Susan Southard

The signature line of one of the atomic bomb survivors, who participated in educating youth about the bombing, whose life is one of the five main survivors’ lives followed in this account says a lot of what needs to be said: “The basis of peace is for people to understand the pain of others.”

With all the reading I thought I’d done I should have known the word hibakusha and its pronunciation but I didn’t. I do now.

This was not easy reading or particularly wise bedtime reading, but it was worth it. It’s excellent, powerfully told, incredibly well researched. It’s the perfect mix of history & biography. The research done was extensive. The personal stories, while heartbreaking, were also inspiring, and made the history perfectly come to life.

I felt such a mix of emotions as I read, mostly painful ones.

I think that the author’s choice to present the account(s) chronologically is brilliant, and I was glad to be introduced to the main people covered, with a bit of their histories too, at the time of the bombing, all ages 13 to 18 years old. The reader eventually sees why these five people in particular were chosen to follow. Many of their stories were heartbreaking, even prior to the bomb.

The five main people, for all their suffering, were strong and successful survivors, and many other specific people are more than mentioned too, but I couldn’t help thinking of all the unknown people killed outright, died as a result, or were otherwise affected, and remain anonymous.

This is a book that made me think, a lot. I wished I could talk to/tell my father, who parroted back the American government/military propaganda about the necessity/right choice of dropping the atomic bombs. I think he would have wanted to know the truth. Also, while there are lots of inspiring actions that were done, good people working for others as well as for themselves after the bombing, but my faith in human nature didn’t improve. Even in this instance, the activists fought for people’s rights only because they’d been personally affected. While laudable, I didn’t see too much involvement from people who hadn’t been involved in some way. I just kept thinking that this world is a horrible place for those who are alone, sick/injured, poor. It’s just one more historical/current instance where this seems true.

I really appreciated the maps (I always love maps in books) and one of the maps has information that wouldn’t easily be found on the internet as is, and I frequently referred to it.

I loved all the included photographs, with the people and places shown at different time periods.

The notes are much more interesting and well organized, by topic, than in most books, and are well worth reading.

I want all military leaders and world leaders and scientists and anyone with any power to read this book. I’m thinking in particular of 2 leaders, but I don’t know if this book has been translated into Korean and the other one doesn’t read, even briefs for work, and I don’t know if either care at all about other people, but all I know is that anyone who ever suggests for any reason the use of nuclear weapons should never be in a position of power to use them.

Even though I know the Contents page can likely be found online, many will not check it out, and reading it gives a good idea of the book’s contents & presentation, and its rigorous research, so:

Contents:

Maps viii
Preface vi
A Note on Japanese Names and Terms xix

Prologue 1
Chapter 1: Convergence 7
Chapter 2: Flashpoint 41
Chapter 3: Embers 65
Chapter 4: Exposed 96
Chapter 5: Time Suspended 131
Chapter 6: Emergence 164
Chapter 7: Afterlife 203
Chapter 8: Against Forgetting 236
Chapter 9: Gaman 273

Acknowledgments 303
Notes 307
Hibakusha Sources and Selected Bibiography 349
Index 373 (book ends on page 389)… (more)