Selected Bibliography

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The Making of the Atomic Bomb

by Richard Rhodes

Recommended Reading

Richard Rhodes takes us on that journey step by step, minute by minute, and gives us the definitive story of man's most awesome discovery and invention. This book was awarded the 1988 Pulitzer Prize.

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Hiroshima

by John Hersey

Recommended Reading

On August 6, 1945, Hiroshima was destroyed by the first atomic bomb ever dropped on a city. This book tells what happened on that day, told through the memoirs of survivors.

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Hiroshima Diary: The Journal of a Japanese Physician

by Michihiko Hachiya

Recommended Reading

This diary was written daily for almost two months by Hiroshima doctor, Michihiko Hachiya, after the atomic bomb was dropped. He recounts his experiences in his journal as he slowly recovers and sees many patients in the hospital die of strange conditions (strange because the effects of radiation sickness were unknown at the time).

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Death in Life: Survivors of Hiroshima

by Robert Jay Lifton

Recommended Reading

In Japan, hibakusha means 'the people affected by the explosion'--specifically, the explosion of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima in 1945. In this classic study, Robert Jay Lifton studies the psychological effects of the bomb on 90,000 survivors.

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Children of the Atomic Bomb: An American Physician's Memoir of Nagasaki, Hiroshima, and the Marshall Islands

by James N. Yamazaki

Recommended Reading

This report takes a medical look at the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and reviews some of the genetic abnormalities resulting from fetal exposure. The author also passes along information about the fate of Marshall Islanders accidentally exposed to radioactive fallout during the 1954 U.S. thermonuclear test at Bikini.

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A Place Called Hiroshima

by Betty Jean Lifton

Recommended Reading

A memorable, finely crafted, emotionally intense photographic essay that transports readers to the midst of all that Hiroshima has been, is, and perhaps, will be. Current and historical photographs of exceptional quality and emotional depth support an artfully composed text that weaves the history of the event amidst the currency of its effect and the constant questions of the future.

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The Bells of Nagasaki

by Takashi Nagai

Recommended Reading

As he lay dying of leukemia, Dr. Nagai wrote The Bells of Nagasaki, vividly recounting what he had seen with his own eyes and heard from his associates. It is a deeply moving and human story. He tells how it dawned on him that this awful havoc was indeed the work of an atomic bomb, how he speculated about the American scientists who had put it together, how he picked up a leaflet dropped by American planes warning the Japanese to accept the terms of the Potsdam Declaration, how he and his companions shed tears over the defeat of their country.

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Hibakusha: Survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

by Gaynor Sekimori

In this collection, accounts of the atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki from 25 survivors, the hibakusha. The survivors describe in detail their experiences, the human costs of the atomic attacks, and their attempts to cope with the terrible situations they faced.

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The Atomic Bomb: Voices from Hiroshima and Nagasaki

by Mark I. Selden & Kyoko I. Selden (Editors)

This book is a collection of poems, photographs, essays, and memoirs by survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It explores the consequences of nuclear warfare, and describes the effects on its victims in gruesome detail.

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Hiroshima Notes

by Kenzaburo Oe

Japanese novelist Oe, who won a Nobel Prize in 1994, wrote these searching essays between 1963 and 1965, when he made frequent visits to the rebuilt city of Hiroshima and interviewed survivors.

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Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes

by Eleanor Coerr, Ronald Himler (Illustrator)

Based on a true story, Hiroshima-born Sadako is lively and athletic. And then the dizzy spells start. Soon gravely ill with leukemia, the "atom bomb disease," Sadako faces her future with spirit and bravery. Recalling a Japanese legend, Sadako sets to work folding paper cranes. For the legend holds that if a sick person folds one thousand cranes, the gods will grant her wish and make her healthy again.

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Nagasaki Journey: The Photographs of Yosuke Yamahata, August 10, 1945

by Rupert Jenkins (Editor)

This compilation presents an extensive photographic record of the immediate aftermath of the bombing of Nagasaki with accompanying text. it shows the horrendous aftermath of the bombing through reprints of digitally restored negatives from pictures taken just a few days after the critical juncture in history.

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The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb

by Gar Alperovitz

Controversial in nature, this book demonstrates that the United States did not need to use the atomic bomb against Japan. Alperovitz criticizes one of the most hotly debated precursory events to the Cold War, an event that was largely responsible for the evolution of post-World War II American politics and culture.

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Rain of Ruin: A Photographic History of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

by Donald K. Goldstein, J. Michael Wenger, Katherine V. Dillon

This photographic history of Hiroshima and Nagasaki provides the first comprehensive photographic record of the bombings and their aftermath, presenting a history of the two cities before and after the bomb's drop and also including photos of American and Japanese politicians and military men involved in the bombing.

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