-Soviet relations and American domestic politics.

Rising above an often polemical debate, he presents an accessible synthesis of previous work and an important, original contribution to our understanding of the events that ushered in the atomic age.

Contents:

A categorical choice?

The most terrible weapon ever known

The prospects for victory, June 1945

Paths to victory

Truman and the bomb at Potsdam

Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Hiroshima in history

Chronology: key events of 1945 relating to the Pacific war.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (p. 113-130) and index.

ISBN:

0-8078-6618-0