Rain of Ruin: Tokyo, Hiroshima, and the Surrender of Japan
The firebombing of Tokyo killed more people than Hiroshima, and Overy treats both as one campaign.
Richard Overy examines the American bombing of Japan across 1944 and 1945, conventional and atomic together, and asks what actually produced the surrender. Short and densely argued, it puts the incendiary raids back at the centre of a story usually told through two bombs, and is careful about the evidence on Japanese decision-making.
Recommended by 1 Person
Tyler Cowen
Richard Overy, Rain of Ruin: Tokyo, Hiroshima, and the Surrender of Japan is a short but very good and substantive look at the non-nuclear and also nuclear bombing campaigns.
Source · February 2025
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