Originally published in Universe 14 in 1984
Collected
in The Norton Book of Science Fiction
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| In an alternate history 1945 the Enola Gay and her crew are replaced and The Lucky Strike and her crew are designated to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima |
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| Background |
- The atomic bomb was ostensibly dropped on Hiroshima both in retaliation for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and to make a costly invasion of Japan unlikely.
- According to more recent perceptions of the event:
- the consensus among scholars is that the bomb was not needed to avoid an invasion of Japan;
- some historians hold that President Harry Truman feared he would be criticized as "soft" on the Japanese if he told them they could keep their emperor before he used the bomb;
- some believe that because the bomb was so costly to build the political leadership felt it was impossible not to use it;
- diplomatic issues--especially the hope of strengthening our hand against the Soviet Union--played a signficant role in the decision (Alperovitz).
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- Fitch's plane is named The Lucky Strike after a popular brand of cigarettes.
- A strike in military terms is a mission to drop bombs.
- A strike in baseball is a miss.
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- Horatio Hornblower is the hero of a series of novels by C. S. Forester about a British naval officer during the Napoleonic Wars.
- Isak Dinesen is the pen name of Danish author Karen Blixen.
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| Navigation Guide |
| When do you realize that this story is science fiction? |
| Characterize Frank January. |
| How is January different from his crewmates? |
| What does January think of his crewmates? |
| How does January react when he learns what sort of weapon he will be carrying? |
| Why doesn't January just tell the psychiatrist that he doesn't want to fly the mission? |
| Once January is on the plane, what alternatives does he consider and why does he reject them? What does January finally do and why? |
| What happens to January as a result of his actions? |
| What is January's defense? |
| What happens in the war after January's actions? |
| What is the ultimate effect of January's actions on the course of history? |
| Of what significance is January's childhood memory of a cement truck losing its brakes, plowing into a Model T, and killing a woman and child? |
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| Further Exploration |
 Sources |
| Alperovitz, Gar. "Beyond the Smithsonian Flap: Historians' New Consensus." The Washington Post. 16 October 1994: C3. |
| Robinson, Kim Stanley. "The Lucky Strike." The Norton Book of Science Fiction. Ed. Ursula K. Le Guin and Brian Attebery. New York: Norton, 1993: 538-68. |
