Reviews for Reassessing the Japanese Prisoner of War Experience: The Changai P.O.W. Camp, Singapore, 1942-45

The average rating for Reassessing the Japanese Prisoner of War Experience: The Changai P.O.W. Camp, Singapore, 1942-45 based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-06-06 00:00:00 Paul Hasselberg one of the best books that asks the question: was dropping the bomb on hiroshima necessary? what about nagasaki? what ramifications did they have for the world sphere? american war vets will tell you the bomb was dropped to save millions of young american lives, because japan wasn't going to surrender and an invasion of the main island was going to have to happen. other people will tell you the bomb was dropped because it was easy. others will say that it was dropped to show the soviets exactly what we had. sherwin argues, quite convincingly, that truman decided to drop the bomb because stalin had signed a pact agreeing to intervene in the pacific sphere if the war was not over by a certain date. that day was set two or three days after japan's complete surrender after nagasaki. i think that both issues were at play - keeping the soviets out (so we could negotiate the peace we wanted, without having to give anything to stalin - who had a pretty bad relationship with truman as opposed to FDR) and ending the war that seemingly wasn't going to end until the japanese were wiped off the face of the earth. (japanese propaganda fueled this - they were in a much worse state than we were led to believe, because as we all know, the japanese did not believe in a white flag.) interesting debate, anyway, and an excellent book to get you started in the debate.

Review # 2 was written on 2010-06-20 00:00:00 Matthew Carswell A powerful study of the development of the first atomic bomb. Especially strong on the relationships between the scientists, military people, and political figures involved in the process. Thoroughly documented and very readable.