Happyreader's review
Hiroshima (Penguin Modern Classics)
by John Hersey
I read this originally in the magazine and when I treated myself to The Complete New Yorker and learned to navigate the discs, this was one of my first destinations. But back to your original sentence, I was one of those reading Hiroshima just a year after the war ended and was completely blown away. In one of life's many ironies, the man I later married had been assigned as an Navy x-ray technician to a combination troop carrier/hospital ship scheduled for the U.S. invasion of Japan. It doesn't take too much imagination to see how dropping the bomb might have completely changed the way my life turned out.
I thought of this book again this week as I watched Truman on PBS's American Experience. As awful as Hiroshima and Nagasaki were, I can understand from the 1945 perspective why Truman signed off on the bombings.
Happyreader's review
Hiroshima (Penguin Modern Classics) by John Hersey
Happyreader's review
rating:
bookshelves:
asian,
history-politics
I can't imagine what New Yorker readers thought reading this just a year after WWII ended. For me, it was harrowing, gripping and fascinating. I read it all in a single afternoon. Hersey personalizes the nuclear attack by recounting the experiences of some everyday civilians in Hiroshima the day the bomb was dropped.
I actually read this in the The Complete New Yorker. One advantage to reading it there is that it also includes the follow-up article 40 years later revisiting the remaining survivors.
I actually read this in the The Complete New Yorker. One advantage to reading it there is that it also includes the follow-up article 40 years later revisiting the remaining survivors.
I read this originally in the magazine and when I treated myself to The Complete New Yorker and learned to navigate the discs, this was one of my first destinations. But back to your original sentence, I was one of those reading Hiroshima just a year after the war ended and was completely blown away. In one of life's many ironies, the man I later married had been assigned as an Navy x-ray technician to a combination troop carrier/hospital ship scheduled for the U.S. invasion of Japan. It doesn't take too much imagination to see how dropping the bomb might have completely changed the way my life turned out.
I thought of this book again this week as I watched Truman on PBS's American Experience. As awful as Hiroshima and Nagasaki were, I can understand from the 1945 perspective why Truman signed off on the bombings.