Content area
Full text
The Invasion of Japan: Alternative to the Bomb. By John Ray Skates. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1994. Maps. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Pp. xii, 276. $27.95.
In one sense, World War II ended with both a bang and a whimper and historians have been arguing about it ever since. That is, the use of atomic bombs against Japan in August 1945 induced the Japanese Emperor to override his generals and put an end to the war, rather than fighting to the finish. In turn, since the war ended without a climactic last battle, many dispute whether Japan was truly finished in August 1945, and thus merely searching for the best surrender terms obtainable, or whether a battle for Japan would really have been the bloodbath which some predicted. Arguments on the subject range from the contention that Japan was defeated by the U.S. heavy bomber offensive to the view of those who explain defeat in terms of the submarine and mine blockade of the Home Islands; others maintain the key to have been the psychological power of the atomic weapon, while there is also a view that the atomic bomb was used for U.S. foreign policy purposes unrelated to Japanese surrender.
Given the arguments that have raged over these questions through the years, it is odd that until now, few have set out to perform explicit analysis of actual U.S. planning for capturing the Home Islands. John Ray Skates makes good this lack in his detailed account The Invasion of Japan, which approaches the subject systematically,...