This suspenseful and propulsive account of the days leading up to the end of World War II, is told through the stories of three men: Henry Stimson, the Secretary of War, who had overall responsibility for decisions about the atomic bomb; Gen. Carl "Tooey" Spaatz, head of strategic bombing in Europe and the Pacific, who was in charge of actually dropping the bombs; and Shigenori Tōgō, the Japanese Foreign Minister, who was the only one in Emperor Hirohito's Court and Supreme War Council who knew and believed that Japan must surrender. 1945 was Stimson's last year of his career as a statesman in the administrations of five presidents. When Truman, a peripheral figure in the momentous decision, accepted Stimson's recommendation to drop the bomb, you are there as Army Air Force commander General Spaatz accepts the order, gets into one of the planes, and the planes take off. Like Stimson, Spaatz agonized over the command even as he recognized it would end the war, and that a prolonged war would cause even greater destruction. But Spaatz and Stimson were on only one side of the story. On the other side of the world was a commander whom they would never meet. From the start of the Pacific war, Foreign Minister Tōgō worked to mediate negotiations between the Japanese Prime Minister, the Emperor, and his Court, all of whom believed surrender was impossible. Finally, Tōgō convinced the Emperor that surrender was the best option for Hirohito, and for Japan.