‘Twilight of the Gods’ Review: A Blood-Soaked Peace

Ian W. Toll brings his three-volume history of the war in the Pacific to a close in a story of long-distance bombings and desperate island battles.

Cover art
image from Google Play


Excerpt:

"The author’s strength lies in teasing out vivid details of the complex air and naval operations. Describing a line of B-29 bombers preparing for a bombing raid on Tokyo, he writes: 'The Wright Duplex-Cyclone engines began firing to life. They coughed, caught, whirred and backfired thunderously, expelling clouds of exhaust smoke. Then the doors, hatches, and bomb bays were slammed closed, and the lead planes began inching out of their hardstands and trundling down the taxiways. . . . The commingled roars of so many great engines caused the air and ground to vibrate. One witness was reminded of the Indianapolis 500.' 

Seven pages later, after the bombers do their work, Mr. Toll surveys the carnage wrought on 100,000 Tokyo inhabitants killed in one night’s serial slaughter: 'Corpses were stacked like cordwood. They looked like charcoal mannequins, shrunk to three-quarters of their size, their facial features burned beyond recognition. Men could not be distinguished from women; smaller figures, children, died alongside their parents. The bodies were burned on the spot, or loaded into trucks to be buried in mass graves, or cremated in bonfires on the outskirts of the city.' From May to August 1945, the Army air forces dropped over 34,000 tons of bombs—the equivalent of more than one atomic bomb—on Japan each month. 

In a conflict dominated by ships and saltwater, the final word was uttered by the Air Force, which ended the war by dropping the 'Little Boy' and 'Fat Man' bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 

Mr. Toll describes a Japan that desired to end the war but was fatally divided between 'never surrender' and peace factions that delayed firm action until the incineration of two cities cut short the debate."

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