title: Prompt and Utter Destruction: Truman and the Use of Atomic Bombs Against Japan
author:  J. Samuel Walker 
description: In this concise account of why America used atomic bombs against Japan in 1945, J. Samuel Walker analyzes the reasons behind President Truman's most controversial decision. He delineates what was known and not known by American leaders at the time and evaluates the role of U.S.-Soviet relations and American domestic politics. In this new edition, Walker takes into account recent scholarship on the topic, including new information on the Japanese decision to surrender. He has revised the book to place more emphasis on the effect of the Soviet invasion of Manchuria in convincing the emperor and his advisers to quit the war. Rising above an often polemical debate, Walker presents an accessible synthesis of previous work and an important, original contribution to our understanding of the events that ushered in the atomic age.
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  > For Koko Tanimoto Kondo
  
  > What has kept the world safe from the bomb since 1945 has been the memory of
  > what happened at Hiroshima.
  
  >  **—JOHN HERSEY**
  
  >  _Introduction_
  
  John Hersey later claimed that he had not intended to write an exposé. Yet, in
  the summer of 1946, he revealed one of the deadliest and most consequential
  government cover-ups of modern times. The _New Yorker_ magazine devoted its
  entire August 31, 1946, issue to He