New Books In East Asian Studies

September 2 will mark the 80th anniversary of Japan’s formal surrender to the United States aboard the USS. Missouri, ending the Second World War. The U.S. decision to drop two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki—what drove Japan to surrender, at least in popular history—is still controversial to this day. How did the mass U.S. bombing campaign come about? Did the U.S. believe the atomic bomb was the only possible or the least bad option? Did the atomic bomb really push Japan to surrender—or was it on its last legs anyway? Famed historian Richard Overy tries to tackle these questions, and more, in his latest work of Second World War history: Rain of Ruin: Tokyo, Hiroshima, and the Surrender of Japan (Allen Lane / W.W. Norton: 2025) Richard Overy is Honorary Research Professor of History at the University of Exeter and one of Britain's most distinguished historians. His major works include The Dictators: Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia (W. W. Norton & Company: 2004), winner of the 2