Status
Call number
Publication
DDC/MDS
940.54 |
Description
This book is a powerful and unflinching account of the enduring impact of nuclear war, told through the stories of those who survived. On August 9, 1945, three days after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the United States dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, a small port city on Japan's southernmost island. An estimated 74,000 people died within the first five months, and another 75,000 were injured. Published on the seventieth anniversary of the bombing, Nagasaki takes readers from the morning of the bombing to the city today, telling the first-hand experiences of five survivors, all of whom were teenagers at the time of the devastation. Susan Southard has spent years interviewing hibakusha ("bomb-affected people") and researching the physical, emotional, and social challenges of post-atomic life. She weaves together dramatic eyewitness accounts with searing analysis of the policies of censorship and denial that colored much of what was reported about the bombing both in the United States and Japan. A gripping narrative of human resilience, Nagasaki will help shape public discussion and debate over one of the most controversial wartime acts in history. - Publisher. Published to coincide with the seventieth anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki, a narrative of human resilience, told through first-hand experiences of five survivors, reveals the physical, emotional, and social challenges of post-atomic life.… (more)
User reviews
A book that removes the layers of shame, pride, and decades of censorship, Nagasaki: Life After Nuclear War takes a fresh look at the bomb that “ended the war.” As seventy years have passed and survivors of nuclear war are dwindling, I think it is time we approach the subject with a fresh perspective and asks ourselves if we really want to do this ever again.
In this book author Susan Southard follows fie residents of Nagasaki from just before the bomb was dropped on their city and follows them through their experiences afterwards both in the immediate aftermath of the bombing and their struggles to live as hibakusha (survivors) in the years afterwards. Ms. Southard's point of view is definitely with the people who believe that the bombs should never have been used, but her even-handed reporting brings up doubts about whether or not Japan would have actually surrendered if they hadn't been deployed.