Why did the United States military conduct a devastating firebombing campaign against Tokyo in March 1945 and in August drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Were these acts morally justified or war crimes? Eminent military historian Richard Overy, whose books include Why the Allies Won and Blood and Ruins, explores those questions and many others in precise and insightful detail in Rain of Ruin: Tokyo, Hiroshima, and the Surrender of Japan. Covering diplomatic and cultural factors as well as military decisions, Overly uses the latest scholarship to better understand the historical, political and philosophical aspects of events.
Subjects range from the enormous scientific effort to make the bomb to the intense power struggles within the Japanese government. Rain of Ruin tracks the well-known lead-up to these acts of war, naming President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s decisions as fundamental to its final stages. The first decisions concerned the atomic bomb: Roosevelt approved a research program to study the possibility of such a weapon in December 1941, and approved the creation of one in June 1942. In January 1943, he announced that the Axis powers must surrender unconditionally. According to this chain of events, the decision to drop the atomic bombs was “to force Japanese surrender, end the war quickly, and save American lives.” While this is widely accepted, Overly shows that “the historical reality was far more complex.”
The author’s scholarship reveals the cultural differences at play between the Allies and Japanese. At that time, Japanese culture was based on worship of the emperor, who was regarded as the father of his people and a living god. All military personnel, for example, had an obligation to die to defend the emperor. Yet death was not the end in that culture. Instead, the dead became “warrior gods” enshrined in Tokyo. While the emperor was the supreme sovereign, most decisions were made by the cabinet and the military leadership.
When Japan didn’t give up right away after the bombings, it was thought by the Allies that the Japanese people were fanatics who would rather die than surrender. The truth was that there were many divisions in the country: The military argued over strategy and Army factions over the economy, and conflict brewed between the elite who sought peace and the military leadership that wanted to continue the war.
There is no record of any one person who gave an order to drop an atomic bomb. After the successful test and the approval of a special committee working on the project, President Truman did not issue a directive but just signed off on a decision made by a group of other war leaders, “a rubber stamp,” as Overly writes.
At just over 200 pages, this authoritative, provocative book masterfully traces the history of the actions of both the Allies and the Japanese that led to the end of the Second World War. Very well written and insightful, it draws from many sources, especially including current scholarship. Rain of Ruin is an excellent introduction to its subject.
