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Ronald Takaki has tackled one of the hardest questions: why did the US drop atomic bombs on heavily populated cities? A survey among scientists who developed the weapon showed that 85 per cent opposed dropping the bomb without a demonstration first. In Hiroshima: Why America Dropped the Atomic Bomb (Little, Brown, $19.45, ISBN 0 316 83122 0), Takaki traces the decision back through a tangled web of racism and military pressure, showing how the bomb, once exploded, altered for ever our concept of mass destruction.