Hiroshima Diary: The Journal of a Japanese Physician, August 6-September 30, 1945 / Edition 2

by Michihiko Hachiya, John W. Dower

Overview

The late Dr. Michihiko Hachiya was director of the Hiroshima Communications Hospital when the world's first atomic bomb was dropped on the city. Though his responsibilities in the appalling chaos of a devastated city were awesome, he found time to record the story daily, with compassion and tenderness. His compelling diary was originally published by the UNC Press in 1955, with the help of Dr. Warner Wells of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who was a surgical consultant to the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission and who became a friend of Dr. Hachiya. In a new foreword, John Dower reflects on the enduring importance of the diary fifty years after the bombing.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807845479
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	08/28/1995
Edition description:	Revised Edition, with a new foreword
Pages:	266
Sales rank:	1,026,517
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x 0.61(d)
Lexile:	1030L (what's this?)

About the Author

Michihiko Hachiya was a Japanese physician who survived the Hiroshima bombing in 1945. He was director of the Hiroshima Communications Hospital and lived near the hospital, about a mile from the explosion's center.

Robertson Dean has recorded hundreds of audiobooks in almost every genre. He's been nominated for several Audie Awards, won nine Earphones Awards, and was named one of AudioFile magazine's Best Voices of 2010. He lives in Los Angeles, where he records books and acts in film, TV, and (especially) on stage.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

I have read it through at a sitting. . . . It is a simple and unpretentious account of compassion, sorrow, and great courage.—Robert Oppenheimer



Comes closer to telling the real story than anything I have seen outside Japan.—Norman Cousins



Although Hiroshima Diary is necessarily full of horrors, it is not a depressing book. Frightening certainly; but the courage, patience, unselfishness, and resourcefulness it records would make the grimmest misanthrope proud of the human race.—Atlantic Monthly



One of the most extraordinary records of human calamity and courage in the history of letters.—Newsweek



A book that we all ought to read in order that we may know what we have done and what will happen in the future if the atomic weapons continue to be used.—Pearl Buck



An extraordinary literary event.—New York Times

Editorial Reviews

"An extraordinary literary event." ---The New York Times

From the Publisher

With the necessary gravitas, Robertson Dean recounts Hachiya's work during one of the greatest, and most fearsome, moments in human history. Dean's measured tone is full of raw emotion as he describes the strenuous first months following the atomic bomb drop on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, which effectively ended WWII. Dean's able narration expresses both the disappointment of defeat and the misplaced excitement of a retaliation that was rumored but never happened against the U.S. Listeners may find themselves anticipating each day's journal entry in the hope of finding healing and comfort from the suffering experienced by the bomb’s survivors. Dean makes clear the author’s theme of the common bond among all humanity. T.D. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine

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