Countdown 1945: The Extraordinary Story of the Atomic Bomb and the 116 Days That Changed the World

Since the subject of the book is the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, one might expect that the principal focus of the book is describing the technical difficulties involved in the creation of that weapon. That topic is briefly discussed, but the subject of the book is the 116 days before the dropping of the bomb, and by that time, even though it had not yet been tested, most of the technical difficulties had been resolved. What had not been resolved was whether the United States would use it and if it did what cities would be targeted, was there a plane capable of carrying such a bomb, who would be the crew and what type of training would they require, should the Japanese be forewarned and if so to what extent. Wallace gives an extraordinary amount of detail in explaining the emotions and effort put into making these decisions. He describes the backgrounds and personalities of some of the scientists, in particular Oppenheimer, but he focuses more upon the men who comprised the crew of the Enola Gay - their extraordinary abilities, their carousing, their conflicts and the vast amount of preparation that was needed by them to fly a specially prepared B-29 to drop the bomb. Wallace does give some vignettes of how the bomb affected some ordinary citizens both American and Japanese. There were a couple of minor facts that also impressed me. I did not realize that the bombs were transported across the Pacific via navy cruiser to Tinian, one of the Mariana Islands. I had thought they were always transported via air. That cruiser, the USS Indianapolis, arrived at Tinian on July 26, 1945 and 4 days later while heading to the Leyte Gulf, it was sunk by the Japanese. Another minor fact that impressed me was that many of the scientists were Jewish. At the end of the book, Wallace discusses the morality of dropping the bomb. It is estimated that between 90,000 to 146,000 were killed in the bombing of Hiroshima and between 39,000 to 80,000 in the bombing of Nagasaki. Let’s just estimate that a total of 250,000 were killed from the two bombings. Previous to these bombings the Allied air raids on Japan killed between 240,000 to 900,000. Some of the American military estimated that between 250,000 to one million Americans would die in trying to take the island of Japan, because fighting would become more intense as the Japanese defended their homeland. Others have claimed that the war was already won and that the Japanese were on the verge of surrendering. Such an assertion can easily be dismissed. After the bombing of Nagasaki, almost all of the Japanese generals did not want to surrender. They wanted to fight on. Although the samurai warriors no longer exist, their code that death is better than surrender still pervades Japanese society and can be seen in the suicide bombers. The Emperor was able to override their determination to die rather than submit. If we had not dropped the bomb, probably at least a million Americans would have been killed and probably several million Japanese. If the saving of human life is a measure of the morality of an action, then our dropping the bomb, was an extremely moral act. It is true, that if every nation possessed such a bomb and used it in warfare, then the human race would either cease to exist or live in a state unrecognizable as human life. So every precaution was set in motion to prevent this from occurring, but the notion that if the United States had never developed the bomb, then no other nation would have felt the need to do so is an absurdity, and our failure to develop the bomb would have put us at the mercy of an aggressor who did possess it.

This is one of the few books I have purchased and read in the month it was published. It is compelling reading with intimate sketches of key people involved from President Truman who first learned of the atomic bomb project only when he became president to a ten year old girl who lived through the devastating blast that destroyed Hiroshima. The countdown structure of the book made it read like a suspense thriller even though I was well aware of the outcome. The most important feature of the book for me was the insight into the moral issues involved in developing and deploying such a massively destructive weapon. I had always assumed that the scientists who developed the weapon, the president who decided to use it and the soldiers who delivered it had no reservations about its use. The book reveals that many scientists, military leaders, and government officials did have serious questions about the morality and advisability of producing such a terrible weapon. And many thoughtful participants in the making and use of the bomb expressed remorse after the bombs incinerated most of the populations of two Japanese cities. Although President Truman never expressed regrets about his decision to drop the bombs, many others did. Without arguing for one side or the other regarding the morality of using the atom bomb, Chris Wallace and Mitch Weiss let the reader reflect on the complex moral issues faced by those who first used this terrifying weapon on civilian populations. And they invite us to ponder the fact that the stockpile of nuclear bombs and warheads on our planet has now grown to almost 50,000.

The book does a great job describing the events and drama leading up to the first use of an atomic weapon in warfare. President Truman's experiences & frustrations at Potsdam dealing with the long-winded Churchill and tight-lipped Stalin are especially insightful. The book's excellent overview of the Manhattan Project provided good detail of activities at Oak Ridge, which produced the nuclear material, and Los Alamos, which built and designed the bomb. The third site of the Manhattan Project at Hanford, Washington is touched upon, but it apparently was not as critical as the other two in developing a means to build & deliver the bomb. The drama of deciding whether to use the weapon is disclosed in wonderful detail, with strong arguments both pro & con. I especially enjoyed reading about the 509th Bomb Group led by Colonel Paul Tibbets and the famous names I would recognize later in my own career. While the roles of Truman, Groves, and Oppenheimer are recounted in great detail, an unexpected surprise was to read about how the war affected ordinary people, like the young woman working at Oak Ridge to refine nuclear material, and a 10-year old Japanese school girl who returned to her home in Hiroshima literally the night before she witnessed the complete annihilation of her beloved home city. Talk about bad timing! I wish the book had devoted more pages to the 2nd nuclear mission a few days later, which was a series of mishaps and human blunders that nearly ended in disaster. It's estimated that dropping the two atomic bombs shortened the war by at least one year, saving hundreds of thousands of lives on both sides of the conflict. That's not to minimize the consequences to the Japanese who suffered horribly because of the dropping of the two atomic bombs. In sum, the construction of the atomic bomb was a masterpiece of human ingenuity when all Americans pulled together as one team. The question now is whether humans will use their innate wisdom to find creative solutions that do not require blunt weapons to resolve conflict.

