Hiroshima: Chronicles of a Survivor [Hardcover]

Katharine Johnson (Author), John F. Rasche (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1994

This book was written nearly 50 years ago by Katharine Johnson, a teacher at Hiroshima Girls' School for 18 years prior to World War II. The manuscript, held by her family since the author's death in 1959, has been released to tell the story of the school and the people of Hiroshima on the 50th anniversary of the first atomic bomb used on a human population.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Johnson (1894-1959), Rasche's aunt, was a Methodist missionary who devoted her life to Hiroshima Jogakuin girls' school, founded in 1886 and sustained by Nannie B. Gaines (d.1932). Where John Hersey (Hiroshima, LJ 11/1/46) and others have focused on life following the bombardment, Johnson's contribution was an unpublished work of historical fiction built around people associated with a school like Hiroshima Jogakuin just before August 6, 1945, reminiscent of Thornton Wilder's The Bridge of San Luis Rey. It constitutes about two-thirds of the book and is supplemented by an epilog and pre-and postwar information about what is now one of Japan's many young women's junior colleges. Rasche's focus on "the Christian way" does not distract. Readers may enjoy the nostalgia (38 photographs) and the admirable persons of Gaines and Johnson and her associate, Dr. Hamako Hirose. Essential for academic libraries and recommended for most other collections.
Helen Rippier Wheeler, formerly of UC-Berkeley,
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Johnson

Product Details

• Hardcover: 205 pages
• Publisher: Branden Pub Co; 1994 edition edition (September 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0828320012
• ISBN-13: 978-0828320016
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,621,017 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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