Professor Richard Overy Rain of Ruin: Tokyo, Hiroshima and the Surrender of Japan

About

From one of the worlds foremost historians of the Second World War comes a superb, magisterial and deeply humane account (The Times) of how Japans empire finally fell. In this powerful talk, Professor Richard Overy draws on his acclaimed new book Rain of Ruin, hailed as a masterpiece of clarity and insight and the definitive history of the Pacific Wars end (Amazon reviewers) to unravel one of history's most momentous questions: what truly compelled Japan to surrender in August 1945?

Was it the atomic bomb, the firestorms over Tokyo, the Soviet invasion, or the slow collapse of a starving nation? Overy interweaves the decisions of Truman, Stalin, Hirohito and their generals with the experiences of scientists, airmen and civilians beneath the bombs, tracing how terror, calculation and exhaustion converged to bring total war to its close.

With the precision of a historian and the dramatic sweep of a storyteller, Overy explores both the strategy and the morality of modern warfare - how far nations will go to win, and what that victory costs.

Overy FBA is Honorary Research Professor of History at the University of Exeter and the author of internationally acclaimed works including The Bombing War, Blood and Ruins, The Dictators and Why the Allies Won. His books have reshaped how we understand modern warfare, air power and total war. A Q&A Session will follow.