Ted's Reviews > Hiroshima Nagasaki: The Real Story of the Atomic Bombings and Their Aftermath

When all is said and done this is just another long piece of revisionist history. While it is fair to say that there will be those who will always question the justification for the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Ham makes some ludicrous claims to support his contention that the use of these weapons did nothing to contribute to Japan's surrender. Ham states that by early 1945 Japan was a defeated nation, that it had lost the air war, the sea war, that Japanese ground forces throughout the Pacific were defeated, that the American naval blockade had choked Japan's capacity to make war, that Japan was defeated economically. All of this is undeniably true, and yet Japan refused to surrender. Ham gives a long and detailed account of Lemay's "terror" bombings of Japanese cities, describing the death and destruction and displacement of millions of Japanese and yet agrees that these "terror" bombings had failed to force Japan to surrender. By April 1945 the Japanese Suzuki government embraced a war policy called Ketsugo whereby the home islands would be defended to the last man, woman, and child. While repeatedly stressing the misery visited on the civilian population, Mr. Ham does not assess Japan's lingering military capabilities. Richard Frank ("Downfall") and D.M. Giangreco ("Hell to Pay) have demonstrated that these capabilities were formidable. Ham claims that the fears of 500,000 to one million casualties were not made until after the war, and were made simply to justify the atomic bombings. This is utter nonsense. Based on the massive American casualties incurred in the capture of Okinawa, American military leaders expected severe casualties with the invasion of Japan's home islands. Staff working for Adm Nimitz calculated that the first 30 days of Olympic alone would cost 49,000 men. MacArthur's staff concluded that America would suffer 125,000 casualties after 120 days. Admiral Leahy estimated that the invasion would cost 268,000 casualties. Personnel at the Navy Department estimated that the total losses to America would be between 1.7 and 4 million with 400,000 to 800,000 deaths. The same department estimated that there would be up to 10 million Japanese casualties. Few would argue that the combined shock of events - the dropping of atomic bombs and the entry of the Soviet Union (in Ham's mind, far more important than the bombs) into the war against Japan forced Japan to surrender. To say that this book is the "real" story of the atomic bombings is a stretch - a big one at that.