For the first time ever, this book gives the calculated figure of how many Allied deaths would have been caused by a conventional invasion of Japan at the end of World War II. 

Approximately 800,000 Allied combat deaths would have been incurred. But this grim picture does not stop there. 300,000 prisoners would have been executed. And in an invasion lasting until the end of 1946 three and a half million people scattered throughout Japanese territory would have perished. 

By saving 4.5 million people fighting or living in countries affected by the Empire, the two atomic strikes were justified in taking around 200,000 Japanese lives. And given around four people are wounded for every war death, 16 million people did not have their lives impacted by injuries and pain. But the Japanese people – military and co-opted civilians, would have died in their further millions for their Emperor. 

Atomic Salvation shows calculations of 28 million deaths for the defenders of the Home Islands – far higher than previously suggested. The analysis shows that a total of around 32.5 million Allied and Japanese people would have died in a conventional invasion. Across the combat zone of the broad Pacific and Asia, the war went on relentlessly after Germany had surrendered. 

The book shows calculations that approximately 10,000 people a day on the Allied side alone were dying while it continued. That figure sounds incredible, but WWII cost around 60 million lives. Only such blunt accounting brings home the cost of delaying its end. 

Atomic Salvation’s military factors analysis also examines: - The troop strengths both sides would have brought to an invasion? - What resolution did the Japanese people have to continue the war – and what rebellion did those who refused to surrender engage in? - Would the 10,000 kamikaze aircraft have been a significant factor? - How capable would the 9,200 suicide speedboats, submarines and divers being readied have been? - Did Japan explode its own nuclear test device in its quest for the ultimate weapon? - Were the forces of the USSR a possible factor? - Why blockade, starvation and intensive aerial bombing were not able to bring the war to a conclusion. - Why has argument risen since the war, saying the USA was not right in its action. 

Never before has such an exhaustive analysis been made of the necessity behind bringing World War II to a halt. 

Dr Tom Lewis, a military veteran himself, has combined exhaustive analysis of hundreds of sources with a logical investigation that argues that sadly for those who died, the deaths of the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki saved the lives of many millions.