DNF @ 30%

Richard Overy's narrative of the US bombing campaign against Imperial Japan is the Cliff's Notes version of what would naturally be an exhaustive project. It dwells on the broader details and tries desperately to focus on the minutiae but fails in conveying either the human complexity or the historical weight of the action.

Rain of Ruin - Tokyo, Hiroshima and the Surrender of Japan is a re-examination by Richard Overy of the firebombing raids on Japan in the spring of 1945 and then the atomic bombings in the summer.

He states “The question asked is usually ‘was it necessary?’; the question, however, should really be ‘why was it thought to be necessary at the time?’ and asserts that the reason was ""to force Japanese surrender, end the war quickly, and save American lives".

He describes the Hiroshima bombing: "The bomb worked just as it was supposed to. It exploded 1,800 feet above ground, destroying all life within a radius of 1.5 kilometers from the hypocenter, burning those within 5 kilometers..."

I found it to be a well researched and written book of these grim episodes in the history of the Second World War.