Hiroshima [Paperback]

John Hershey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1968

Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. 100% Money Back Guarantee.

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Bantam (1968)
• ASIN: B001LA3JWY
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #476,519 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hiroshima - Learn the after-effects of an atomic explosion, June 18, 2008

By 

William J. Romanos "Bill Romanos, III" (Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This book is an excellent overview of a handful of people who experienced the atomic bomb that exploded over Hiroshima, Japan and the rescue efforts by some courages individuals immediately afterwards.

Given the recent concerns of the U.S. and many nations with Iran potentially becoming able to produce a nuclear weapon and the continued issues with North Korea's program, and the overarching concerns related to the proliferation of nuclear weapons technology, this book shows the real horrors of what an atomic explosion causes, both immediately - death and destruction - as well in the immediate and mediate aftermath - the terrible suffering of the survivors(including, severe burns, radiation poisoning, cancer and particularly leukemia, etc.). Particularly compelling was the story of how most of the population that survived the immediate blast effects, desperately sought out water, and how some priests stationed there from the west tried to help survivors.

This is an excellent, well-researched, and brief overview of the effects of an atomic bomb explosion on a city.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quite Something, October 14, 2009

By 

Anderson (Arkansas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hiroshima (Paperback)

Although it's been a couple of years since I read it, Hiroshima is still ingrained in my memory. Hersey introduces a situation of which most people are aware. You are thrust into the lives of a handful of individuals before, during, and after the catastrophic events that marked at that time the pinnacle of human ingenuity and human horror. Like Joseph Conrad in his masterpiece Heart of Darkness, Hersey paints a beautiful yet terrifying picture, sparing no detail. By the end of all the descriptions of death and decay, you feel you have also experienced it, because no matter how many statistics are taught in the classroom or how many pictures you're shown, without that human connection, the dead are just nameless bodies. This is why Hiroshima is as important as it is informational. Hersey connects you with survivors, and tells their remarkable stories to a world that needed to hear them and in reality still needs to hear them.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars In Case We Forget...., April 29, 2011

By 

An admirer of Saul "Mr Wobble" (uk) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hiroshima (Paperback)

A reportage tracking and tracing the lives and experiences of six survivors of the Hiroshima atom bomb attack of 1945.

From the first mysterious white flash,Hersey tells-in a detached style that make the horrors more personal and real to the reader-the bemusement of what had caused the cataclysmic destruction (a cluster bomb? Magnesium being showered down and igniting when in contact with electricity? Petrol sprayed and ignited?)the burns and wounds-Tanimoto pulling a burned woman from the river and her skin comes from her arms like gloves from a hand;not easy to forget-the strange illnesses and-finally-the rebuilding, as life goes on.

In addition, Hersey visits Hiroshima 40 years on and looks at the lives his subjects led after the bomb;a struggle for understanding from a nation that regarded survivors as freaks;to try and put the whole thing into some context;to forget or-as with Kiyoshi Tanimoto-to use the horror as a warning to the world and as a focal point for peace.Tanimoto's story is perhaps the most revealing.He was-to a great extent, weather intended or not-very much exploited by the American media who took over his good idea;cynics would say certain individuals were using the moral question of the A bomb and Tanimoto's campaign for self agrandisement,and I'm one! There's also the painfully crass 'This is Your Life' appearance by Tanimoto.You wonder at the insensitivity of 'welcoming' an unsuspecting guest of such a horror with a 'countdown' to when the bomb hit Hiroshima as an introduction to the audience as to who the subject was, closely followed by, "And now a word from our sponsors" and a demo of how fantastic the sponsor's nail varnish is!This is perhaps a greater indignity to Tanimoto than the bomb itself.

This is a vital piece of history, magnificently recorded.(Did Capote use this as a template for his equally brilliant 'In Cold Blood'?)I started reading this late in the evening and found myself reading late into the night to finish it-it is that good and 'unputdownable'.It is not a book you can lay to one side after a few pages and come back to-as I foolishly thought-so make a space in your day to read this entire.It will be a time you will never forget,and neither should the world.