Japan's Longest Day
by Pacific War Research Society
Published in 1965 (I finished it on December 16, 2018)

It’s well done for what is is: an account of the last 24 hours of the Japanese surrender of Word War II. I mean it’s incredibly interesting and informative about how the top people in government and the leaders of the military felt, as well as their subordinates. (Most civilians were pretty much in the dark.)

One peculiar thread was how most of the people thought of the emperor as a god, but some of the militarily did not agree when the emperor agreed to the surrender as he knew it was the best way to save the remaining people—but the rebels thought the emperor was mistaken. Divine and yet mistaken? That must have kept some officers up at night.

So while I enjoyed reading it a lot, if you don’t have a strong interest for the more intricate stories of the Second World War, then I would not suggest reading it.

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