Weapons for Victory: The Hiroshima Decision Fifty Years Later

The author, a historian at Pennsylvania State University, enters the debate about the decision to drop nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A vigorous defender of the traditional interpretation, namely, that the use of the bomb was inevitable in view of the war up to that point and necessary in view of Japanese internal politics, Maddox brings to bear considerable scholarly research. He is particularly scathing in documenting the errors of revisionists in handling historical evidence. A concise and convincing study.