Absolutely, Richard Rhodes's book is a gem. You not only read about the Manhattan project, you read about the entire history of Europe between 1900 and WW2, wit

Absolutely, Richard Rhodes's book is a gem. You not only read about the Manhattan project, you read about the entire history of Europe between 1900 and WW2, with a bit more focus on quantum physics developments. More specifically about the Japan's atomic program, I found "Atomic Adventures" by James Mahaffey to give a slightly better coverage. Bonus: you will also understand the origin of the UFOs. Bonus 2: you'll get a very funny/sad first hand account of the first cold fusion debacle.