The last mission
Subtitle: the secret story of World War II's final battle
By: Jim B. Smith and Malcolm McConnell.
Contributors: McConnell, Malcolm.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: Broadway Books
Published: 2002
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 346
Subjects: United States. Army Air Forces. Bombardment Wing (VH), 315th; World War, 1939-1945 -- Aerial operations, American; B-29 bomber; World War, 1939-1945 -- Japan -- Armistices; World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, American; World War, 1939-1945 -- Japan; Hiroshima-shi (Japan) -- History -- Bombardment, 1945; Japan -- Politics and government -- 1926-1945; Nagasaki-shi (Japan) -- History -- Bombardment, 1945
Genres: Personal narratives, American.
Description: "How close did the Japanese come to not surrendering to Allied forces on August 15, 1945? The Last Mission explores this question through two previously neglected strands of late-World War II history. On the final night of the war, as Emperor Hirohito recorded a message of surrender for the Japanese people, a band of Japanese rebels, commanded by War Minister Anami's elite staff, burst into the Imperial Palace.

They had plotted a massive coup that aimed to destroy the recording of the Imperial Rescript of surrender and issue orders, forged with the Emperor's seal, commanding the widely dispersed Japanese military to continue the war.

If this rebellion had succeeded, the military would have proceeded with large-scale kamikaze attacks on Allied forces, inflicting many casualties and possibly provoking the Americans to drop a third atomic bomb on Japan - and continue to drop more bombs as Japanese resistance stiffened.".

"Meanwhile, in the midst of an "end-of-war" celebration on Guam, B-29B crewmen, including radio operator Jim Smith, received urgent orders to begin a bombing mission over Japan's sole remaining oil refinery north of Tokyo. As a stream of American B-29B bombers approached Tokyo, Japanese air defenses, fearing that the approaching planes signaled the threat of a third atomic bomb, ordered a total blackout in Tokyo and the Imperial Palace, completely disrupting the rebel's plans.

Smith and his crew completed the mission, and a few hours later the Emperor announced the surrender over Japan's airwaves, dictating the end of the war. Did this final bombing mission of World War II literally, if inadvertently, prevent months of accelerating carnage on both sides?"--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [326]-332) and index.
Expanded and rev. version of Jim B. Smith's 1st person account: The last mission. 1995.
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note: PART I: TOTAL WAR; title: CHAPTER ONE: The Superforts 3; title: CHAPTER TWO: Kokutai and Ketsu-go 34; title: CHAPTER THREE: Potsdam and Trinity 57; title: CHAPTER FOUR: The Boomerang and Enola Gay 80; title: PART II: ENDGAME; title: CHAPTER FIVE: "A Rain of Ruin" 97; title: CHAPTER SIX: Rumors of Peace 129; title: CHAPTER SEVEN: Decision and Indecision 165; title: PART III: "TO OUR GOOD AND LOYAL SUBJECTS ."; title: CHAPTER EIGHT: Rebellion 191; title: CHAPTER NINE: Blackout 227; title: CHAPTER TEN: The Last Mission 245; title: PART IV: A VERY NEAR THING; title: CHAPTER ELEVEN: The Might-Have-Beens 277; title: Chronology of Major Wartime Events in the Pacific: 1945 299.