A Limited Book Review: Killing the Rising Sun or Road to Surrender

A few months ago I raised some issues with Bill O'Reilly's Killing the Rising Sun and stated that I would not recommend it.  A better substitute, for a read about the end of the pacific theater during WW2, would be Evan Thomas's Road to Surrender.  It has some clear similarities, such as both Thomas and O'Reilly were former journalists. Both make statements that their fathers served in the US Navy and were both slated to serve in Operation Downfall, the invasion of Japan.  Both authors tell how their father's stories sparked an interest in the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Both come to their respective projects with the belief that dropping the Bomb was necessary for ending the war. This being said, Thomas' book doesnt raise any of my four red flags. 

Firstly, Thomas never says his narrative is "The Truth (O'Reilly,2)."  He presents his evidence, gives voice to all sides and let's the reader decide how true his narrative is. This is what a historian is supposed to do. I don't argue that Thomas gets his narrative one hundred percent true but he presents his work with the humility of a student of history.

My second problem with O'Reilly's book was that I constantly asked how does he know that? Thomas explains in the beginning of his book that he had access to unpublished diaries and papers of key figures in his narrative (Thomas, xvi). Primary sources do lie for one reason or another but Having such personal primary sources makes the possibility that these men had certain thoughts and feelings more believable. 

Thirdly, THE BOOK HAD A BIBLIOGRAPHY! As I had said in another post, a bibliography is not necessary as long as your sources are sited in a Notes page (Keating).  A bibliography is great tool for the reader. It says the author at least knows the historiography of the subject. It allows readers to find more materials for further reading and research on the subject. Bibliographies are a chance for the author show how much he/she prepared for their book.

Finally, I took issue with the way Killing the Rising Sun used history to manipulate the reader by cherry picking its vignettes. Road to Surrender provides not only the American story about the bomb but a nuanced analysis of the Japanese side as well. providing the political situation in Japan, cultural roadblocks and historical reasoning for why they did not surrender when it first became obvious they would lose the war.

To be fair I'm not a WW2 historian the only other book I've read on the subject is Bill O'Reilly's Killing the Rising Sun.  In my opinion Road to Surrender is the better researched, better organized and is more empathetic in its presentation. This is the book I would recommend.

Bibliography: 

Keating, Chris. "A Limited Book Review: Killing the Rising Sun." The Weaving Chronicle. August 27, 2023. https://theweavingchronicle.blogspot.com/2023/08/a-limited-book-review-killing-rising-sun.html?m=1.

O'Reilly, Bill and Martin Dugard. Killing the Rising Sun. New York: Henry Holt and Company, LLC., 2016.

Thomas, Evan. Road to Surrender. New York: Random House, 2023.