The Hiroshima Men: The Quest to Build the Atomic Bomb, and the Fateful Decision to Use It

An epic, riveting history based on new interviews and research that elucidates the approval, construction, and fateful decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

At 8:15 a.m. on August 6, 1945, the Japanese port city of Hiroshima was struck by the world's first atomic bomb. Built in the US by the top-secret Manhattan Project and delivered by a B-29 Superfortress, a revolutionary long-range bomber, the weapon destroyed large swaths of the city, instantly killing tens of thousands. The world would never be the same.

The Hiroshima Men's vivid narrative recounts the decade-long journey toward this first atomic attack. It charts the race for the bomb during World War II, as the Allies fought the Axis powers, and is told through several key characters: General Leslie Groves, leader of the Manhattan Project alongside Robert Oppenheimer; pioneering Army Air Force pilot Colonel Paul Tibbets Jr.; the mayor of Hiroshima, Senkichi Awaya, who would die alongside eighty thousand fellow citizens; and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer John Hersey, who traveled to Japan for the New Yorker to expose the devastation the bomb inflicted on the city and to describe in unflinching detail the dangers posed by radiation poisoning.

This thrilling account takes the reader from the corridors of power in the White House and the Pentagon to the test sites of New Mexico; from the air war above Germany to the Potsdam Conference of Truman, Churchill, and Stalin; from the savage reconquest of the Pacific to the deadly firebombing air raids across Japan. The Hiroshima Men also includes Japanese perspectives--a vital aspect often missing from Western narratives--to complete Iain MacGregor's nuanced, deeply human account of the bombing's meaning and aftermath.

Author: Iain MacGregor
Publisher: Scribner Book Company
Published: 07/08/2025
Pages: 448
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.35lbs
Size: 8.80h x 6.10w x 1.40d
ISBN: 9781668038048


Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 03/01/2025 pg. 12
Kirkus Reviews 05/01/2025
Booklist 06/01/2025 pg. 19

About the Author
Iain MacGregor is the author of the acclaimed history of Cold War Berlin: Checkpoint Charlie and the award-winning The Lighthouse of Stalingrad: The Hidden Truth Behind WWII's Greatest Battle. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, has spoken at many literary festivals and conferences in the UK and abroad, appeared on podcasts such as The Rest Is History and on television documentaries. His writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The Spectator, BBC History Magazine, and The Guardian. He lives in London.