Volume 42, Number 14 · September 21, 1995
The War Over The Bomb
By Ian Buruma
The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb and the Architecture of an American Myth
by Gar Alperovitz, by Sanho Tree, by Edward Rouse Winstead, by Kathryn C. Morris, by David J. Williams, by Leo C. Maley III, by Thad Williamson, by Miranda Grieder
Knopf, 843 pp., $32.50
Writing Ground Zero: Japanese Literature and the Atomic Bomb
by John Whittier Treat
University of Chicago Press, 487 pp., $29.95
Judgment at the Smithsonian: The Uncensored Script of the Smithsonian's 50th Anniversary Exhibit of the Enola Gay
edited and introduced by Philip Nobile, afterword by Barton J. Bernstein
Marlowe and Company, New York, 270 pp., $12.95 (paper)
Hiroshima in America: Fifty Years of Denial
by Robert Jay Lifton, by Greg Mitchell
Grosset/Putnam, 425 pp., $27.50
Code-Name Downfall: The Secret Plan to Invade Japan—And Why Truman Dropped the Bomb
by Thomas B. Allen, by Norman Polmar
Simon and Schuster, 351 pp., $25.00
Nagasaki Journey: The Photographs of Yosuke Yamahata, August 10, 1945
edited by Rupert Jenkins
IDG Films/Pomegranate Artbooks, 128 pp., $22.95 (paper)
The flight of the bomber called Bock's Car on August 9, 1945, from Tinian to Nagasaki was blessed but not smooth. In a Quonset hut at the air base before takeoff Chaplain Downey had prayed for the success of the plane's mission. 'Almighty God, Father of all mercies,' he said, 'we pray Thee to be gracious with those who fly this night.' He also said: 'Give to us all courage and strength for the hours that are ahead; give to them rewards according to their efforts. Above all else, our Father, bring peace to Thy world.'
Review, 8755 words
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