Certain books and documents proved extremely helpful as reference material for nearly every chapter. To avoid needless repetition, I will mention these works only once; this is not to minimize their value to me.
Diplomatic History
Robert J. C. Butow’s Japan’s Decision to Surrender; Herbert Feis’ Between War and Peace: The Potsdam Conference, and Japan Subdued: The Atomic Bomb and the End of the War in the Pacific; Len Giovanitti and Fred Freed’s The Decision to Drop the Bomb; The Japanese Foreign Office publication Shusen Shiroku; Shigenori Togo’s The Cause of Japan; Koichi Kido’s Nikki.
Military Affairs
Samuel Eliot Morison’s History of Naval Operations in World War II, especially Vols. XIII and XIV; Walter Karig’s Battle Report, Vol. V; Masanori Ito’s Gumbatsu Koboshi (3 vols.), and Teikoku Kaigun No Saigo; Wesley Craven and James Cate’s The Army Air Forces in World War II: Vol. V, The Pacific: Matterhorn to Nagasaki; Takushiro Hattori’s Daitoa Senso Zenshi (4 vols.); Saburo Hayashi’s Kogun.
Documents, Records
U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey: Interrogations (2 vols.). Japanese Research Division, U.S. Army Far East, Military History Section: Interrogation of Japanese Officials (2 vols.); Statements of Japanese Officials on World War II (4 vols.); Translation of Japanese Documents (7 vols.). International Military Tribunal for the Far East: selected interrogations and statements of witnesses and defendants.
In the following notes on individual chapters, the term Statements by almost always refers to those made to the Japanese Research Division, U.S. Army Far East, by Japanese officers and statesmen.
CHAPTER ONE: The Tactics of Despair
On Admiral Onishi and the Founding of the Kamikazes
From interviews with naval officers Zenshiro Hoshina, Rikihei Inoguchi (Takuma), Toshikazu Ohmae, Atsushi Oi.
From logs of U.S. ships St. Lo, Kitkun Bay, Santee.
Also: Inoguchi and Nakajima’s Divine Wind; Yoshio Kodama’s I Was Defeated.
On Okinawa
From interviews with Naomichi Jin, the widow of General Ushijima, Rikihei Inoguchi, Okikatsu Arao.
From U.S. Army interrogations of Japanese officers Jin, Yahara, Shimada (32nd Army), and Setsuzo Nishiura.
Also: After action reports and histories of U.S. 1st and 6th Marine Divisions, and 7th, 77th and 96th Army divisions; daily reports of U.S. 10th Army and XXIV Corps.
From logs of U.S. ships Bush, Colhoun.
From books: Okinawa: The Last Battle, a most informative official U.S. history; Japanese works P. W. Doctor, Senkan Tomato No Saigo and Okinawa Senshi, which reflect the precipitate decline of Japanese power and morale both on land and sea.
Also: Japanese Army Monographs Number 53 and Number 83, on Okinawa campaign.
On Suzuki Cabinet Formation
From interview with Hisatsune Sakomizu.
From statements of Koiso, Suzuki, Hiranuma, Kido, Sakomizu, Togo, Saonji.
On Raid
From interviews with 35 Japanese civilians who lived in Tokyo and witnessed the raid on March 9 and later ones.
From memoirs of Curtis Lemay (see Bibliography).
From operations and debriefing reports of the 20th Air Force Headquarters, Guam, 73rd, 313th and 314th Bomb Wings.
Also: Martin Caidin’s A Torch to the Enemy; Gene Gurney’s Journey of the Giants; Masuo Kato’s The Lost War; and the Saturday Evening Post (Jan. 12, 1946). These books capture the terrible tragedy of Japan aflame.
CHAPTER THREE: The Diplomacy of Defeat
On Switzerland
From interviews with Yoshiro Fujimura, Allen Dulles, Zenshiro Hoshina.
From statements of Fujimura, Hoshina, Sadatoshi Tomioka, Soemu Toyoda.
On U.S. Radio Broadcasts, etc.
From conversations with Sidney Mashbir.
Also: Microfilm copies of Mashbir broadcasts to Japan.
From books: Ellis Zacharias’ Secret Missions; Sidney Mashbir’s I Was an American Spy; Ladislas Farago’s Burn After Reading.
Also: Federal Communications Commission records on broadcasts from Japan in 1945.
On Tokyo-Moscow Interlude
From interviews with Hisatsune Sakomizu.
From statements of Togo, Sato, Hirota, Kido, Suzuki, and others.
Also: Copies of cables between Togo and Sato.
