As the rapidly moving shadow of defeat stole over the American political landscape during the winter of 2006-2007, a happy distraction from the Middle-East gloom appeared on screen in the twin Iwo Jima films produced by Clint Eastwood: "Flags of Our Fathers" and "Letters from Iwo Jima". Both recalling an era of costly triumph that can still inspire national pride and temporarily redirecting American attention away from the gathering gloom over Iraq to another somber, but victorious, campaign launched to rein in Japanese imperialism across the Pacific.Winters seeks to balance the verdict of responsibilty for Hiroshima by extending the analysis of the ethics of the end of the war. He pairs Japan's criminal refusal to surrender in defeat with the resultant decision by Truman to forego any further delay and thus spare his citizens and vast numbers of further Japanese victims from the Japanese folly of ignoring the fact of military defeat in favor of the honor of a national destruction that could purchase no victory.