Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II

Nagasaki: Life After Nuclear War

Susan Southard · 402 pages

This book is a powerful and unflinching account of the enduring impact of nuclear war, told through the stories of those who survived. On August 9, 1945, three days after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the United States dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, a small port city on Japan's southernmost island. An estimated 74,000 people died within the first five months, and another 75,000 were

Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan

Herbert P. Bix · 800 pages

Winner of the Pulitzer PrizeIn this groundbreaking biography of the Japanese emperor Hirohito, Herbert P. Bix offers the first complete, unvarnished look at the enigmatic leader whose sixty-three-year reign ushered Japan into the modern world. Never before has the full life of this controversial figure been revealed with such clarity and vividness. Bix shows what it was like to be trained from bir

Showa 1944-1953: A History of Japan

Shigeru Mizuki · 536 pages

"The third volume of [the author's] ... encyclopedic account of Japan before and after World War II. Drawing from his own experiences as a foot soldier in the Pacific Islands and from the greater sweep of history's footprints, it is a chilling antiwar document and an intimate revelation of the destruction left in the wake of the atomic bombs."--Page 4 of cover.

The Last Train from Hiroshima: The Survivors Look Back

Charles Pellegrino · 413 pages

Drawing on the voices of atomic-bomb survivors and the new science of forensic archaeology, Charles Pellegrino describes the events and aftermath of two days in August when nuclear devices detonated over Japan changed life on Earth forever.

The Rising Sun: The Decline & Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-45

John Willard Toland · 954 pages

Comprehensive account of the military and political events that led to Pearl Harbor, the war in the Pacific, and Japan's defeat; based on interviews with participants, and told from a Japanese point of view.

After the Reich: The Brutal History of the Allied Occupation

Giles MacDonogh · 637 pages

Throughout time it has been the victor who has written history, but here historian MacDonogh (The Last Kaiser: The Life of Wilhelm II, 2001, etc.) examines the darker side of the Allied occupation of defeated Germany. The subtitle is probably the publisher’s, since MacDonogh advises at the outset, “I make no excuses for the crimes the Nazis committed, nor do I doubt for one moment the terrible

Japan at War: An Oral History

Haruko Taya Cook, Theodore F. Cook · 479 pages

This pathbreaking work of oral history captures for the first time ever - in either Japanese or English - the remarkable story of ordinary Japanese people during World War II. In a sweeping panorama, Haruko Taya and Theodore Cook take us from the Japanese attacks on China in the 1930s to the Japanese homefront during the inhuman raids on Tokyo, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki, offering the first glimpses

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption

Laura Hillenbrand · 514 pages

On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood. Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared. It was that of a young lieutenant, the plane’s bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pulling himself aboard. So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Se

Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest

Stephen E. Ambrose · 336 pages

Follows the 101st Airbone as it drops into Normandy on D-Day and fights its way through Europe to the end of World War II.

Retribution: The Battle for Japan, 1944-45

Max Hastings · 656 pages

By the summer of 1944 it was clear that Japan's defeat was inevitable, but how the drive to victory would be achieved remained unclear. The ensuing drama--that ended in Japan's utter devastation--was acted out across the vast theater of Asia in massive clashes between army, air, and naval forces.In recounting these extraordinary events, Max Hastings draws incisive portraits of MacArthur, Mao, Roos

Hiroshima Nagasaki

Paul Ham · 640 pages

In this harrowing history of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, Paul Ham argues against the use of nuclear weapons, drawing on extensive research and hundreds of interviews to prove that the bombings had little impact on the eventual outcome of the Pacific War.

Inventing Japan: 1853-1964

Ian Buruma · 192 pages

LA Times Book Award winner and expert on the past and present Japan, Ian Buruma examines the transformation of a country. Following Japan's history from its opening to the West in 1853 to its hosting of the 1964 Olympics, Buruma focuses on how figures such as Commodore Matthew Perry, Douglas MacArthur, and Emperor Mitsushito helped shape this complex country.

Savage Continent: Europe in the Aftermath of World War II

Keith Lowe · 508 pages

Flags of Our Fathers

James D. Bradley, Ron Powers · 379 pages

In this unforgettable chronicle of perhaps the most famous moment in American military history, James Bradley has captured the glory, the triumphs, the heartbreak, and the legacy of the six men who raised the flag at Iwo Jima. Here is the true story behind the immortal photograph that as come to symbolize the courage and indomitable will of America. FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS In February 1945, Am

Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege, 1942–1943

Antony Beevor · 520 pages

This gripping history is the definitive account of the battle that shifted the tide of World War II, conveying the experience of soldiers on both sides as they fought in inhuman conditions, and of civilians trapped on an urban battlefield.

The Zookeeper's Wife

Diane Ackerman · 368 pages

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany

William L. Shirer · 1,264 pages

Survival in Auschwitz

Primo Levi · 157 pages

In 1943, Primo Levi, a 25-year-old chemist and "Italian citizen of Jewish race," was arrested by Italian fascists and deported from his native Turin to Auschwitz. This is Levi's classic account of his ten months in the German death camp, a harrowing story of systematic cruelty and miraculous endurance. Remarkable for its simplicity, restraint, compassion, and even wit, Survival in Auschwitz remain

Midnight in Broad Daylight: A Japanese American Family Caught Between Two Worlds

Pamela Rotner Sakamoto · 444 pages

"'Meticulously researched and beautifully written, the true story of a Japanese American family that found itself on opposite sides during World War II--an epic tale of family, separation, divided loyalties, love, reconciliation, loss, and redemption this is a riveting chronicle of U.S.-Japan relations and the Japanese experience in America. After their father's death, Harry, Frank, and Pierce Fuk

Lost in Shangri-la: A True Story of Survival, Adventure, and the Most Incredible Rescue Mission of World War II

Mitchell Zuckoff · 384 pages

Describes the 1945 odyssey of three plane crash survivors in New Guinea who endured a harrowing journey through the jungle to seek help, their encounter with a primitive tribe who had never seen white people, and their eventual rescue by a band of paratroopers.

Hiroshima

John Hersey · 118 pages

Describes the effect of the bombing of Hiroshima on six survivors of the atomic blast.

Killing the Rising Sun: How America Vanquished World War II Japan

Bill O'Reilly, Martin Dugard · 384 pages

Autumn 1944. World War II is nearly over in Europe but is escalating in the Pacific, where American soldiers face an opponent who will go to any length to avoid defeat. The Japanese army follows the samurai code of Bushido, stipulating that surrender is a form of dishonor. This book takes readers to the bloody tropical-island battlefields of Peleliu and Iwo Jima and to the embattled Philippines, w

Japan 1941: Countdown to Infamy

Eri Hotta · 344 pages

Examines the attack on Pearl Harbor from the Japanese perspective.

The Twilight Warriors: The Deadliest Naval Battle of World War II and the Men Who Fought It

Robert Gandt · 385 pages

Band of Brothers at sea and in the skies, 340 miles off the coast of Japan. The Twilight Warriors is the engrossing, page-turning saga of a tightly knit band of naval aviators who are thrust into the final -- and most brutal -- battle of the Pacific war: Okinawa. April 1945. The end of World War II finally appears to be nearing. The Third Reich is collapsing in Europe, and the Americans are overpo