INTRODUCTION  (3)

"Today is V-E Day"  (3)

UNIT 1: A FIGHT TO THE FINISH  (3-22)

[Introductory section  (3)]

Combat in the Pacific -- 1945  (4-11)

[Introductory section  (4)]

The Strategic Situation, Spring 1945  (4)

No Holds Barred -- Iwo Jima and Okinawa  (4)

Iwo Jima: A Slice of Hell  (5)

Okinawa: A Battle of Unprecedented Ferocity  (5)

War Without Mercy  (6)

Combat Fatigue  (7)

Preparations for the Invasion of Japan  (7)

The Kamikaze  (7)

The Way of the Samurai  (8)

The Ritual of Death  (8)

Floating Chrysanthemums  (9)

Fighting the Kamikaze  (9)

A Piloted Bomb: The Yokosuka MXY7 Ohka  (10)

The National Air and Space Museum's Ohka  (10)

A Torch to the Enemy: The Strategic Bombing of Japan  (11-15)

[Introductory section  (11)]

From the Blitz to the Firestorm  (12)

The American Bombing Campaign in Europe  (12)

The Long Road to Tokyo  (13)

Tokyo in Flames  (13)

Unprecedented Devastation  (14)

Operation Starvation  (14)

Two Nations at War  (15-22)

[Introductory section  (15)]

Home Front, U.S.A.  (15)

The Arsenal of Democracy  (16)

The Roots of a New America  (16)

The Limits of Democracy  (16)

The Yellow Peril  (17)

Finishing the Job  (18)

The Japanese Home Front at War  (18)

Hardship on the Homefront  (19)

Labor  (19)

Slave Labor  (20)

The Coming of the "B-San"  (20)

The Demonic Other  (21)

"100 Million Hearts Beating as One"  (22)

UNIT 2: THE DECISION TO DROP THE BOMB  (23-56)

[Introductory section  (23)]

Deciding to Build the Bomb  (23)

The Einstein Letter  (24)

Leo Szilard 1898-1964  (26)

A Crash Program Begins  (26)

The Germans Decide Not to Build a Bomb  (26)

The Manhattan Project: A Gigantic Engineering
    Enterprise  (27)

A Most Secret Place  (27)

Leslie Groves 1896-1970  (28)

J. Robert Oppenheimer 1904-1967  (28)

An Expectation of Military Use  (29)

Historical Controversies: Would the Bomb Have Been Dropped on the Germans?  (29)

The "Fat Man" Atomic Bomb  (30)

Atomic Fission Bombs: How Do They Work?  (30)

The Most Terrible Weapon Ever Known in Human History  (31-35)

Truman and the Atomic Bomb  (31)

Harry S. Truman 1884-1972  (34)

Henry L. Stimson 1867-1950  (34)

Japan Looks for a Way Out of the War  (35-38)

[Introductory section  (35)]

Peace through Moscow?  (35)

Emperor Hirohito 1901-1989  (36)

Historical Controversies:  Did the United States Ignore the Japanese Peace Initiative?  (36)

"The Emperor Remains as the Sole Stabilizing Force"
    (37)

Joseph G. Grew 1880-1965  (37)

Historical Controversies:  Would the War Have Ended Sooner if the United States Had Guaranteed the Emperor's Position?  (38)

The Soviet Factor  (38-41)

[Introductory section  (38)]

The Soviet Union and the Pacific War  (39)

The Soviet Union and the Atomic Secret  (39)

"Persuading Russia to Play Ball"  (40)

James F. Byrnes 1879-1972  (41)

Historical Controversies: How Important Was the Soviet Factor in the "Decision to Drop the Bomb"?  (41)

Selecting the Target  (42-47)

[Introductory section  (42)]

Stimson, Groves and the Saving of Kyoto  (42)

"We Could Not Give the Japanese Any Warning"  (43)

Nuclear Weapons and the Bombing of Civilians  (44)

"Such Attacks on Japan Could Not Be Justified"  (44)

Military Opposition to the Bombings  (45)

Historical Controversies: Was a Warning or Demonstration Possible?  (47)

The Invasion of Japan: A Giant Okinawa?  (47-50)

[Introductory section  (47)]

"Operation Downfall" -- The Invasion Plan  (48)

George C. Marshall 1880-1959  (48)

Half a Million American Dead?  (49)

Historical Controversies: Was an Invasion Inevitable If the Atomic Bomb Had Not Been Dropped?  (49)

Truman, Stalin, Potsdam and the Bomb  (50-56)

[Introductory section  (50)]

"I Am Become Death, Destroyer of Worlds"  (50)

Truman Tells Stalin about the Bomb  (51)

"Fini Japs When That Comes About"  (53)

An Ultimatum to Japan  (53)

The Official Order to Drop the Bomb  (54)

Historical Controversies: Was the Decision to drop the Bomb Justified?  (56)

UNIT 3: DELIVERING THE BOMB  (57-95)

[Introductory section  (57)]

The B-29: A Three-Billion Dollar Gamble  (57-60)

[Introductory section  (57)]

Designing a Superbomber  (58)

Stretching Aerodynamic Limits  (58)

A Technological Gamble  (58)

A Troublesome Gestation  (59)

The Engine Crisis  (59)

Superfactories for a Superbomber  (60)

The B-29 and the Bombing of Japan  (60-67)

Creating a New Air Force  (60)

Crew Training  (61)

The Battle of Kansas  (61)

Early B-29 Operations in Asia  (62)

Bases in the Central Pacific  (63)

