Nagasaki: Life After Nuclear War

Haunting book that should be mandatory reading as to show why nuclear war needs to be avoided at all cost. It will forever be on my shelf.

A Very Important Book.I myself have known and interviewed more than a hundred of the hibakusha (the exposed.) Susan Southard's book focuses on the lives of five who survived Nagasaki - which was the second, much more powerful, and somehow mostly forgotten atomic bomb.A common misconception about atomic bombs is that they are somehow an antiseptic weapon, instantly disintegrating people close enough to actually see the fireball, and beyond a certain radius letting people survive with varying degrees of bruising and radiation exposure. Most people believe that the shadows stenciled onto walls in Hiroshima and Nagasaki represent the instantly vaporized. The truth, as Southard points out, is worse. Most of the five in her intimate portrait of life after the bombs of August, left shadows on nearby structures, and on the ground. The sides of their bodies facing the bomb were severely flash burned, in some cases partly carbonized.Masahiro Sasaki has said that he and other hibakusha must not be called "victims," for that traps all thinking on the subject in the past. He said, when a child once asked him which nation dropped the atomic bombs, "I can't remember. God has allowed me to forget. Only the future matters."The survivor accounts are a message about the past only to the extent of teaching the future what nuclear weapons actually do, and why we must do everything possible to reduce the possibility of them ever being used again for any reason whatsoever. The prayer of the hibakusha, and their bravery in telling their stories (for in telling, you can feel them weeping and bleeding through their hearts) - is simply this: "Make no more of us, in another generation, with hibakusha stories to tell."Nuclear weapons are incompatible with civilization.(author of, "To Hell and Back: The Last Train from Hiroshima")

This was a very detailed account of the bombing of Nagasaki and the impact on individual survivors and on the beautiful city of Nagasaki. It is written tastefully and with compassion. Although heart breaking it should be a must read for anyone interested in history or the Japanese culture. It should be read by everyone before they make a decision for the upcoming election. It makes the horror real and raises many moral questions about the decision to use nuclear warfare.

An important meticulously researched book that should be read by every one on this planet. This book lays bare the many secrets and horrors of Nagasaki and it's victims. It is essential that everyone living in a nuclear world read this. It also illustrates the dangers of militaristic religious fascism.

This is a book that everyone should read. This well-researched book tells the story of what it was like for various survivors of the atomic bomb the US dropped on Nagasaki, Japan days after the one dropped on Hiroshima. The author relates the experiences of various survivors before, during, and the hours, days, weeks, and decades after the bomb was dropped. The author also discussed how little scientists understood both the short- and long-term effects of nuclear radiation and how the US tried to control information about the amount of damage done and the affects of radiation exposure on survivors and their offspring. It is shocking how patient care was undermined by this secrecy. It is also infuriating how long US government officials claimed that survivors were lying! The narrative in this country is that the two atomic bombs saved American lives and helped end the war and that attrocities committed by the Japanese military justified the horrors committed against civilians. We didn't even wait long after obliterating communication and infrastructure of one city before doing it again... without warning. One bomb was bad enough.I hope more people read this, especially in this new, perilous age of new nuclear proliferation and unstable heads of state.

Well written. Excellent detail and research. Something for all the world's citizens to better understand what nuclear weapons, in fact, any weapons, can inflict on innocent people.

This was probably one of the most difficult and challenging books I've ever read. Having just finished "109 East Palace…" about Los Alamos and the Manhattan Project, I wanted to follow it with something about the effects of the bombing, and the aftermath of the war on Japan. "Nagasaki: Life After Nuclear War" provided me with exactly what I was looking for. It begins with the status of the negotiations that were occurring between the US and Japan prior to the bombings and what life was like for the average Japanese citizen. Life was bleak and riddled with severe shortages of food, clothing and general supplies but the citizenry was kept in the dark as far as the progress of the war and they were charged with being loyal to Emperor Hirohito. Absolutely everything was going into the war effort and Japan realized that its days were numbered but there were some sticking points in the negotiations. Then the bombs hit Hiroshima and a few days later, Nagasaki. The first-hand accounts of some of the survivors are threaded through the entire book and vividly describe what geographically happened when the bomb exploded as well as the excruciating physical injuries that occurred to both those that died and those who survived. The social, economic and political environment of the US occupation after the war is presented. The book continues to nearly modern day and the effects that nuclear war has had on Japan’s nuclear and political policies. “Nagasaki’s…” content is so current that it includes the Fukushima Reactor disaster and its resulting ongoing effects and damage after the tsunami in 2011. This book was very thoroughly researched and has an extensive bibliography in the back of the book. It is not for the faint at heart. The physical descriptions of the physical injuries brought me to tears and it made me (once again) challenge my belief that this was a prudent thing to do to Japanese citizens.

This book gives a very detailed account of what survivors of the Nagaski bombing lived through. It is hard to believe anyone could survive at all. I did find some sections a bit tedious after a while but overall I would recommend this to anyone that is interested in this part of our history.

I would recommend this to everyone to show the full story of the atomic bomb on Nagasaki & what it does to people. It was difficult for survivors not only physically but mentally & socially. The refusal of governments to admit responsibility caused much extra hardship. A painful history.

Very well researched book. A heart touching account of courage and will-power.

ここまで客観的で詳細な記述の長崎原爆に関する本は、私の不勉強もありますが、初めて読みました。素晴らしい内容です。

Me lo compré por indicaciones de un crítico. Es un libro imprescindible para los que desean entender lo que significó el uso de una arma atómica.

Great read. Amazing story. It left me with great respect for the Japanese people. Just the way the Japanese people so quickly after the War moved on with their lives. Its was amazing to read how they just accepted haven the American army soldiers based in their country. And also the way American Culture and American companies got so quickly accepted. This in spite of all the innocent Women, Children and old people who were killed by these Two bombs. It took 5 years for them to count all the dead and injured in Nagasaki alone 74,000 thousand dead and 75,000 injuredThe injured included children not even born in mother wombs at the time......An amazing read