Before The Bomb: How America Approached the End of the Pacific War [Hardcover]

John Chappell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 23, 1996

" Almost forgotten in the haze of events that followed Nagasaki and Hiroshima, the summer of 1945 witnessed an intense public debate over how best to end the war against Japan. Weary of fighting, the American people were determined to defeat the imperial power that had so viciously attacked them in December 1941, but they were uncertain of the best means to accomplish this goal. Certain of victory -- the "inevitable triumph" promised by Franklin Roosevelt immediately after Pearl Harbor -- Americans became increasingly concerned about the human cost of defeating Japan. Particularly after the brutal Iwo Jima and Okinawa campaigns, syndicated columnists, newspaper editorialists, radio commentators, and others questioned the necessity of invasion. A lengthy naval and aerial siege would have saved lives but might have protracted the war beyond the public's patience. Advertisers filled the media with visions of postwar affluence even as the government was exhorting its citizens to remain dedicated to the war effort. There was heated discussion as well about the morality of firebombing Japanese cities and of using poison gas and other agents of chemical warfare. Chappell provides a balanced assessment of all these debates, grounding his observations in a wealth of primary sources. He also discusses the role of racism, the demand for unconditional surrender, and the government's reaction to public opinion in the decision to drop the atomic bomb. Compelling and controversial, this is the first work to examine the confusing and contradictory climate of the American home front in the months leading up to V-J Day. John D. Chappell is assistant professor of history in the Department of History, Politics, and Law at Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Almost forgotten in the haze of events following the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was the intense public debate over how best to end the war against Japan. Finally, the Joint Chiefs of Staff agreed upon a strategy of sustained bombing and blockade of Japan followed by an invasion of Kyushu. Few Allied leaders knew that the atomic bombs would be ready for use before summer's end. In thoroughgoing, scholarly fashion, Chappell (history, Webster Univ.) examines a variety of printed sources, including regional newspapers, popular magazines, and scholarly journals to cull America's sentiments. His consultation of major African American publications reveals that they focused primarily on the ongoing racial struggle in the United States, though they also provide fascinating examples of an all-too-rare evaluation of the racial overtones of the Pacific War. Recommended for World War II collections.?Michael Coleman, Alabama Regional Lib. for the Blind & Physically Handicapped, Montgomery
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"The subjects in this book are important and provocative." -- American Historical Review

"One of the most important findings in this book is the deep desire of Americans to resume their lives and to enjoy a prosperity that they had been denied by the Depression and World War II." -- American Historical Review

"This is a fascinating study, based on a wealth of research in the American media and in public and private archives." -- American Studies

"Focusing on the American home from between V-E Day and V-J Day, Chappell assesses public opinion about the continuing Pacific war, the extent to which that opinion differed from government perceptions, and how government officials responded to it.... [Chappell] offers thorough research and convincing conclusions." -- Choice

"This monograph does not purport to be a study of all the reasons for dropping the bomb, but it succeeds in bringing many long-obscured American voices back into the debate over whether the Pacific War needed to end with the use of nuclear weapons." -- Indiana History Magazine

"[Chappell's] consultation of major African American publications reveals that they focused primarily on the ongoing racial struggle in the United States, though they also provide fascinating examples of an all-too-rare evaluation of the racial overtones of the Pacific War." -- Library Journal

"Chappell has done an outstanding job of extensive research and prepared a good analysis in his scholarly account of just how America approached the end of the Pacific War." -- Military History of the West

"Compelling and controversial, Before the Bomb examines the confusing and contradictory climate of the American home front in the months leading up to V-J Day. Before the Bomb is a critically important contribution to our understanding of wartime and post-wartime politics." -- Reviewer's Bookwatch

"Chronicles a gradual unraveling of support for the war following the Allied victory in Europe on May 8, 1945, that persisted until the dropping of the atomic bombs three months later on Hiroshima and Nagasaki." -- Southern Historian

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: The University Press of Kentucky (December 23, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813119871
• ISBN-13: 978-0813119878
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,526,571 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Solid, original research, November 3, 1999

By 

Daniel Hellinger (St. Louis) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Before The Bomb: How America Approached the End of the Pacific War (Hardcover)

If you read the respectable academic review rather than rely upon the rant that gives this book only one star, you'll get a much truer view of this book's worth. Chappell's book is distinguished by the fact that it's readable (even, apparently, for those incapable of understanding it), especially for a piece that is a solid work of historiography. The use of constituent letters to representatives is a particularly innovative way of tapping into the minds of the attentive public during this period.

In the interests of full disclosure, I'll tell you I am a colleague of the author, but I have actually read the book and feel I can defend it on objective grounds. (Well, I'll have to make a tenure recommendation, after all!)

3 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Whining, sniveling, disjointed PC revisionism, October 19, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Before The Bomb: How America Approached the End of the Pacific War (Hardcover)

There is the nucleus of a reasonable book here but it lies buried under a kiloton of notes and a feeble, puerile, puling, wurnt-it-awful attempt at a hatchet job aimed at every white male alive in America at the time. Oh, Chappell moans, we were SO racist, sexist, consumerist--ignoring (or at best giving short shrift to) facts such as: (1) Japanese atrocities (Rape of Nanking, Bataan Death March etc.) were widely known well before the awful truth about the Nazi death camps (and in any case the Germans were defeated already); (2) Since the US was only just emerging from depression and massive unemployment at the start of WW2 (largely because of armaments production), it was justly feared that there wouldn't be enough jobs to go around for demobilized servicemen in a demilitarizing economy (and remember this was an age of the one-breadwinner nuclear family!); and (3) People who'd had no money during the 30's--and money but nothing to buy during the war--were naturally anticipating goods (such as new cars) they'd been denied for so long. --Beneath all this is an issue well worth exploring: whether Hiroshima & Nagasaki could have been avoided by clarifying surrender terms, and to what extent US public opinion would have allowed or prevented this. But Chappell merely states his own conclusion after a meandering, scattershot treatment which never lets the task of making a cogent argument get in the way of trashing with perfect hindsight the dead white males who had to make the policies in the midst of the "fog of war". --While the extensive endnotes (60 pages out of 250) are of some value in sorting the period out (discounting the author's comments), this book could have been reduced to a list of same, published on the Internet, and a lot of deserving trees (not to mention public library budgets) would have been saved. Then again, it probably wouldn't've counted toward tenure...