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Excerpt from The Hiroshima Maidens: A Story of Courage, Compassion, and Survival

Published in 1985

In May 1945 the war in Europe came to a close, thus freeing up American, British, and Soviet forces, collectively known as the Allies, for the battle against Japan. At that time, naval blockades were already strangling Japanese ports. In addition, the United States had captured key islands in the Pacific and established air bases on them. (See Eugene B. Sledge entry in chapter four for more information about the war in the Pacific.) Air assaults were launched from these bases throughout the spring of 1945, crushing the Japanese military and crippling key cities on the home islands (the chain of four islands making up the heart of Japan). An invasion of the main island—first of Kyushu (pronounced "key-OO-shoe"), then northward to the capital city of Tokyo on Honshu—was tentatively scheduled for...