1945Mar 29, 2001 America has dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In 1945, history has reached a turning point. A terrible new weapon has been unleashed. Japan has no choice but to surrender. But instead, the unthinkable occurs. With their nation burned and shattered, Japanese fanatics set in motion a horrifying endgame–their aim: to take America down with them. In Robert Conroy’s brilliantly imagined epic tale of World War II, Emperor Hirohito’s capitulation is hijacked by extremists and a weary United States is forced to invade Japan as a last step in a war that has already cost so many lives. As the Japanese lash out with tactics that no one has ever faced before–from POWs used as human shields to a rain of kamikaze attacks that take out the highest-value target in the Pacific command–the invasion’s success is suddenly in doubt. As America’s streets erupt in rioting, history will turn on the acts of a few key players from the fiery front lines to the halls of Washington to the shadowy realm of espionage, while a mortally wounded enemy becomes the greatest danger of all. Praise for Robert Conroy’s 1901 “Likely to please both military history and alternative history buffs . . . The writing . . . keeps us turning the pages.” “Fascinating . . . skillfully crafted.” “Packed with action.” At the start of Conroy's compelling third alternate history (after 1901 and 1862), military extremists, honor bound by the Japanese code of Bushido, kidnap Emperor Hirohito hours before he's set to announce his country's formal surrender in the aftermath of the atom bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Led by aging samurai and fanatical army general Korechika Anami, the new regime manipulates President Truman into invading the Japanese home islands. The massive offensive (with ground forces led by Gen. Douglas MacArthur) meets stiff resistance, including kamikaze attacks and the use of POWs as human shields. But as the U.S. finds itself slowly sinking into a nightmarish military quagmire, two improbable heroes chart a path to victory. Conroy explores the carnage of war through numerous viewpoints (a naïve American soldier, an escaped POW, a Japanese-American operative, the deposed emperor, etc.) with moving and thought-provoking results. For another take on the same scenario, see Douglas Niles and Michael Dobson's MacArthur's War: A Novel of the Invasion of Japan (Reviews, Mar. 26). (May 29) Conroy has Japan's surrender after the A-bombs short-circuited by extremists. That leads to a typhoon-battered U.S. invasion that encounters last-ditch Japanese resistance. There are a third of a million American casualties, and two more A-bombs are dropped on Japan. Realistic to the point of gruesomeness, 1945recalls David Westheimer's classic Lighter Than a Feather(1971). Roland Green |
