‘A true page-turner.’ All About History, ☆☆☆☆☆
‘Urgent, compulsively readable and powerfully resonant’ Sinclair McKay
Road to Surrender by New York Times bestselling author Evan Thomas is a riveting, immersive account of the agonizing decision to use nuclear weapons against Japan – a crucial turning point in World War II and geopolitical history.
At 9:20 a.m. on the morning of May 30, General Groves receives a message to report to the office of the secretary of war “at once.” Stimson is waiting for him. He wants to know: has Groves selected the targets yet?
This suspenseful, impeccably researched history draws on new access to diaries to tell the story of three men who were intimately involved with America’s decision to drop the atomic bomb—and Japan’s decision to surrender. They are Henry Stimson, the American Secretary of War; Gen. Carl “Tooey” Spaatz, head of strategic bombing in the Pacific; and Japanese Foreign Minister Shigenori Togo, who believed even before the bombs were dropped that Japan should surrender.
Henry Stimson had served in the administrations of five presidents and found himself tasked with determining whether to deploy the bomb. The new president, Harry S. Truman, accepted Stimson’s recommendation to drop the bomb. Army Air Force Commander Gen. Spaatz ordered the planes to take off, agonizing over the command even as he recognized it would end the war. After the bombs were dropped, Foreign Minister Togo was finally able to convince the emperor to surrender.
To bring these critical events to vivid life, Evan Thomas draws on the diaries of Stimson, Togo, and Spaatz, contemplating the immense weight of their historic decision. In Road to Surrender, Thomas lays out the behind-the-scenes thoughts, feelings, motivations, and decision-making of three people who changed history.
‘This dramatic, you-are-there masterpiece provides a convincing explanation of one of the great moral questions of 20th century history: was America right to drop the atom bomb on Japan at the end of World War II? ... This is an indispensable book for those who want to understand the moral issues surrounding the use of great power.’ Walter Isaacson
‘In this meticulously crafted and vivid account, Evan Thomas tells the gripping and terrifying story of the last days of the Second World War in the Pacific. Writing with insight and understanding, he recreates for us those critical moments when, for better or worse, the decisions were made.’ Margaret MacMillan
Pages: 320, Year of Publication: 1018, Dimensions: 15.6x15.6cm
