On August 18, 1945—three days after Japan announced it would surrender—American Army Air Force Sergeant Anthony J. Marchione bled to death on the deck of his B-32 bomber, high over Tokyo. He was the last U.S. serviceman killed in World War II, following an attack by die-hard Japanese pilots who had decided to fight on. Combining American and Japanese histories, memoirs, and interviews with many of the story's key participants, Stephen Harding creates a portrait of airmen and their planes, full of bravery, cowardice, hubris, and determination.