This book was a difficult read, not because of the style, but content. I served with the 3d Marine Division, 3d Medical Battalion, in Vietnam, 1967, and have seen results of combat and have experienced bombardment. But nothing as described in this work by George Feifer. His descriptions were masterful. Essentially, Mr. Feifer made a convincing case for the use of the atomic bomb in that the invasion of the home islands of Japan would be simply an expansion of the Okinawa experience. Insanity at its worst. His reference to the Russians, certainly as allies, but in reality a threat, could have been expanded. The bomb was to send a message to the Russians to keep their hands off of Japan. Implicit, but unsaid, was the subtle warning that they would have a radioactive bullseye painted on them. Throughout the narrative, Mr. Feifer makes the case that conflict resolution without war is the better goal, an idealistic view, and what rational person would disagree with that. Reality is that the heart of man is desperatly evil, who can know it. The reality of war is painted very well in Mr. Feifer's book, survival is a primal nature and there are no rules. The loss of life was staggering, military and civilian. The whys and wherefores that resulted in such loss are a matter of history. But the overiding fact is that the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese government started the clock ticking. The responsibility for the war in the Pacific rested squarely on the shoulders of Japan, and the blood of every life lost was equally on their head. Pearl Harbor started it, Nagasaki finished it. One other comment. Mr. Feifer at various places in the narrative inserts gratuitous political rhetoric reflecting what appears to be a liberal progressive bias. Such rhetoric has no place in a quality piece of work. Decisions made at higher levels may or may not be "stupid", but only when those decision makers have been personally interviewed before such rhetoric is included in the narrative. That is scholarship. That being said, we did not learn much as similar circumstances were encountered in Korea and Vietnam. All in all, however, this is a work worth reading and meditating thereon.