140 Days to Hiroshima: The Story of Japan's Last Chance to Avert Armageddon

by David Dean Barrett

Overview

On the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki comes this heart-pounding account of the war-room drama inside the cabinets of the United States and Japan that led to Armageddon on August 6, 1945.





Here are the secret strategy sessions, fierce debates, looming assassinations, and planned invasions that resulted in history’s first use of nuclear weapons in combat, and the ensuing chaotic days as the Japanese government struggled to respond to the reality of nuclear war.





During the closing months of World War II, as America’s strategic bombing campaign incinerated Japan’s cities, two military giants locked in a death embrace of cultural differences and diplomatic intransigence. The leaders of the United States called for the “unconditional surrender” of the Japanese Empire while developing history’s deadliest weapon and weighing an invasion, Downfall, that would have dwarfed D-Day. Their enemy responded with a last-ditch plan termed Ketsu-Go, which called for the suicidal resistance of every able-bodied man and woman in “The Decisive Battle” for the homeland.



But had Emperor Hirohito’s generals miscalculated how far the Americans had come in developing the atomic bomb? How close did President Harry Truman come to ordering the invasion of Japan?





Within the Japanese Supreme Council at the Direction of War, a.k.a. “The Big Six,” Foreign Minister Shigenori Tōgō risked assassination in his crusade to convince his dysfunctional government, dominated by militarist fanatics, to save his country from annihilation.





Despite Allied warnings of Japan’s “prompt and utter destruction” and that the Allies would “brook no delay,” the Big Six remained defiant. They refused to surrender even after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.





How did Japanese leaders come to this impasse? The answers lie in this nearly day-by-day account of the struggle to end the most destructive conflict in history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781635765816
Publisher:	Diversion Books
Publication date:	04/07/2020
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	9.10(w) x 6.20(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

David Dean Barrett is a military historian, specializing in World War II. He has published work in WWII Quarterly magazine, U.S. Military History Review, and Global War Studies. He is the history content consulting producer for Lou Reda Productions’ two-hour documentary on "Heroes of the Sky: The Real Mighty Eighth," which will air as a primetime global event on National Geographic in May of 2020. David has been a frequent guest speaker for more than a decade on the use of the atomic bomb in the final days of WWII and the end of the Pacific War. Mr. Barrett began his career as a professional historian late in life, after spending nearly thirty years in Information Technology. David was awarded his master's degree in history from the University of Colorado, Denver, in the summer of 2006. Six years later, in 2012, he officially entered his new profession, opening the doors of One with History, Inc. Mr. Barrett lives in Littleton, Colorado.

Table of Contents

Author's Note ix

Prologue xi

1 Tokyo Burn Job 1

2 A Third Prime Minister in Less Than a Year 12

3 A New President Gets Up to Speed 28

4 Planning for the Invasion of Japan 51

5 Ketsu-Go, "The Decisive Operation" 90

6 Potsdam Declaration, A Missed Opportunity 103

7 The Final Countdown Begins 129

8 Hiroshima 155

9 A Shift of Power, The First Imperial Intervention 174

10 The Second Imperial Intervention 210

11 A Failed Coup d'État and Surrender 248

Epilogue: Traditionalists and Revisionists 271

Map of Operation Downfall, The Proposed Invasion of Japan 291

Acknowledgments 293

Bibliography 297

Notes 309

Index 339

About the Author 353

Editorial Reviews

02/17/2020

Historian Barrett debuts with an impressively researched chronicle of the months leading up to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Alternating between Japanese and American perspectives, Barrett opens with the firebombing of Tokyo on Mar. 10, 1945, noting that the estimated death toll of 84,000 people was greater than that of “any aerial assault in any theater during World War II.” Despite the level of destruction, Japanese military and civilian leaders remained unconvinced the war was lost. Barrett credits this intransigence to the Japanese army’s allegiance to the concept of “death before dishonor,” and to America’s objective of forcing Japan’s unconditional surrender. As President Truman and U.S. military commanders estimated the cost of invading the Japanese mainland, Japanese officials issued directives for soldiers and civilians to carry out suicide attacks with “hand-carried mines and explosives.” Nine days after the Hiroshima bombing (and six days after Nagasaki), a cadre of Japanese officers launched a failed coup d’état to prevent the emperor from surrendering. In the book’s epilogue, Barrett weighs arguments against Truman’s decision to drop the bomb and finds them lacking. By capturing both sides of the conflict, Barrett generates drama despite the inevitability of the book’s conclusion. Military history buffs will be riveted. Agent: Leticia Gomez, Savvy Literary Services. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

02/14/2020

Several books have been written about the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II, but, here, military historian Barrett offers a unique glimpse at the political negotiations between the United States and Japan in the weeks leading up to and directly after the bombings. Focusing on the politicians themselves, as well as the generals who were leading the fight in both Japan and America, the text presents a nearly day-by-day look at the negotiations. The Japanese generals on the "committee of six" were determined to continue the war, even after the bombs were dropped. The American generals advocated an invasion of the Japanese homeland, while American politicians focused on the projected Allied causalities and attempted to find a way to avoid invading Japan. The text is straightforward, though abrupt shifts in points of view are occasionally confusing. VERDICT This look at the negotiations surrounding the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is appropriate for any beginning World War II scholar.—Danielle Williams, Univ. of Evansville

Library Journal

2020-01-26
A detailed, almost day-by-day account of political debates that preceded Japan’s surrender in World War II.

