1945 (Conroy novel)

On the night of August 14–15, 1945, following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Soviet invasion of Manchuria, a battalion of rogue Imperial Japanese Army officers and troops led by Major Kenji Hatanaka seize the Imperial Palace to prevent the surrender of Japan. They persuade the war minister, General Korechika Anami, to join the coup and gain the support from the rest of the Japanese military. Rather than staying loyal to Emperor Hirohito, as in actual history, Anami orders the imprisonment of Hirohito and establishes himself as the de facto dictator of Japan.

Anami's refusal to surrender cause US President Harry Truman to order Army Chief of Staff General George Marshall to launch Operation Downfall, the Allied invasion of Japan. In preparation for the invasion, a third atomic bomb is dropped on Kokura, destroying the city. Anami authorizes the transfer of Allied POWs to cities of strategic importance, which prompts the United States to suspend the atomic bombing campaign. The OSS recruit the Japanese American veteran Joe Nomura to head into Nagasaki under the guise of a Japanese officer to investigate the effects of the nuclear blast. Based on in part of his reports of the radiation effects, the US military's intention of using the atomic bombs tactically is abandoned as too dangerous for their own troops.

In Okinawa, General Douglas MacArthur begins the first phase of Operation Downfall, the invasion of Kyushu (codenamed Olympic), followed by an invasion of Honshu (codenamed Coronet) with the ultimate goal of capturing Tokyo. Though initially set back by the typhoon season, Allied forces are eventually are able to land on Kyushu on X-Day, suffering heavy losses from Japanese guerilla warfare, kamikaze attacks, Kairyu submarines, and Kaiten human torpedoes.

As the Allies gain a foothold in Kyushu, Nomura aids an American POW, Dennis Chambers, who escaped in the confusion from a Japanese POW camp that was close to Nagasaki. With his aid, Nomura impersonates a Kenpeitai officer and investigates a heavily guarded camp in Nagasaki, unaware that it houses Hirohito.

MacArthur is killed on the command vessel USS Augusta by a kamikaze attack. General Omar Bradley becomes commander of the operation with Matthew Ridgway as his immediate subordinate while a fourth atomic bomb is ordered by General Curtis LeMay on a loose interpretation of standing orders from President Truman to be dropped on the Kanmon Straits, destroying several Japanese divisions. Back in the homefront, civil disorder occurs in the US in reaction to the news of the sinking of RMS Queen Elizabeth. Meanwhile, the Red Army invades and occupies Japanese Korea in order to aid the Chinese Communist Party against the Kuomintang during the Chinese Civil War.

Nomura learns that Hirohito is held captive in Nagasaki, and when his superiors are made aware, Bradley authorizes an operation to rescue Hirohito. Nomura, Chambers, and a squad of US Army Rangers extract Hirohito, escape Japan, and bring him to an aircraft carrier in which he meets Truman. Aware of Hirohito's declaration to surrender to the Allies, a countercoup, led by General Homma and Admiral Ozawa, assassinates Anami and accepts the surrender of Japan in January 1946, despite failing to prevent a successful Japanese counterattack against Allied positions in Kyushu.

In the aftermath, the Allied invasion of Japan costed an additional 150,000 Allied casualties. Hirohito is reinstated as emperor and Japan's transition to democracy begins. Despite the Kuomintang's defeat and retreat to Taiwan, the Communist Chinese and Soviets fail to secure a Sino-Soviet alliance. The Soviet Union is forced to abandon the Korean Peninsula by the Korean independence movement, which likely leads to a Korean unification and the prevention of a Korean War.

With the Soviet economy damaged from the previous war with Nazi Germany and their sphere of influence driven out of East Asia, the Americans look toward a better future, as the ensuing Cold War between the US and Soviet Union will most likely be peaceful.

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]