EMPIRE OF ASHES

The third and final book in a chronicle of the U.S. air war against Japan.

Scott’s first volume in the series, Target Tokyo (2016), was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. His superb new book covers the final four months of the war, beginning with Franklin D. Roosevelt’s death and ending with Japan’s surrender—with a lot of military strategy, technological advances, and human tragedy in between. When FDR died on April 12, 1945, Harry Truman had been vice president for only 82 days. He knew nothing about the atomic bomb project and had no experience with foreign relations. Roosevelt’s death left Truman, in Scott’s words, as “an unlikely leader whom the nation depended on to win the war and secure the peace.” His counterpart in Japan, Emperor Hirohito, was a figurehead in fear of the military officers who held a tight grip on national politics. He was, Scott writes, “adored by the Japanese people who viewed him as a deity.” The sticking point in surrender negotiations as the war turned in America’s favor was the U.S. demand for Japan’s unconditional surrender. As the author astutely notes, in Truman’s July 26, 1945, ultimatum to Japan—the last step before dropping the atomic bomb—the president slightly changed the language in the demand, calling for the unconditional surrender “of all the Japanese forces.” Scott skillfully details Hirohito’s reaction to the change, seeing that Japan had no way to win, but his plan to surrender was overruled by military leaders. After the two bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Hirohito faced the need to “bear the unbearable,” but military leaders still resisted, sparking an attempted coup and the assassination of the leader of the Imperial Guard. The military shut down NHK, the Japanese broadcast network, so that Hirohito’s recorded surrender message could not be broadcast. The failed coup culminated in the ritual suicide of two of the plotters, followed by the August 14 broadcast announcement of Japan’s surrender, ending a brutal and expensive war.

A well-documented, fact-filled, and fast-paced account of momentous events in world history.