A review by shevek
Hiroshima Nagasaki: The Real Story of the Atomic Bombings and Their Aftermath by Paul Ham

4.0

This book is important and frustrating for the same reason—it's an excellent high-level summary of the work of many other historians that synthesizes many important narratives surrounding the American decision to drop the atomic bomb on the citizens of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This hopefully means that many more people will be able to judge this decision on a factual basis rather than parroting that old line about how it "saved a million lives" due to averting a land invasion of Honshu (which, as Ham covers in great detail, was a possibility Truman had nixed before the bomb was even considered). It also means that Ham necessarily glosses over lots of detail, and occasionally gives a rather shallow picture of events. He is a bit uncritical in his acceptance of some aspects of the traditional narrative—for instance, in spite of the fact that he lists Bix as a citation, he regurgitates the Hirohito-as-figurehead version of events, and places much faith in the by-now-debunked opinions of the "old Japan hands" from the State department—but the book more than makes up for this with its portraits of the people whose lives were destroyed by these cruel weapons. This book is a powerful read, and I would certainly recommend it, though I would also say that Richard Rhodes's The Making of the Atomic Bomb is still the indispensable account of these events (and one on which Ham draws rather heavily in some chapters).