The Burning Mountain
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The Burning Mountain is an alternate history novel by Alfred Coppel that depicts the likely outcome of Operations Olympic and Operation Coronet (both part of Operation Downfall) in 1946 had the Trinity nuclear test of July 16, 1945 failed.[1]
[edit] Plot
On July 16, 1945, the Trinity nuclear test was a failure: the tower was struck by lightning, and the explosives fired, but fortunately, the distorted plutonium spheres did not fission.
Operation Downfall: Operation Olympic and Operation Coronet are necessary: the battle for Japan starting in February, 1946.
The battle begins on Kyūshū. The invasion encounters strong military and civilian resistance. Truman later decides to try using an atomic bomb and one is dropped on Hiroshima. The story ends with the script the Japanese emperor Hirohito read to his people after the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
