When the Shooting Stopped: August 1945

Victory in Japan Day on August 15, 1945 officially marked the end of World War II, but in fact conflict continued throughout the month. This history details the true final weeks of the war.

Despite the Allied grand strategy of “Germany first,” after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. especially was committed to confronting Tokyo as a matter of urgent priority.

But from Oahu to Tokyo was a long, sanguinary slog, averaging an advance of just three miles per day. The U.S. human toll paid on that road reached some 108,000 battle deaths. But by the summer of 1945 on both the American homefront and on the frontline there was hope. The stunning announcements of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9 seemed sure to force Tokyo over the tipping point. In fact, most of the Japanese cabinet refused to surrender and vicious dogfights still raged in the skies above Japan.

This fascinating history tells the story of the final weeks of the war, detailing the last brutal battles on air, land and sea with first-hand accounts from pilots and sailors caught up in these extraordinary events. Barrett Tillman expertly details the first weeks of a tenuous peace and the drawing of Cold War battle lines as Soviet forces concluded their invasion of Manchuria. When the Shooting Stopped draws on accounts from all sides to relive the days when the war finally ended and the world was forever changed.

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