On Japanese-American Battle Plans (Ketsu Go vs. Downfall)
From interviews with Seizo Arisue, Charles Willoughby.
From statements of Arisue, Ohmae, Amano, Haba, Fuwa, among many others.
From U.S. Operational Plan as described in “Downfall” document published in May 1945.
On Manhattan Project
From interviews with Leslie Groves and crew members of 509th Group and the 509th Pictorial Album.
Also: Grove’s Now It Can Be Told; William Laurence’s Dawn Over Zero; Arthur H. Compton’s Atomic Quest; Hewlett and Anderson’s The New World, 1939–1946; Lamont’s Day of Trinity; Knebel and Bailey’s No High Ground; and others (see Bibliography).
On Potsdam
From interviews with Allen Dulles.
From the diary of Henry Stimson at Yale University (unpublished).
From memoirs of Truman, Churchill, Eden, Byrnes, Forrestal, Leahy, King, Stimson, Lord Alanbrooke.
Also: Defense Department publication: The Entry of the Soviet Union into the War against Japan, Military Plans, 1941–1945; U.S. State Department: Potsdam Papers (2 vols.); John Ehrman’s Grand Strategy: October 1944–August 1945.
On Tokyo Reaction to Declaration
From interviews with Sakomizu, Takeshita.
Also: statements of Suzuki, Kido, Toyoda, Sakomizu, Yoshizumi.
On 509th: Tinian and Hiroshima
From interviews and/or correspondence with Leslie Groves, Paul Tibbets, Charles Sweeney, Frederick Ashworth, Kermit Beahan, Don Albury, Raymond Gallagher, and others.
From The Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, The Manhattan Engineering District. Washington, D.C., 1947.
Also: Atomic Energy Commission files at Germantown, Md., which were made available to me by Mr. L. J. Deal. The files dealt primarily with Little Boy, its design, etc.; with messages between Tinian and Los Alamos and Washington; with observations of the blast. The figure of 13,500 tons for the energy yield of Little Boy has only recently been computed after years of analysis. The Fat Man’s yield at Nagasaki has been placed at slightly over 22,000 tons.
Also: Knebel and Bailey’s No High Ground, a superb re-creation of the Hiroshima drop.
On McDilda
From conversation and correspondence with Marcus McDilda; from interview with Hisatsune Sakomizu.
From operations reports, 21st Fighter Group, Iwo Jima, August 1945.
Also: Curious friends in Japan who had heard of the American pilot’s story but could not remember his name.
On Nagasaki
From interviews and/or correspondence with Leslie Groves, Paul Tibbets, Charles Sweeney, Frederick Ashworth, Kermit Beahan, Don Albury, Jacob Beser, Raymond Gallagher, John Cantlon, Stanley Steinke, Myron Faryna, Leonard Godfrey, Ralph Curry, William Barney, Edward Buckley, reporter William L. Laurence, scientists Robert Serber and Norman Ramsey, and others.
From diaries and unpublished notes of Raymond Gallagher, Don Albury, James Van Pelt.
Also: Spitzer and Miller’s, We Dropped the A-Bomb; Laurence’s Dawn Over Zero; Knebel and Bailey’s No High Ground.
On Ground Damage, etc.
From conversations with John Madison, a survivor.
From nearly 200 reports among thousands that Japanese survivors filed, after the war, with the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission.
From Atomic Energy Commission volumes on medical effects of bombs (1951).
From U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey publications on medical effects, blast damage, etc. caused by Fat Man.
Also: Nagai’s We of Nagasaki; Trumbull’s Nine Who Survived Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The letter to Professor Sagane was recovered by Japanese military personnel and delivered to him, but only after the war had ended.
CHAPTER SEVEN: The Air-Raid Shelter
On Conference
From interviews with participants Sakomizu, Hoshina.
From statements by Suzuki, Togo, Yonai, Hiranuma, Toyoda, Ikeda, Hoshina, Yoshizumi, Sakomizu, Kido.
Also: Memoirs of Togo, Toyoda, Sakomizu, Toshikazu Kase (see Bibliography).
CHAPTER EIGHT: Reaction in Washington
Washington Conference
From memoirs of participants in White House meeting: Truman, Byrnes, Forrestal, Stimson, Leahy.
On China
From interviews with Albert Wedemeyer, George Olmstead.
Also: Memoirs of General Stilwell, General Chennault, General Wedemeyer; Romanus and Sunderland’s book on China-Burma-India Theater (see Bibliography); White and Jacoby’s Thunder Out of China.
CHAPTER NINE: August 11—The Conspiracy Begins
On Ominous Developments in Tokyo
From interviews with Japanese officers Arao, Hoshina, Hayashi, Ida, Inaba, Inoue, Kobayashi, Ohmae, Oi, Takeshita, Makoto Tsukamoto.