Although I am very familiar with this story reading many of the books and visiting all the important sites, I purchased this book primarily due to my admiration for Chris Wallace and his contributions. The authors have created a well written concise book that all can easily read. It reads like a spy-novel. This novel has real life people whose lives cascade with the events from FDR’s death to “ Fat Man” over Nagasaki on 9 August 1945. This effective and highly descriptive technique certifies and personifies the historical events of the period. The authors allow the reader to peer into these lives which is foreign to usual historical texts. After many years of questioning why the plutonium weapon was tested first at Trinity, I found my answer on page 125. Simple, they did not know it would work! Additionally, on the same page the authors corrected their mistake of where Alamogordo was 230 miles south of Los Alamos (not north as indicated on page 110). This defect in the text is illuminating in it possibly reveals the authors and or the editors have never been to the Manhattan Project Research Sites of Oak Ridge, Los Alamos, Hanford and Cannon AFB. I find that interesting. The book indirectly defends Truman’s decision to use the weapon. On page 82 it is stated the Japanese had 4 million soldiers coupled with several million armed civilians to resist a US invasion while the Americans had 2 million in the Pacific at this time. Siege warfare proscribes a 4 to one advantage when assaulting a hardened objective. This means the US would have needed at a minimum 30 million soldiers to neutralize the Japanese regarding a home island invasion. This is double the 14 million the US had under arms at that time! The book reveals the stubbornness of the Japanese to capitulate. The Giulio Douhet Theory of offensive bombing doctrine appears to fail during WW II in Europe and also in Japan even with these super weapons. As described in this text both sides were taken back by the power of the bombs. Little did the Japanese know the US only had two. However, Japanese scientists conveyed to the Emperor the US could produce more of the second weapon for it was created from reactor plutonium. The book’s index is very helpful along with the many timely and appropriate photos which supports this interesting story. This is one of the best written books I have read in years. If you do not know anything about this topic, you will understand the history.

I was pleasantly surprised by Countdown 1945. I've always respected Chris Wallace, but assumed his book would be another rally-round-the-flag book typical of many Fox authors. I was intending on giving the book a three or four rating half-way through. I enjoyed the building drama, and particularly the personal profiles of the many people associated with the first atomic bomb from the scientists to the victims. Good, but not great writing. But as I got near the end where Wallace began to really explore the issues Truman faced in making the decision to drop the bomb, I upgraded the book to a five. Wallace really provides a well balanced and objective discussion of why Truman chose to drop the bomb, and the remorse so many good, and well-meaning people had afterwards. The only fault I have with the book is it did not more deeply explore the political issues which prohibited Truman from signing a conditional peace accord with Japan allowing the Japanese to keep their emperor. Japan had said they were willing to surrender, given this one proviso. This could have ended the war with no additional bloodshed. But there's little discussion of this in Wallace's book, or any book as far as I know. Excellent book, and highly recommended.

Written like a novel, “Countdown 1945” provides readers with a type of back-stage access to the development and subsequent use of the atomic bomb and, more importantly, in-depth insight into the thoughts and feelings of those connected with the project. Wallace writes mostly from the American perspective, sprinkled with Japanese correspondence and survivor stories. He uses first-hand accounts based on interviews and diary entries. Chronicled with neither condemnation nor overt celebration, the result is a very human representation of the events leading to the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the effects on those directly involved. The question as to the morality of said events is not directly addressed, as it is not the purpose of this book. The question, however, is addressed separately by each of the book’s players and, ultimately, left to the reader to ponder. Overall, I found “Countdown 1945” riveting, as if I had no clue regarding the outcome, and thought-provoking in a way I had not expected. Well done, Mr. Wallace.

I was 8 years old when the bomb was dropped. My memories are from hearing my Dad talk and listening to Walter Winchell on the 6 o'clock news each evening. The war had been long and hard on everyone. Rationing of gas, flour, sugar, and other grocery items. I remember my Dad drinking tea when we were unable to buy coffee and walking to work when he ran short of gas rationing stamps. Also standing in long lines when the word from the "grapevine" went out that some scarce items such as bacon or meat was available at a particular grocery store. Cigarettes were almost impossible to buy. Thank goodness my Dad smoked a pipe so cigarettes weren't a big issue. Reading about the decisions and plans that had to be made by our President and carried out by our military was extremely interesting to the old lady I have become through these many years. An interesting, well written, knowledgeable book.

Have read this before. Chris Wallace writes a informative book on the WWII nuclear bomb development

Very concise and descriptive. It’s easy and enjoyable reading and describes the situation from many points of view. Fascinating period in history well written.

This book introduces you to the characters who played a major part in a moment of history leading up to the dropping of two atomic bombs on Japan ending the war. The characters include President Truman through to a child in Hiroshima and includes the crew of the plane and the manufacturers of the bomb itself. It reads as a chronological narrative with a few historical sidetracks. It is written very well in plain simple English like the excellent journalist that Chris Wallace is. The subject matter is fascinating and unique in history. I thoroughly recommend the book to anyone wanting to learn about those times. I will be reading it again as soon as I get the book back from my father-in-law.

一応、書きましたので…。ごめんなさい。

This well-written interesting historical event is thought provoquing and should be read by everyone.

É muito difícil concordar que para terminar a segunda guerra mundial foram necessárias duas bombas atômicas.