The Day Man Lost: Hiroshima, 6 August 1945 [Paperback]

Pacific War Research Society (Author), John Toland (Designer)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1981

This work offers deep and original research into events in Hiroshima on the 6 August, 1945. The story remains moving because the authors have not forgotten that this is a human story and that it must be visualized in human terms.

Product Details

• Paperback: 312 pages
• Publisher: Kodansha America; 1 edition (September 1981)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0870114719
• ISBN-13: 978-0870114717
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 4.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,710,297 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Stunning...Tragic, September 16, 2004

By 

Jerry Wilt "JBW857" (Katy, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Day Man Lost: Hiroshima, 6 August 1945 (Paperback)

I recently found this book in a library and purchased it (...). When I saw that its authors was a group called "The Pacific War Research Society" and made up by 14 Japanese researchers, my heart sank thinking that the book would be very biased in Japan's favor. I was completely wrong. The book was very even handed with respect to presenting the story from both sides (the US and the Japanese versions). The writing and the translation was impeccable.

The book indicated that the bomb was originally created for use against Nazi Germany. The US and its scientists were concerned that Hitler would use an atom bomb against the Allies. When Germany surrendered, the scientists were no longer excited about the use of the bomb against Japan - a fact I had not known.

The authors suggest that the Imperial Army controlled the country and it was the Army which suggested that Japan would fight to the death. The Allied insistence of "unconditional surrender" remained an "...insurmountable stumbling block" and that the Japanese leaders believed that the Army never would have accepted this and that Japan would have been plunged into civil war.

The authors suggest that the Emperor knew the war was finished but that Japan could not find an honorable way of surrendering without losing face. The Army continued preaching that they have the spiritual upper hand. Even though the Emperor and his ministers prefered an end of war, the Army won out.

The description of the horror of the bomb was absolutely incredible. I commend the Research Society for a very straight forward book on the path to the use of the bomb. They blame both sides for mistakes made which lead to the use of the bomb. And, they neither condemn or praise each side for what happened. A superb book.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not quite the whole story, November 18, 2009

By 

I'm goin' surfin' (California, Central Coast) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Day Man Lost: Hiroshima, 6 August 1945 (Paperback)

I will say, that as a review from generally Japanese sources it provides a somewhat balanced view of the events of 1945 leading up to the bombing of Hiroshima.

It describes the unreality that pervaded the Japanese government and even the population at large. It seems that there were so many opportunities to end the war that were simply wasted by the Japanese. Again and again the Army drifted in and out of a fantasy land of imagined reality.

In the mean time, people were dying everyday. This is the point that the book is weak on. It does not explore the costs of Japanese occupation and the effect their indecision. There is no examination of the horrors inflicted around the Pacific by the Japanese with each passing day. No real description of the suffering borne by the subject peoples, the Allied POW's, the Japanese soldier at the front while the government pointlessly debated.

It is a book about the suffering of individual Japanese civilian and about the incredibly slow pace of Japanese decision making. About the absolute resistance to surrender that existed with the army (which controlled the government) and the absolute paralyzing terror within the "peace movement" (such as it was).

It is sort of like watching a train wreck as it happens, in that time period where all action seems to slow down. It is made all the worse because you know how it will all end. In short it is an excellent chronology of Japanese squandered opportunities to end the war before these weapons were used. The Japanese government behavior borders on unbelievable.

And in the end you realize that by the cruel logic of war, the dropping of the bombs was simply inevitable given the circumstances. It is the inaction of men that could have stopped it that is the real sadness.

The bibliography and footnotes alone are worth the price. Many Japanese sources of incalculable value are referenced therein.