Waldo Heinrichs is Dwight E. Stanford Professor Emeritus at San Diego State University. He is the author of American Ambassador: Joseph C. Grew and the Development of the United States Diplomatic Tradition, which won the Allan Nevins Prize. Heinrichs served as an infantryman in the U.S. Army's 86th Division, one of the last two divisions to be deployed to Europe in World War II and the first to be redeployed to the Pacific in preparation for the invasion of Japan. He and his wife live in South Hadley, Massachusetts.

Marc Gallicchio is a Professor of History at Villanova University and was a Fulbright Visiting Lecturer in Japan, 1998 - 1999 and 2004 - 2005. He is the author of The African American Encounter with Japan and China: Black Internationalism in Asia, 1895 - 1945, which won the Society of Historians of American Foreign Relations Robert H. Ferrell book prize.

"Two great historians have produced this stellar and extremely important book, adding critical new layers to the decision-making process of American leaders approaching the controversial end of the Asia-Pacific War. This is a thoroughly researched, judicious, and very sobering reminder of the complexity and uncertainty of events surrounding the final acts of World War II." - Richard Frank, author of Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire and Guadalcanal: The Definitive Account of the Landmark Battle

"A masterful history destined to be the definitive account of the final two years of America's war with Japan. The authors' comprehensive, original, and highly readable narrative sets new standards for understanding the political, military, and social pressures on U.S. leaders as they simultaneously fought a determined foe, demobilized American armed forces, and prepared for the complex transition to America's postwar domestic economy." - Edward Drea, author of Japan's Imperial Army

"A valuable and revealing study...For readers familiar with the military campaigns, the book is essential reading for its lucid treatment of the pressures that imperiled critical operations in a truly global war...the contribution of this vital book is its portrait of history as lived desperately in the moment; of the varied troubles that beset planners and commanders in the war's horrific last year; and of the mettle and vision of an American president whom history should underrate no longer. "Implacable Foes" shows war operations as a human ordeal even at the highest level, fueled by the exhaustible human spirit." - Wall Street Journal

"This book is a superb piece of military and naval history. It blends the particular and the general, the battlefront and the homefront, the broader political and international and the militarily particular into an eminently readable narrative. It should be indispensable reading for anyone interested in the history of the Second World War." - Journal of Military History

"This book brings to life those final years of World War II right up to the dropping of the atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, evoking not only Japanese policies of desperate defence, but the sometimes spiteful debates on the home-front. Heinrichs and Gallicchio deliver a gripping and provocative narrative that challenges the decision--making of US leaders and explains the consequences of prioritising the European front." - The Wavell Room: Contemporary British Military Thought