Bulldozers Before Bombers  (63)

Early B-29 Operations in the Marianas  (63)

Citizen Airmen  (64)

A Hazardous Business  (65)

Havens for Damaged Bombers  (65)

A Shift in Tactics  (66)

Model M-50 Incendiary Bomb  (66)

Burning Japan  (67)

The World's First Atomic Strike Force  (67-78)

[Introductory section  (67)]

Selecting an Atomic Commander  (68)

Paul W. Tibbets: "An Independent Operator"  (68)

Creating the 509th Composite Group  (69)

The 393rd Bomber Squadron  (69)

The 393rd's Uniform Patch  (70)

Tom Classen and the 393rd  (70)

Something New: A Military Police Company  (70)

1st Ordnance Squadron  (70)

The 1st Ordnance Squadron
You're Going to Be a Hero  (71)

Tibbets' Private Airforce  (71)

Old Friends  (72)

Radar Countermeasures  (72)

Wendover Air Force Base: "Leftover, USA"  (72)

Arrival at Wendover  (73)

"Welcome to Alcatraz"  (73)

William "Deak" Parsons and the Bomb  (74)

"Pumpkin" Missions  (74)

Out of the Bomb's Way  (74)

Lots of Fun  (75)

Special Training: Batista Field, Cuba  (75)

The Untouchables  (75)

Overseas: The 509th Goes to Tinian  (75)

Bombing Islands: Rota, Truk, Marcus Island  (76)

Bombing "The Empire": Japan, 1945  (76)

Tension in Paradise  (77)

Survival Gear  (77)

Getting Around  (77)

Waiting to "Win the War"  (78)

The B-29 Superfortress "Enola Gay"  (78-95)

[Introductory section  (78)]

The Markings of the "Enola Gay"  (78)

The Restoration of the "Enola Gay"  (79)

The "Little Boy" Atomic Bomb  (80)

The Missions  (80)

Mission No. 13: The First Atomic Strike  (81)

August 4: The First Briefing  (81)

Substitutions  (81)

"Some Weird Dream"  (82)

Protective Goggles (82)

Little Boy Goes to Tinian  (82)

"A Ticklish Procedure": Loading the Bomb  (83)

0000-0235 Hours: August 6  (83)

A Perfect Performance  (84)

Arming the Bomb  (84)

Bombs Away  (85)

First Atomic Bomb: Hiroshima  (85)

A Hero's Return  (86)

"The Greatest Thing in History"  (88)

Text of Truman's August 6 Statement on the Bomb  (88)

Mission No. 16  (92)

Additional Bombs  (92)

Onward to Kokura  (92)

Monitoring the Bomb  (93)

A Missed Rendezvous  (93)

Kokura: The Bombing That Never Happened  (94)

The Second Atomic Bomb: Nagasaki  (94)

UNIT 4: GROUND ZERO  (96-116)

Before The Bomb: Two Cities at War  (96-98)

Hiroshima, Japan: A Military City  (96)

Hiroshima at War  (96)

Hiroshima, 8:15 A.M., August 6, 1945  (97)

Nagasaki, Japan: Window on the West  (97)

Nagasaki at War  (98)

Nagasaki, 11:02 A.M., August 9, 1945  (98)

Nagasaki, August 10, 1945  (98)

"The Incredible Avalanche of Light"  (99-101)

[Introductory section  (99)]

The First Unspeakable Second  (99)

Pika!  (100)

A Moment Frozen in Time  (101)

Hibakusha  (101)

Two Cities in Chaos  (102-8)

Hiroshima: The First Half Hour  (102)

Nagasaki: The First Half Hour  (102)

Firestorms  (103)

A Sea of Flames  (103)

The First Hiroshima Municipal Girls' High School  (103)

Shattered Lives  (104)

Scenes of Destruction: Hiroshima and Nagasaki, August 7-10, 1945  (104)

Coping with Chaos  (105)

A Storm of Survival  (107)

Counting the Dead  (107)

A Deadly New Threat: Radioactivity  (108-16)

Radioactive Fallout: The "Black Rain"  (108)

The Initial Radiation from the Bomb  (108)

Induced Radioactivity  (109)

Radioactivity and Living Tissue  (109)

Manhattan Project Scientists and the Radiation Effects of the Bomb  (110)

The Mysterious "A-Bomb Disease"  (110)

The Mystery is Solved  (111)

Short-Term Mortality at Hiroshima and Nagasaki  (112)

Long-Term Radiation Effects in Hiroshima and Nagasaki  (113)

Cancer among Survivors  (114)

The Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission  (115)

Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes  (115)

UNIT 5: THE LEGACY OF HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI  (117-26)

[Introductory section  (117)]

Japan Surrenders  (117-20)

[Introductory section  (117)]

Hiroshima and the Soviet Declaration of War  (118)

The Emperor Intervenes  (118)

Truman and the Emperor Question  (119)

No Third Atomic Bomb  (119)

A "Living God" Speaks  (120)

The Cold War and the Nuclear Arms Race  (120-26)

[Introductory section  (120)]

The Failure of International Control  (121)

More Bombs and Bigger Bombs  (121)

The Voyage of the Lucky Dragon  (122)

The Rise of the Anti-Nuclear Movement  (122)

Didn't They All Go Crazy  (123)

A World Gone "M. A. D."  (123)

Nuclear Waste and Human Experiments  (124)

Arms Control?  (124)

Nuclear Proliferation and Nuclear Terrorism  (125)

Fifty Years of the Nuclear Dilemma  (126)