In August 1945, Japan was hit with two nuclear weapons. This, along with the Soviet invasion of Manchuria, caused the government to surrender. What if it had not? Paul Hynes imagines a world in which a fanatical junta takes over Japan and pledges a fight to the bitter end. Using real-world plans relating to the invasion of the Home Islands, along with an extensive knowledge of American, British, Soviet and Japanese attitudes and capabilities at the time, Hynes crafts a story of harrowing losses, desperate measures, and unspeakable horror for the civilian population.

The year is 1946 and despite the nightmarish sacrifices of the American invasion, Japan remains a battlefield. The leadership of the fanatical junta which ignored the Emperor’s wishes to end the war has been beheaded yet those who have survived remain just as resolute in their ultimate goal, to fight to the last Japanese subject and take as much of the rest of the world with them. In the second and final part of the 'Decisive Darkness' series, 'Coronet', Paul Hynes details the apocalyptic struggle that the world came so close to in our own time. The fanaticism of the junta is equally matched by the Allies desperation to end the war as quickly and as cleanly as possible in the wake of the mass slaughter portrayed in the series’ previous work, Majestic. As the Allied commanders prepare for the final strike against the heart of Japan, the capital city of Tokyo, they will learn history’s most horrific lesson. An enemy with nothing to lose is the most dangerous one of all.