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ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSThe Day the World Went Nuclear tells the story of the final year of World War II in the Pacific, from the secret race to build an atomic bomb to Japan's surrender in September 1945. O'Reilly opens with a personal note: his own father, a navy ensign whose ship was slated to ferry marines onto the beaches of Japan, almost certainly would have died in the planned invasion, and the author himself would never have been born. From there the book follows the key figures on both sides of the conflict, including President Franklin Roosevelt, who authorized the Manhattan Project; Harry Truman, who inherited both the war and the bomb after Roosevelt's death; physicist Robert Oppenheimer, who led the team at Los Alamos; General Douglas MacArthur, who commanded Allied forces in the Pacific; and Emperor Hirohito, who refused to surrender even as his country was being destroyed. The central question the book wrestles with is one that is still debated today: was the decision to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki necessary to end the war, or could it have been avoided?
Free Battle of the Books questions for The Day the World Went Nuclear
SPOILERSEvery one of these has the same answer, and that is the point. In a real battle the question is read aloud with a dozen other books in play, and students have a few seconds to place it. Here is what a battle might ask about The Day the World Went Nuclear. Use them as a quiz, a trivia round, or BOTB practice.
Where in the book they come from
- Early in the book
In what book does a first lady tell a stunned vice president, "the president is dead"?
✓ Answer
The Day the World Went Nuclear by Bill O'Reilly
Eleanor Roosevelt called Vice President Truman up to her personal study on April 12, 1945, to break the news of FDR's death at Warm Springs, Georgia. She then asked Truman if she could do anything for him, since he was the one in trouble now.
- First half
In what book does a scientist bet ten dollars that his own bomb will fail to detonate?
✓ Answer
The Day the World Went Nuclear by Bill O'Reilly
After a practice circuitry test failed days earlier, Oppenheimer made a friendly ten-dollar bet with chemistry engineer George Kistiakowsky that the Trinity bomb would not detonate. After the successful blast, Kistiakowsky cheerfully demanded his money.
- First half
In what book is a T-shaped bridge over a Japanese city chosen as the aiming point for a single bomb?
✓ Answer
The Day the World Went Nuclear by Bill O'Reilly
The Aioi Bridge in downtown Hiroshima was the target point for Little Boy because its distinctive T shape was easy to spot from the air. Major Thomas Ferebee, the bombardier, used a Norden bombsight to aim for the bridge.
- Second half
In what book do engineers nearly detonate Fat Man when they insert a firing-unit cable backward?
✓ Answer
The Day the World Went Nuclear by Bill O'Reilly
Late on August 8, two engineers spend nervous minutes resoldering the connectors, terrified the plutonium device will blow them up. The problem is fixed before loading the bomb onto Bockscar.
- Second half
In what book does an emperor brood under elm and pine trees after learning the Soviets invaded Manchuria?
✓ Answer
The Day the World Went Nuclear by Bill O'Reilly
Hirohito walks his garden in the August heat, weighing surrender. The Soviet violation of a four-year-old nonaggression pact convinces him that a two-front invasion would destroy Japan.
- Near the end
In what book does a city establish open-air crematoriums because there is no place to bury all the bodies?
✓ Answer
The Day the World Went Nuclear by Bill O'Reilly
After Fat Man kills an estimated 45,000 in Nagasaki, thousands more die from radiation as their skin turns yellow. The city is forced to burn the dead in the open.
