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Hiroshima Nagasaki

Hiroshima Nagasaki

by Paul Ham

4.50 out of 5 (1 ratings)

Format:
Hardback 
Pages:
640 
Publisher:
Transworld Publishers Ltd 
Publication Date:
02 August 2012 
Category:
Books 
ISBN:
9780857521057 

Description

Japan 1945. In one of the defining moments of the twentieth century, more than 100,000 people were killed instantly by two atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki by US Air Force B29s. Hundreds of thousands more succumbed to their horrific injuries, or slowly perished of radiation-related sickness. Hiroshima Nagasaki tells the story of the tragedy through the eyes of the survivors, from the twelve-year-olds forced to work in war factories to the wives and children who faced it alone. Through their harrowing personal testimonies, we are reminded that these were ordinary people, given no warning and no chance to escape the horror. American leaders claimed that the bombings were 'our least abhorrent choice' and fell strictly on 'military targets'. Even today, most people believe they ended the Pacific War and saved millions of American and Japanese lives. Hiroshima Nagasaki challenges this deep-set perception, revealing that the atomic bombings were the final crippling blow to the Japanese in a stratgic air war waged primarily against civilians.

Showing 1-1 out of 1 reviews.

  • A superb account of the events leading up to, and the aftermath of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and the far less successful (from a military perspective) drop on Nagasaki. Ham puts a few myths to bed - namely that the use of atomic weapons saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of American servicemen. As he points out, Truman had abandoned any plans for a ground invasion a month before the Trinity tests. And anyway the Americans could have accepted the peace proposals put forward by the Japanese government for unconditional surrender whilst keeping the Emperor - which in the end they did anyone. The real reason for the bombs were mainly to end the war before the Russians got there - which is the same reason the Japanese wanted to surrender to the Americans. In fact the bombs for all their hideous destruction made little difference to the end of the war; the Japanese government riven as it was by a peace faction and a war faction, couldn't grasp that these devices were any different to conventional incendiaries except in scale, given that communications were difficult and they had seen neither the destruction nor the mushroom cloud. From a military perspective the devices were uselessHam does a great job in describing the excitement in the build up to Little Boy, the machinations at Potsdam, the intransigence of the Japanese government, trapped in in the rigidity of protocol, the hell on earth created in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and how it lingers still and of course the callousness of those who built and deployed the bombs which is hard to credit at this distance. As Ham points out, the fear came later, when the Russians exploded a device about 10 years earlier than expected. Highly recommended

    4.50 out of 5

    Opinionated

Reviews provided by Librarything.

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