Richard Overy is rightly regarded as an authority on the Second World War and has won praise for his many books on the subject. In this book he explores the events occurring and the decisions taken in the run up to the dropping of atomic weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This focus, at once tightly focused and yet massive in scope and eventual implications, is remarkably ambitious as it seeks to bring together an analysis of decisions taken in the heat of a world war in the 1940s and the subsequent evolving judgments on the use of atomic weapons.

For this reader, a committed admirer of Richard Overy, the ambition of the book is, almost inevitably, left somewhat unfulfilled. Most usefully, however, the author provides helpful insights into the thinking within the highest civilian and military circles in Japan and acknowledges the difficulties of forming an objective judgment over the use of atomic weapons when ‘conventional’ area bombing with high explosive - and especially incendiaries against relatively flimsy and highly flammable Japanese timber housing - could be argued to lead to just as substantial civilian casualties.

It is difficult to avoid a sense of despair on the author’s part as he brings this short work to a close and reviews the levels of civilian casualties in wars since 1945, particularly those in Korea and Vietnam and, more currently, in Ukraine and Gaza where international outrage has little to no effect on those causing such appalling levels of civilian casualties with sometimes no more than a throw away justification relating to collateral damage in pursuit of some tactical or strategic aim.

Strongly recommended.

Rain of Ruin is a short history of the role aerial bombing played in the surrender of Japan during WW2.

The focus is very much on the military - from the decision-making to the aftermath - rather than the impact on civilians more widely. Dense and tautological, it sometimes feels as if you are reading an endless rolecall of names and ranks, although Overy also captures a keen sense of the key characters involved.

While Overy presents both sides of the story behind Japan's surrender, and provides a careful overview of the voices for and against the use of atomic weapons, he allows the irony of wartime double-standards to speak for itself. Presented with the evidence, the reader is able to form their own opinion whether the use of atomic weapons was (and can ever be) justified.

A grim and thought-provoking read.

DNF @ 30%

Richard Overy's narrative of the US bombing campaign against Imperial Japan is the Cliff's Notes version of what would naturally be an exhaustive project. It dwells on the broader details and tries desperately to focus on the minutiae but fails in conveying either the human complexity or the historical weight of the action.

Rain of Ruin - Tokyo, Hiroshima and the Surrender of Japan is a re-examination by Richard Overy of the firebombing raids on Japan in the spring of 1945 and then the atomic bombings in the summer.

He states “The question asked is usually ‘was it necessary?’; the question, however, should really be ‘why was it thought to be necessary at the time?’ and asserts that the reason was ""to force Japanese surrender, end the war quickly, and save American lives".

He describes the Hiroshima bombing: "The bomb worked just as it was supposed to. It exploded 1,800 feet above ground, destroying all life within a radius of 1.5 kilometers from the hypocenter, burning those within 5 kilometers..."

I found it to be a well researched and written book of these grim episodes in the history of the Second World War.