To many Americans, Mississippi means Natchez and Vicksburg, white columns and cotton. For the people who have lived there, however, Mississippi has been a decidedly different place. Depending on who you were, and where and when you lived, Mississippi could be a much worse or far better place than that portrayed by its romantic image.

For many years, scholars and non-scholars have debated the ethics of dropping the atomic bomb, but have rarely studied American plans to invade Japan - the alternative to using the bomb to end World War II. Widely held beliefs about Japanese forces and the projected loss of American lives have been invoked to justify the decision to drop the bomb. This examination argues that the invasion plan, code-named ""Operation Downfall"", has not until now been sufficiently studied to allow such a justification.