Prompt and utter destruction
Subtitle: Truman and the use of atomic bombs against Japan
By: J. Samuel Walker.
Publisher: University of North Carolina Press
Published: 1997
Place of publication: Chapel Hill
Language: eng
Number of pages: 142
Subjects: Truman, Harry S., 1884-1972; World War, 1939-1945 -- United States; World War, 1939-1945 -- Japan; Atomic bomb; United States -- Foreign relations -- 1945-1953
Other titles: Prompt & utter destruction
Description: More than fifty years later, the decision that brought prompt and utter destruction to the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki continues to generate enormous interest and controversy. In this concise and balanced account, J. Samuel Walker offers a new look at the events and circumstances that lay behind President Truman's use of atomic bombs against Japan.

Combining extensive documentary research with a critical reading of both American and Japanese scholarship, Walker examines the popular mythology about how the decision was made, delineating what was known and not known by American leaders at the time and evaluating the role of U.S.-Soviet relations and American domestic politics.

Rising above an often polemical debate, he presents an accessible synthesis of previous work and an important, original contribution to our understanding of the events that ushered in the atomic age.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 113-130) and index.