This book tells the story of how stategiests and generals devised the policy of fire-bombing Japanese cities during World War II to devastate Japanese war industry, cause general economic chaos and destroy civilian morale. The books spends a bit of time discussing the morals behind doing this, but does not try, or really pretend to try, to wrestle the moral issues w/bombing civilian populations (though it acknowledges that this was a big change in prior U.S. strategy). Instead, the book focuses on the methodical way that advocates of incendiary bombing finally got the U.S. Army Air Force to consider abandoning precision bombing technqiues with heavy explosives (which wasn't really working) and instead start experimenting w/incendiary bombs specifically designed to set Japanese cities afire. The book is very careful in showing that it was really quite difficult to put the strategy together w/specific techniques so that it actually worked, and it lays out the steps taken bit by bit to ensure that the fire bombing eventually worked. It also points out that Japan was particularly vulnerable to this kind of attack, due to the wooden construction of its homes, & the crowded conditions of its cities.

The author makes the case that the strategic bombing using incendiary bombs could have (without resorting to the Atomic Bomb) brought Japan to surrender without an invasion by Allied land forces. I'm not convinced; but the book is really quite impressive in laying out how the strategy developed and how impactful it actually was.

As for the moral issues involved here -- there are many; I will not attempt to address them. Truly the impact of these attacks were horrifying (for an excellent cinematic treatment of this subject see the Japanese animated classic, "Grave of the Fireflies," on VHS or DVD). In any case, if you want a fuller understanding of what air power can do in time of war, this book is worth reading.