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Rain of Ruin

Rain of Ruin Tokyo, Hiroshima and the Surrender of Japan

Hardback (06 Mar 2025)

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Publisher's Synopsis

A remarkable account of the terrible climax of the Second World War in Asia, published to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing.

In the closing months of the Second World War hundreds of thousands of Japanese, mostly civilians, died in a final outburst of violence from the air. American planes were beginning to run low on plausible targets when it was decided to use two atomic weapons in a final, terrible flourish to try to end the war.

Richard Overy's remarkable new book rethinks how we should regard this last stage of the war and the role of the bombing. This book explores the way in which the willingness to kill civilians and destroy cities became normalized in the course of a horrific war as moral concerns were blunted and scientists, airmen, and politicians followed a strategy of mass destruction they would never have endorsed before the war began. But it also engages with the new scholarship that shows how complex the effort to end the war was in Japan, where 'surrender' was entirely foreign to Japanese culture.

About the Publisher

Allen Lane

In 1967 Penguin's founder started an eponymous hardback imprint under the name of Allen Lane. This now has a dynamic, growing list and publishes accessible and quality non-fiction books of lasting value.

Book information

ISBN: 9780241700693
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Imprint: Allen Lane
Pub date:
DEWEY: 940.54252
DEWEY edition: 23
Language: English
Number of pages: 208
Weight: 420g
Height: 241mm
Width: 164mm
Spine width: 23mm