In his first book, Colorado-based military historian Barrett emphasizes that by 1943, once it became clear that matters were going badly, Japanese leaders never doubted that they could salvage matters by convincing the United States that every Japanese would fight to the death. They believed the U.S. lacked the fortitude for this crushing task and would seek a compromise peace. As the war journal of Imperial Headquarters wrote in July 1944, “the only course left is for Japan’s…people to sacrifice their lives by charging the enemy to make them lose their will to fight.” By that time, American military leaders also suspected that to win, American forces would be forced to kill every single enemy. The result was massive firebombing of cities and use of the atomic bomb. Barrett reminds readers that at first, the atomic bomb played no part in America’s strategy because no one knew if it would work. Planners envisioned a massive invasion of the home islands for November 1945. Everything changed after the bomb’s successful test on July 16. Several important American figures objected to such a terrible weapon, but they did not make a big fuss, and Barrett expresses little sympathy. According to the author, there was never doubt that we would use it. The Aug. 6 bombing of Hiroshima shocked Japan’s leaders, strengthened “peace” advocates, and persuaded the emperor that the war might be lost, but military chiefs exercised their veto, convinced that America would invade and suffer a crushing defeat. The Soviet Union’s declaration of war on Aug. 8 did not tip the balance, but the Nagasaki bomb on Aug. 9 was another matter. Military leaders realized that the invasion they yearned for might not happen and that the U.S. might simply continue to drop atom bombs. As a result, when the emperor announced that he favored surrender, they went along.

A nonrevisionist, reflective, opinionated, intensely researched WWII history.

Kirkus Reviews

Barrett drops you right into the situation rooms with the most powerful figures in the world during the most critical days of the 20th century—the climax of World War II. Innovatively structured, highly detailed, and well-documented, this book will draw you in from page one.”


—A.J. Baime, New York Times bestselling author of The Accidental President: Harry S. Truman and the Four Months that Changed the World





“140 Days to Hiroshima is a deeply researched and carefully nuanced narrative, especially powerful on US and Japanese decision-making throughout 1945, culminating in Japan’s surrender. David Dean Barrett shrewdly integrates essential military realities with the potent domestic cross currents affecting leaders on both sides of the Pacific.”


—Richard B. Frank, author of Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire





“A detailed, almost day-by-day account of political debates that preceded Japan’s surrender in World War II. . . . A nonrevisionist, reflective, opinionated, intensely researched WWII history.”


—Kirkus Reviews





"Historian Barrett debuts with an impressively researched chronicle of the months leading up to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.... By capturing both sides of the conflict, Barrett generates drama despite the inevitability of the book’s conclusion. Military history buffs will be riveted."


—Publishers Weekly





“Reading like a Tom Clancy thriller, David Dean Barrett’s 140 Days to Hiroshima is a gripping, day-by-day account of the run-up to, and the aftermath of, one of the most cataclysmic and world-changing events of all time—the atomic bombing of two Japanese cities. Here’s the inside story of why the Japanese high command was so determined to plunge ahead toward defeat in a war they could not possibly win.”


—Flint Whitlock, editor of WWII Quarterly magazine and co-author of The Depths of Courage: American Submariners at War with Japan





“David Dean Barrett’s detailing of the ruling militarists’ iron grip on Japanese decision-making—even after two atomic bombs and the Soviet entry into the Pacific War—should finally put to rest any notion that the Japanese were trying to surrender. As 140 Days to Hiroshima clearly shows, it was the bomb that influenced the Emperor to make his historic interventions forcing his government to finally surrender. Yet even then, Japan’s military almost derailed Hirohito’s decree to end the war.”


—D. M. Giangreco, author of Hell to Pay: Operation Downfall and the Invasion of Japan, 1945-1947





“140 Days to Hiroshima utterly destroys the revisionist fictions that Japan would have surrendered months earlier if only they had been notified that they could retain their emperor, and that Truman dropped the bombs to awe the Soviets rather than to defeat an already-defeated Japan. It is an important book and a gripping read.”


—Robert James Maddox, author of Weapons for Victory: The Hiroshima Decision, and editor of Hiroshima in History





“David Dean Barrett’s 140 Days to Hiroshima offers a comprehensive and definitive account of the events and decision making that culminated in the American use of atomic weapons against Japan in August 1945. Barrett’s meticulous and balanced review of the evidence makes it clear that the circumstances at the time justify Truman’s decision to use atomic weapons.”


—Michael Kort, professor of social science at Boston University and author of The Columbia Guide to Hiroshima and the Bomb





“The interplay between the leaders of Japan and America during the conclusion of the Pacific War—when some leaders in Japan did their best to lead their country to surrender—is a narrative of human drama that still challenges minds around the world. David Dean Barrett’s work is an important contribution to an in-depth understanding.”


—Kazuhiko Tōgō, professor at Kyoto Sangyo University; former Ambassador of Japan to the Netherlands; grandson of former Japanese Foreign Minister Shigenori Tōgō

From the Publisher