Empire of Ashes: Truman, Hirohito, and the Descent Into Total War

By James M. Scott

Over three days in August 1945, a nation once morally opposed to the bombing of civilians killed 120,000 men, women, and children; doomed tens of thousands more to agonizing death in the weeks and months ahead; and annihilated two cities: Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Empire of Ashes explores the final brutal months of the war in the Pacific, featuring the voices of never-before-heard victims of the atomic bombs. Through interviews with survivors and accounts gleaned from Japanese sources, New York Times best-selling author James M. Scott combines the attacks' heart-wrenching details with their causes and consequences, from debates within the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos, Oakridge, and Hanford to the fallout that would alter decades of life in Japan. From "an exceptional writer with a keen eye for dazzling detail and gripping, suspenseful storytelling" (Henry Richard Maar III, Journal of Military History), Empire of Ashes illuminates the moral dilemma at the center of America's decision to inflict total war upon Japan with startling immediacy.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1324065486
• ISBN13: 9781324065487
• Release Date: August 2026
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 464 Pages