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Loading... War's End: An Eyewitness Account of America's Last Atomic Missionby Charles W. Sweeney
   None No current Talk conversations about this book.  paarth7 | May 6, 2023 |   He puts the case for their use, and lambastes the sensitivity of those in the US who in 1995 were (in his assessment) ashamed of what the US had done. He makes it clear he understood the consequences of what he was doing at the time and questioned what they were doing - and still came up with the answer that it was the least awful alternative at the time. It was clear then, and still with hindsight, that the invasion of Japan that would otherwise have occurred within the next couple of months would have resulted in the death of millions of soldiers and civilians. He makes the telling point that if the US sometimes went too far in regretting what it had done, or not enough, the greater moral failure - with far more dangerous consequences - was Japan's continuing refusal to acknowledge the terrible atrocities it committed during the war. In the end this book won't persuade or dissuade, but it is a book that anyone who want to understand and form a view should read. And read it alongside John Hersey's 'Hiroshima' - possibly the greatest and most influential news article ever written, and also with John Toland's 'The Rising Sun', the Pullitzer Prize winning account of the war from the Japanese perspective. (  ) nandadevi | Jan 4, 2015 | no reviews | add a review
On August 9,1945, on the tiny island of Tinian in the South Pacific, a twenty-five-year-old American Army Air Corps Major named Charles W. Sweeney climbed aboard a B-29 Superfortress in command of his first combat mission, one devised specifically to bring a long and terrible war to a necessary conclusion. In the belly of his bomber, the Bock's Car, was a newly developed, fully armed weapon that had never been tested in a combat situation--a weapon capable of a level of destruction never before dreamed of in the history of the human race...a bomb whose terrifying aftershock would ultimately determine the direction of the twentieth century and change the world forever. The last military officer to command an atomic mission, Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney has the unique distinction of having been an integral part of both the Hiroshima and the Nagasaki bombing runs. His book is an extraordinary chronicle of the months of careful planning and training; the set backs, secrecy and the snafus; the nerve-shattering final seconds and the astonishing aftermath of what is arguably the most significant single event in modern history: the employment of an atomic weapon during wartime. No library descriptions found. |
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 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)940.54History and Geography Europe Europe 1918- Military History Of World War IILC ClassificationRatingAverage: (4.5)
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Wikipedia in English (5)
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Though I felt disappointed that author didn't vocalize about the tens of thousands of Japanese civilians that got evaporated put of existence with Atomic Bomb blasts. With all the "we prayed to god" instances, author seemed to have disconnected himself emotionally with the direct mortal consequences of his actions. In contrast, in Mahabharata, Krishna talks about the plight of people who were gonna die in the war, calling them a unwanted but necessary sacrifice for the greater good. I guess these American bombers had none of those human traits. (