The decision to drop the atomic bomb /

Wainstock (Salem-Teikyo Univ.) has written a short narrative account of the US decision to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki late in WW II. He makes interesting use of Japanese sources, looking at the end of the war primarily through Japanese eyes. The author leans toward the revisionist position that dropping the two bombs, especially the second one, was an unnecessary act, that Japan would have surrendered on condition that the Emperor's titular position be retained. In a very brief analytical conclusion, Wainstock argues that "unconditional surrender was a policy of revenge, and it hurt America's national self-interest." Unfortunately, Wainstock tells little that is not already known. Moreover, a writing style that includes irrelevant personal details about participants detracts from the book's limited value. Upper-division undergraduates and above. A. O. Edmonds Ball State University