Gentlemen, I have thoroughly enjoyed this thread and hope that it continues for a while as more people see it.

I was glad to see some of the "reading lists" mentioned and want to offer another "must read" book dealing with the war in the Pacific. Hell To Pay was written by D. M. Giangreco, and it documents the hundreds of thousands American and possibly millions of Japanese lives which were ultimately saved as a result of Truman's decision to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The planning of a conventional assault or invasion of the Japanese mainland actually started in 1943, and it was estimated American casualties would be between 400-800K and that Japanese casualties would be 1-5M. This book is incredibly well-documented (almost half the pages cover documentation of sources) and serves to convincingly make the case that dropping "the bomb" was the right and humane decision.