1945 (Conroy novel)

1945 depicts a surrender of Japan in World War II being successfully preempted by extremists, forcing US President Harry S. Truman to order more atomic bombings and an invasion of the Japanese home islands, continuing the Pacific Campaign into early 1946. Features prominent throughout the book include the viewpoints of infighting among the Japanese officers responsible for the military coup of the Japanese government, the imprisonment and breakout of Hirohito, the vicious combat between Japanese and American units on Kyushu and their respective naval forces in the Pacific, the efforts behind enemy lines by intelligence officers and POWs, the death of U.S. General Douglas MacArthur, the Soviet Union's extended involvement in Japan, and mass protests in the US to end the war.

Booklist said that "realistic to the point of gruesomeness, 1945 recalls David Westheimer's classic Death is Lighter than a Feather."[4] Publishers Weekly said that Conroy explored the carnage of war through various viewpoints with "moving and thought provoking results".[5]