Page 86 - All About History - Issue 34-16

REVIEWS

All About History on the books, TV shows and

films causing a stir in the history world

NAGASAKI: LIFE AFTER

NUCLEAR WAR Delve into the lives of survivors from the
ended the war
that
bomb
Author Susan Southard Publisher Souvenir Press Ltd Price £20 Released Out now
hen the second atomic bomb well researched and engaging from
detonated over Nagasaki just the outset. Among the immense
three days after the first had devastation in the city, Southard’s book
obliterated Hiroshima, the is about the incredible courage and will
Wdevastation was absolute. to survive shown by those who lived to
74,000 people were instantly killed and tell their tale.
another 75,000 were injured, but that The author does an excellent job
was just the beginning of the horrors the of giving both sides to the story, and
bomb would cause. makes you question whether or not the
In the agonising aftermath, tens of atomic bombs were necessary to end
thousands contracted radiation sickness, World War II, clearly highlighting why
and malnutrition became as big a killer we must take every possible precaution
as the bomb itself. The residents of against a similar event happening in
Hiroshima and Nagasaki became known the future.
as hibakusha, which translates as ‘the Overall, it’s both upsetting and
atomic bomb-affected people’, and were exhilarating to read. The style is quite
now marked with more than just disease dry, but this is somewhat unavoidable
– there was also a social stigma that considering the subject matter, and
made them the lowest of the low. doesn’t take away from all the great
Many were horribly disfigured, causing facts and information this book is
children to run away from them in the littered with.
streets, worried that they were monsters. Although it is a historical book,
For the many Japanese doctors that it’s a million miles away from the
tried to ease the suffering of the victims, previous drab accounts of the events
information on the atomic bomb and its in Nagasaki – the real-life stories keep
effects on the body remained censored you hooked from the start to the very
by the American government into the end. The photos included in the book
early 1950s. are not for the faint hearted, but clearly
This book focuses on the lives of five illustrate the injuries sustained and the
members of the hibakusha, as well as destruction caused.
recounting the details of that fateful It’s incredible to think that this
day and looking at the repercussions happened only 70 years ago, yet many
it had for Nagasaki, its people and the of us know very little about what really
world. Although Southard goes years went on during this harrowing event
beyond the bombing on 9 August 1945, (much was censored for decades after
it’s the initial days, weeks and months World War II ended). What’s apparent
after the attack that are the most from the off is that Southard is not
gripping, as the reality of the bomb’s interested in sugar-coating the horrors
effects become clearer and clearer in of the bombing, but would rather “Southard’s book is about the
morbid detail. have the true story of this massacre
From the first few chapters, it’s clear remembered, and the courageous incredible courage and will to
that the author has poured herself stories of those who survived survive shown by those who lived”
into the creation of this book – it is highlighted for the world to see.
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