From statement by Taihei Oshima.
On Previous Rebellions
From the Transcript of Proceedings of International Military Tribunal Far East: testimony of Okada, Ando, and others.
Also: Sakomizu, Grew books (see Bibliography).
On OSS in China
From interviews with Gustave Krause, Raymond Peers, Joseph Jackson, James Kellis, Albert Wedemeyer, George Olmstead.
From Elizabeth McDonald’s Undercover Girl.
On Fukuoka Atrocity
From transcript of testimony by witnesses at the Yokohama war crimes trials.
CHAPTER TEN: August 12—Day of Crisis
On Tokyo Intrigues
From interviews with Sakomizu, Kobayashi, Ohmae, Oi, Takeshita, Inaba, Ida (Iwata), Fuwa, Arao, Hayashi.
Also: statements by Toyoda, Hiranuma, Hayashi, Kido, Takeshita, Togo, Matsumoto, Sakomizu.
CHAPTER ELEVEN: The Mounting Peril
On Anami
From interviews with the two men closest to Anami: Hayashi, his secretary, and Takeshita, his brother-in-law.
From correspondence with Hayashi.
Also: statements by Hayashi, Kido, Takeshita.
On Yonai
From interviews with Yonai’s aide, Zenshiro Hoshina.
Also: statement by Hoshina.
On Rebels
From interviews with rebels Arao, Ida, Inaba, Takeshita; also with Hayashi. Also correspondence with Hayashi.
Also: from statements by these men.
CHAPTER TWELVE: August 14—The Final Word
On Conference and Its Effects
From interviews with Arao, Fuwa, Hayashi, Ida, Inaba, Inoguchi, Ohmae, Oi, Sakomizu, Takeshita, Tsukamoto
Also: statements by Hayashi, Kawabe, Kido, Suzuki, Takeshita, Togo, Toyoda.
From Niwa’s Nihon Yaburetari; Shimomura’s Shusen Hishi. (Used also in Chapter 13.)
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: The Rebellion
On Rebellion and Anami’s Death
From interviews with Arao, Fuwa, Hayashi, Ida, Inaba, Tadao Inoue, Shinaji Kobayashi, Sakomizu, Takeshita, Morio Tateno, Mrs. Katsuko Tojo, Makoto Tsukamoto.
Also: statements by Arao, Fuwa, Ida, Ishiwata, Kido, Takeshita, Tokugawa, Kiyoshi Tsukamoto.
From Soichi Oya’s Nihon No Ichiban Nagaihi.
I visited the grounds of the Imperial Palace and walked through the woods where the rebels camped; the building where Mori died still stands; so does the Imperial Household Agency in which Kido hid in great fear.
The rebel who killed Colonel Shiraishi is still known only as Mister X because of a pact between Inaba, Takeshita and Ida to protect him from possible vengeance by relatives of the slain victim. Mister X lives near Tokyo and sees his comrades from the coup d’état infrequently.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Peace on Earth
V-J Day
From The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Washington Post, Pacific Stars and Stripes, Yank, logs of ships in Task Force 38 off Japan.
Also Japanese Secret Police reports.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: The Emperor Speaks
On Reaction to Surrender
From interviews with police official Kantaro Uemura.
From U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey case studies on Japanese attitudes toward defeat.
From: Japanese Secret Police reports on disturbances in Tokyo.
Also: Sakai’s Samurai.
On Anami’s Cremation
From interviews with Anami’s widow, Anami’s brother-in-law, Takeshita, and Shinaji Kobayashi.
On Ugaki’s Death
From interviews with Inoguchi, Ohmae.
Also: Inoguchi and Nakajima’s Divine Wind.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: Delayed Reactions
On Delayed Reactions in Capital
From interviews with Ida, Inoue, Inoguchi, Masao Matsuda, Makoto Tsukamoto, Oi, Ohmae, Uemura.
Also: Yoshio Kodama’s I Was Defeated; Ammyo Kosono’s reminiscences in Bungei Shunju.
On Mukden Jump
From interviews and correspondence with James Hennessy, Roger Hilsman, Robert Lamar, Harold Leith, Edward Starz.
Also: diaries, letters, photographs supplied by members of Mission Cardinal.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: An Order from MacArthur
On Kawabe Flight
From interviews with Mashbir, Willoughby, Faubion Bowers, Ohmae, Matsuda.
From statements by Kawabe, Okazaki, Terai, Yokoyama.
