Killing the Rising Sun
How America Vanquished World War II Japan
Ratings10
Average rating4.3
The powerful and riveting new book in the multimillion-selling Killing series by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard Autumn 1944. World War II is nearly over in Europe but is escalating in the Pacific, where American soldiers face an opponent who will go to any length to avoid defeat. The Japanese army follows the samurai code of Bushido, stipulating that surrender is a form of dishonor. Killing the Rising Sun takes readers to the bloody tropical-island battlefields of Peleliu and Iwo Jima and to the embattled Philippines, where General Douglas MacArthur has made a triumphant return and is plotting a full-scale invasion of Japan. Across the globe in Los Alamos, New Mexico, Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer and his team of scientists are preparing to test the deadliest weapon known to mankind. In Washington, DC, FDR dies in office and Harry Truman ascends to the presidency, only to face the most important political decision in history: whether to use that weapon. And in Tokyo, Emperor Hirohito, who is considered a deity by his subjects, refuses to surrender, despite a massive and mounting death toll. Told in the same page-turning style of Killing Lincoln, Killing Kennedy, Killing Jesus, Killing Patton, and Killing Reagan, this epic saga details the final moments of World War II like never before.
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This book, as should be obvious by its financer, shows unabashed bias purely for the justification for the dropping of the Atomic Bomb on Japan in the waning days of World War II. Sandwiched in the middle of its storytelling of Japanese Atrocities, the book spends very little time reflecting on the actual horrors of the A-bomb upon Japan. The agenda of the book is trying to pin all of the blame onto Japan thanks to their actions during the war.
The overt nature of this book is politically motivated, which makes it more of a story meant to appeal to its readers of horrors that prove the A-bomb was a good idea, instead of telling the history of how/why it was dropped. However, when the book does get around to telling the history of the A-bomb development and the dropping of the said bomb, the historical accuracy is on point.
I listened to the audiobook. It was very interesting and I learned some things about the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Oppenheimer, Tojo, Little Boy and Fat Man that I did not know. This book had much more about the Japanese in it than other books I've read. I liked learning about some of their thoughts and motivations. The footnotes are good too.
