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. Dr. Hachiya's 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.
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“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 US. 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.”
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