Also: Mashbir’s I Was an American Spy; Life.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: Violent Interlude
On Incidents in Tokyo Area
From interviews with Fuwa, Uemura
Also: Microfilm copies of Tokyo police reports for that period; Japanese newspaper accounts for August 15–August 31, 1945; Yoshio Kodama’s I Was Defeated.
On Atsugi
From interviews with Seizo Arisue.
Also: statements by Yoshizumi; Masuo Kato’s The Lost War.
On Tanaka
From interview with Fuwa.
From Kiyoshi Tsukamoto’s Ah Kogun Saigo No Hi.
On American Advance Party
From interviews with Charles Tench, Faubion Bowers, David Dunne.
(An Air Force pilot, Lieutenant Colonel Clay Tice, had landed at Nittigahara Airfield on Kyushu, to be the first American on Japanese soil. He was greeted with candy and flowers, then given fuel for his return trip to Okinawa.)
On OSS in China
From interviews with Raymond Peers, Gustave Krause, James Kellis, Joseph Jackson, Robert Lamar, Howard Leith.
Also: Wedemeyer’s memoirs; White and Jacoby’s Thunder Out of China; Herbert Feis’ The China Tangle, all excellent analyses of the chaotic situation on the Asian mainland.
John Birch’s death was described to me by several men who knew him in China but asked not to be identified. I was also shown photographs of his mutilated body taken just before burial. Life’s May 1961 story, “How John Birch Died,” is the most accurate description of the event and was relied on heavily by the author.
On Wainwright
From interviews with Robert Lamar and Harold Leith, who rescued Wainwright.
From interviews with Gustave Krause, who spent some very pleasant hours with Wainwright shortly after the General’s return to freedom.
Also: correspondence with General Wedemeyer; Wainwright’s General Wainwright’s Story.
On Mission Pigeon
From interviews with John Singlaub, Arnold Breakey, John Bradley, James Healey.
From documents, letters, photographs given me by Colonel Singlaub.
Also: John Bradley’s diary.
CHAPTER TWENTY: The Enemy Lands
On Atsugi, Yokohama Landings, etc.
From interviews with Charles Tench, Faubion Bowers, David Dunne, Sidney Mashbir, Frederick Munson, Clovis Byers, Charles Willoughby, Seizo Arisue, Ichiji Sugita, Genichi Akatani, Kantaro Uemura.
From Japanese Secret Police files.
From memoirs of Douglas MacArthur, Courtney Whitney, George Kenney, Robert Eichelberger, William Halsey.
From daily reports of 11th Airborne Division, 4th Marine Regiment.
From books by correspondents Brines, Lee, Kelley and Ryan (see Bibliography).
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: “These Proceedings Are Closed”
On the Ceremony
From interviews with participants Sugita, Tomioka, Nakamura, Willoughby, Mashbir.
From memoirs cited in previous chapter, plus those of Wainwright, Percival, Kase, Shigemitsu.
Also: Life; Yank; Bungei Shunju.
On Yamashita
From diary of General Akira Muto.
From Wainwright and Percival autobiographies.
Also: daily reports of U.S. 32nd Infantry Division.
Also: John Dean Potter’s The Life and Death of a Japanese General; Masanobu Tsuji’s Singapore: The Japanese Version.
On American Embassy
From interviews with Bowers, Mashbir.
Also: memoirs of Halsey, MacArthur, Eichelberger, Whitney.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: The Last Recourse
On Tojo
From interviews with Mrs. Katsuko Tojo, Clovis Byers.
From newspaper accounts by George Jones, The New York Times; Frank Kelley, New York Herald Tribune; Frank Bartholomew and Frank Tremaine, Washington Post; Robert Trumbull, The New York Times.
From CIC report by Paul Kraus.
Also: article by Harry Brundidge in American Mercury, August 1953.
From books by Clark Lee; by Frank Kelley and Cornelius Ryan (see Bibliography).
Also: Yukio Hasegawa’s article in Bungei Shunju, August 1956.
On Sugiyama
From interviews with Fuwa, Hayashi, Kobayashi.
On Mukden
From interviews with OSS personnel James Hennessy, Joseph Jackson, Gustave Krause, Robert Lamar, Harold Leith.
OSS agents took photographs of Russian depredations and wrote reports on the activities of the Chinese Communist forces in Manchuria. All Americans were forced to leave by the Russian authorities in Mukden. Hennessy in particular remembers being told by Field Marshal Rodion Malinovsky that he had twenty-four hours in which to leave.
By October 1945, the last American left Manchuria under threat of death.
On the Walk through Nagasaki
From interviews with Charles Sweeney, Don Albury, Kermit Beahan.