7 days ago
Hiroshima and Nagasaki 80 years on: Books that told the truth
Eighty years ago, a Little Boy and a Fat Man wiped out two cities, killing and injuring thousands in the process. These were the names of the two atomic bombs dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and August 9, 1945, paving the way for Japan's surrender, resulting in the end of World War 2. The devastation caused by the two bombs was unmatched with lakhs being killed almost immediately and almost as many succumbing to their wounds and radiation-related diseases and disorders later.
A large part of both cities were razed to the ground. Initially celebrated by the victors, the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki sparked a lot of debate in the years that followed, and today are viewed with horror and regret rather than triumphalism. Many still insist that the bombs were necessary to make Japan surrender, but the human cost is no longer ignored as it had been initially (the US had even denied that any radiation existed in the two cities). And this has also been because of the books written on these bombings, which showed the world the picture that lay behind the mushroom clouds that covered Hiroshima and Nagasaki on those two days in August, 1945.
It was a piece of writing that revealed the true tragedy of Hiroshima, which had initially been treated as just one of many cities that had been bombed in the Second World War. US journalist John Hersey shattered that belief with a detailed, almost 30,000 word article on Hiroshima in The New Yorker on August, 31,1946. Access to the city had been largely restricted by US forces which occupied Japan, but Hersey managed to get to Hiroshima and talk to people, and wrote about its bombing and its aftermath through the eyes of six survivors.
His story was supposed to be published in four parts, but was so powerful that The New Yorker decided to publish it in its full form in a single issue. The article stunned readers and gained such popularity that within months, it was published as a book. Albert Einstein, the physicist known for his theory of relativity, claimed to have bought a thousand copies to distribute to those he knew. The slim, 175-200 page book never went out of circulation, and remains a sobering read even today. Hersey went back to Hiroshima in 1985 and spoke again to the six survivors, adding a new chapter to the book, so we recommend getting a new edition. Simply titled Hiroshima, it remains the book to read on the tragedy that hit the city.
Hersey's effort to uncover the truth about Hiroshima can be read in Lesly MM Blue's Fallout: The Hiroshima Cover-up and the Reporter Who Revealed It to the World. Blume not only covers Hersey's work, but also reveals in disturbing detail the efforts the US administration took to ensure that the media either steered clear of Hiroshima or went there only under strict supervision.
If Hersey's book captures the human impact of Hiroshima, Richard Rhodes' epic The Making of the Atomic Bomb, tells one the story of how the bomb was made. And does so in glorious, almost intimidating detail, beginning right from the interest around nuclear fission at the end of the nineteenth century and covering the advances made by different people and nations, right down to the (in)famous Manhattan Project. At almost 900 pages, it is a massive book, but Rhodes narrates it in almost thriller-like fashion, bringing characters such as Einstein Bohr, Fermi and of course, Oppenheimer to life, even while capturing the tension behind the tests and the race to build the bomb. Published in 1987, it won Rhodes a Pulitzer and remains the highest-selling book on the first atom bombs. This is the book for those who want to learn about the people, politics and the processes behind dropping the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Just do not get too overwhelmed by the science in it.
Of all the people involved in the development of the atom bomb, the most famous undoubtedly was J Robert Oppenheimer, now made even more famous by Christopher Nolan's Oscar winning film on him in 2023. And if you thought that the film was great, wait until you read the book it was based on: American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J Sherwin. Published in 2005, the book won a Pulitzer Prize and became a bestseller. At more than 700 pages, it is a little intimidating, but it is a far more nuanced (and less dramatic) look at the man many called The Father of the Atom Bomb than Nolan's spectacular work. The doubts that nag Oppenheimer after he learns of the destruction of the bomb and his ordeal in the 1954 security hearing are brilliantly captured.
Brilliantly written though they are, both The Making of the Atomic Bomb, and American Prometheus, can be a little lengthy and intimidating to read. If you want a quicker look at the Manhattan Project and the bombing of Hiroshima, then the recently-released The Hiroshima Men: The Quest to Build the Atomic Bomb and the Fateful Decision to Use It by Iain MacGregor is an excellent read. In 450 superbly crafted pages, MacGregor looks at the events leading up to the bombing from US as well as Japanese perspectives, including those of people like Oppenheimer and Paul Tibbets, the man who flew Enola Gay, the aircraft that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima.
As more information about the bombing and its aftermath become available to researchers, there is a strong line of thought developing that perhaps the atom bombs were not necessary. Veteran historian Richard Overy's slim and succinct, Rain of Ruin: Tokyo, Hiroshima, and the Surrender of Japan, looks at the Allies' decision to bomb Hiroshima and Nagaski and also fire bomb Tokyo, which claimed even more lives. Overy's narrative might strike some as being a little dry but over about 200 pages he looks at the military strategy behind the use of the atom bombs and the bombing policy (pursued by US general Curtis Le May) and points out that while Hiroshima and Nagasaki did accelerate the Japanese surrender, they were not the sole causes for it, as projected by many.
If Overy's work is a trifle on the short and dry side, then Paul Ham's Hiroshima Nagasaki: The Real Story of the Atomic Bombings and Their Aftermath, published in 2013, makes a passionate case against the use of the atom bombs. Spanning about 700 pages, Hiroshima Nagasaki covers the destruction of the two cities, with interviews with survivors, as Ham argues that the Japanese were already defeated and that they surrendered mainly because of the USSR's decision to attack Japan. It is a deeply moving but provocative book, and totally de-glamourises war in general and atom bombs in particular.
Eighty years might have passed since Paul TIbbets told his crew in Enola Gay, 'Fellows, you have just dropped the first atomic bomb in history,' but Hiroshima remains relevant even today. And needs to be. As John Hersey, the man who showed the world the truth about the place, wrote in 1985: 'What has kept the world safe from the bomb since 1945 has not been deterrence, in the sense of fear of specific weapons, so much as it's been memory…The memory of what happened at Hiroshima'
Which is why we need to keep reading about Hiroshima. To remember what happened. And to make sure it does not happen again.
