When the Shooting Stopped

By August 1945 Germany had been defeated and two Japanese cities had been reduced to radioactive rubble. Yet it still took weeks for the fighting in the Far East to subside. For one thing, Stalin had finally turned his attention to the East and sent the Red Army crashing through Manchuria and for another, the Japanese creed of Bushido meant that commanders viewed surrender with disgrace. The biggest danger faced the malnutrition and disease wracked Allied PoWs who feared being executed by sadistic guards. It’s all here in this excellent account of the last month of WWII.

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• Osprey Publishing

• ISBN 978-1-4728-4898-7

• 308 pages • Hardback • £25