Title: Weapons for victory
First published: 1995
Description: On the morning of August 6, 1945, the American B-29 Enola Gay released an atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. On August 9 another bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. Fifty years have passed since these catastrophic events, and the bombings still remain highly controversial. The official justification for using these weapons was that they prevented enormous losses on both sides by avoiding an Allied invasion of Japan.

Many diplomatic historians, however, have asserted that the bombings were unnecessary. One extreme argument is that Truman knew the Japanese were ready to surrender but wanted to use the bombs to intimidate the Soviet Union. Robert Maddox examines all these claims in Weapons for Victory as he strives to dispel the many myths that have been accepted as fact.

. In addition to Maddox's valuable recasting of the circumstances leading to the bombings, he also confronts the proposed Smithsonian Enola Gay exhibit with careful historical analysis.
Subjects: Atomic bomb, Foreign relations, History, Military policy, Moral and ethical aspects, Moral and ethical aspects of Nuclear warfare, Nuclear warfare, Hiroshima-shi (japan), history, bombardment, 1945, Nagasaki-shi (japan), bombardment, 1945, United states, military policy, United states, foreign relations, soviet union, Soviet union, foreign relations, united states, Nuclear warfare, moral and ethical aspects, Terrorism, Religious aspects, Islam, Jihad, Anti-Americanism, Terrorisme, Aspect religieux, Jih*ad, Antiaméricanisme, Jihād, 89.58 political violence, Terrorismus, Antiamerikanismus, Djihad, Anti-Amerikanisme
Places: Hiroshima-shi (Japan), Nagasaki-shi (Japan), Soviet Union, United States
Time periods: Bombardment, 1945