by Jim B. Smith with Malcolm McConnellOrder it online
Broadway Books
Hardcover
256 pages
ISBN: 0767907787
A gripping account of the final American bombing mission of World War II and how it prevented a military coup that would have kept Japan in the war. How close did the Japanese come to not surrendering to Allied forces on August 15, 1945? The Last Mission explores this question through two previously neglected strands of late—World War II history, whose very interconnections could have caused a harrowing shift in the course of the postwar world. On the final night of the war, as Emperor Hirohito recorded a message of surrender for the Japanese people, a band of Japanese rebels, commanded by War Minister Anami's elite staff, burst into the palace. They had plotted a massive coup that aimed to destroy the recordings of the Imperial Rescript of surrender and issue false orders forged with the Emperor’s seal commanding the widely dispersed Japanese military to continue the war. If this rebellion had succeeded, the military would have proceeded with large-scale kamikaze attacks on Allied forces, costing huge casualties and just possibly provoking the Americans to drop a third atomic bomb on Japan over Tokyoand continue to drop more bombs as Japanese resistance stiffened. Meanwhile, in the midst of an “end-of-war” celebration on Guam, Air Force radio operator Jim Smith and his fellow crewmen received urgent orders for a bombing mission over Japan’s sole remaining oil refinery north of Tokyo. As a stream of American B-29B bombers approached Tokyo, Japanese air defenses, fearing the approaching planes signaled the threat of a third atomic bomb, ordered a total blackout in Tokyo and the Imperial Palace, completely disrupting the rebels’ plans. Smith and his fellow crewmembers completed the mission, and a few hours later, the Emperor announced the surrender over Japan’s airwaves, dictating the end of the war. The Last Mission is an insightful piece of speculative investigation that combines narrative storytelling with historical contingency and explores how two seemingly unrelated events could have profoundly changed the course of modern history.
Praise for The Last Mission:
"The Last Mission is an exceptional book - a fast-moving combat narrative set against a vivid account of Japan's frantic effort to prepare for Allied invasion, which would have been a bloodbath to end all bloodbaths. The imperial army's desperate attempt tp capture Hirohito, and why the coup failed, make exciting reading, and tantalize the imagination." - Sterling Seagrave, co-author of The Yamato Dynasty
"An exciting, highly readable, minute-to-minute account of the last air raid on Tokyo, which, according to co-author Jim Smith, a participant in the attack, foiled a Japanese army attempt to prevent the Emperor from surrendering to the Allies and a Soviet plan to occupy Japan." - Dan Kurzman, author of Fatal Voyage: The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis
"Fresh perspectives on the oft-chronicled Japanese surrender....[G]eneral readers will enjoy this as much as military enthusiasts." - Kirkus Reviews
"Skillfully weaving personal and archival history, The Last Mission gives us a haunting glimpse of just how close we came to the brink of waging a final desperate war on Japanese soil - a war whose death toll might have surpassed a hundred Hiroshimas." - Hampton Sides, author of Ghost Soldiers
"A fascinating book with haunting implications. The Last Mission is a breathtaking blend of memoir, investigative research and imagination: the story of how a single air raid forever changed the course of world history. This book is certain to provoke a flurry of 'what if?' questions, as well as remind us of the enduring power and consequences of each human decision." - Iris Chang, author of The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II