Japan 1945

By the spring of 1945, allied planning for the final stages of the war with Japan was well underway. Allied commanders and planners faced a variety of challenges, not least Japan's expressed willingness to expend lives and treasure rather than accept defeat. The sheer ferocity of Japanese resistance on Iwo Jima and Okinawa led Allied leaders to reasonably expect an even bigger bloodbath in invading Japan itself. Nevertheless, the allies made the decision to proceed with planning for Operation Downfall, the invasion of Japan, even as the top secret Manhattan Project prepared to deliver a new and devastating weapon into the allied arsenal... The book narrative is told almost entirely through the parochial lens of U.S. airpower. The debate about whether the atomic bombing was really necessary or whether blockade was sufficient, will not appear here, this author glides past that debate at high speed. There is no much in the section on opposing forces, nor is there any in the order of battle for either side. This book is interesting if you are eager to know about the last air operations of WWII, but its very strange compared with the rest of the campaign series.