Technical. Definitely not like any history of the last days of the Japanese Empire I have read before. The history of the B-29 was interesting along with the profile of General LeMay and his development of the incendiary raids.

Anyone harboring thoughts that the U.S. should apologize for the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki needs to read this book that takes us through the final 6+ months of the Pacific theater of WWII. Through recently released documents, we see the exact thoughts behind the Japanese decisions to continue fighting the war. Their troops were brutal, savage, vicious and were led by bloodthirsty Japanese warlords who remained convinced that they could win, or at the very least, avoid unconditional surrender despite the fact that they were offered surrender terms better than those given Germany,

Great research, very thorough. Must-read!

Bit of a slog at times, but you can't say it isn't thorough.

A good work of history regarding the end of the Pacific theater of World War II in 1945. The author makes a well-researched, compelling case that the dropping of the atomic bombs was the least bad of all the options, and saved more lives than were snuffed out by the blasts in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. No, he does not celebrate the dropping of the bombs, just points out that the alternatives, blockade and conventional bombing and land invasion, would have cost more lives, most notably Japanese lives. The only negative of the book is that is goes into a little too much detail on military matters such as discussions of which army divisions were located where, but the author has put a lot of this material in the footnotes, so it could have been even drier in that regard.

eevn the most interesting historical story can suffer from excess detail

A well-argued explanation of the end of the Pacific War, I was impressed by the amount of detailed data he provided. It is dense and rewarding. One comes away either convinced about what alternative endings to the war were feasible or stubbornly entrenched to the contrary.

I bought this book more than five years ago and finally got around to reading it. It is a detailed account of the last six months of the war between Japan and the U.S.A., starting with the firebombing of Tokyo on the 9th and 10th of March, 1945. The focus is on the conventional bombing by B-29s, the American invasion plans, and the ultimate Japanese decision to surrender. Frank makes a powerful argument that the Japanese government was not anywhere near to accepting unconditional surrender prior to the dropping of the two atomic bombs, and indeed there was never consensus on the issue even after the Emperor's intervention. To me the most interesting part of the book was reading about the code-breaking by Ultra and Magic, which gave the Americans a daily and voluminous stream of Japanese military and diplomatic plans. The building-up of Japanese forces in Kyushu to confront the expected invasion plans by the Americans is particularly fascinating, as they were able to prepare to a much greater extent than had been expected. This is a must-read for those interested in the end of the War in the Pacific.

Downfall by Richard B. Frank is considered the definitive book on the end of the Pacific War with Japan in World War II. It was one of the sources I used for a history paper I recently wrote for a correspondence course I was taking in Modern American History. It is extensively researched and uses original and secondary sources including recently declassified Japanese governmental documents and sources. He does an excellent job refuting the claims of "Hiroshima revisionists" who argued that the Japanese were willing to give up, that causalities of an invasion wouldn't be as high as some (like Stimson) suggested, and that Nagasaki was not necessary. He shows how all of thee conclusions are inaccurate and gives lots of other factual information about how and why the Japanese waited so long even though their loss was inevitable. Even after the two bombs were dropped some militarists still wanted to force the U.S. to invade so that they could inflict high causalities and use this as leverage to broker a better peace deal they were afraid of losing the imperial government and wanted to save themselves from punishment. Hirohito had to declare surrender since the war council could not or would not give in to surrender. It took two bombs and the declaration of war by the Russians to finally drive Hirohito to do it. It is an extremely informative and important book to remind people of the horrors of the Pacific War: the bloody battles at Saipan, Iwo Jima, Okinawa with harsh tropical conditions, the poor treatment of prisoners of the Japanese, the harsh treatment given to the locals by the occupying Japanese forces, the cruel human experiments carried out by Unit 731, banzai charges and kamikaze attacks-these need to be considered when judging whether the Japanese deserved to be bombed or not. They were given a chance to surrender after the Potsdam Declaration but stubbornly refused to accept.

Not an easy read, but other than that, ti's an excellent, in-depth overview of the last few months of WW2.

this is a sympathy four-stars... Frank doesn't actually deserve incredibly good reviews for his writing ability, but what he did is uncover old US military archives and old Imperial Japanese documents to show just how bloody the Battle of Kyushu would have been had it been fought-- lots of underestimation on the US war planners for how many troops

so although there is no amazing literary performance on Frank's part, the work does bring into public eye information that would have otherwise been locked up in dusty military libraries somewhere, and historians, of course, should be praised even if that is all they do.

An excellent, well-researched history.

Great information, very well researched! At times the listing of units, divisions and strengths could become hard to follow. Brought a understanding to both the political and military strategies facing leaders at the end of the war. Enjoyed the uses of multiple sources to present information on peoples personal views of situations. Often history will pull one specific sentence or statement made by an individual and conclude that it encompasses their complete and overall take or view on a situation. This book uses multiple sources, letters, diaries, communications and more to paint a better picture of individuals views.
Great book!