During 1944-45, the most important names of world leaders and generals were involved in the war against Japan: Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin, Nimitz, MacArthur, LeMay, Slim, Mountbatten, Chiang Kai-shek, and Mao Zedong. The war drama that ended with Japan's defeat took place in Asia. The battles on land, sea, and air were fought over millions of square meters: from Imphal and Kohima in Northeast India to the Gulf of Leyte, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa in Japan.

Max Hastings wrote "Nemesis" as a counterpart to his previous book, "Armageddon: The Battle for Germany". Once again, he matches the history of strategic decisions and enmities with the experiences of British, American, Russian, Chinese, and Japanese soldiers who took part in some of the bloodiest battles of the war against a relentless enemy. He describes the massacre of the Russian army in August 1945 and Slim's remarkable campaign in Burma. He analyzes Australia's domestic politics that prevented its army from reaping the laurels of war, as well as the decision-making process that led to the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, concluding that the dropping of atomic bombs saved many lives.

Through the testimonies and personal stories of American sailors, Chinese communist guerrillas, Japanese fighter pilots, and British soldiers in the jungles of Burma, "Nemesis" gives the real dimensions of an epic that gave birth to one of the greatest tragedies of the twentieth century.