Nemesis

Nemesis tells the story of the final phase of the war against Japan from 1944 to the surrender in August 1945. Max Hastings ranges from the Philippines, Iwo Jima and Okinawa to the British reconquest of Burma, the air offensive against Japanese cities, the war in China and the Soviet attack in Manchuria.

The book culminates in the atomic bombings and Japan’s decision to surrender, examining the strategic arguments alongside the experiences of soldiers, sailors and civilians across Asia and the Pacific. Commanders including MacArthur, Nimitz and Slim appear within a history that also asks how Japanese resistance, Allied choices and Soviet intervention shaped the war’s ending. It is nonfiction military history.