Marching Orders

Already acclaimed as "one of the most important books ever published about World War II," this brilliantly written book reveals a host of previously untold stories: how the American breaking of the Japanese diplomatic Purple ciphers led to the defeat of Germany and caused Eisenhower not to capture Berlin, as well as why America and Great Britain agreed to employ nuclear weapons against Japan. Challenging conventional wisdom, this book concisely documents the dreadful casualties both American and Japanese forces would have suffered in an invasion and occupation of Japan. Marching Orders demonstrates, through its interpretation of the supposedly secret communications between Japanese leaders, that Tokyo was adamant in its refusal to surrender. The difficult choices facing the Americans about how to end the war quickly are explained on a day-by-day-basis.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.