A classic first account published in 1946 - What an incredible story to read about five people's experience who actually survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. I've had this little book in my library since 1999. I ended up with it after my mother-in-law passed away. Notice the author, John Hersey. Well, my daughter would marry a Jonathan "Jon" Hersey seven years later, and, of course, I gave the book to them for their library. ( )

Historical questions that have developed in the decades since its writing aside, this is an enthralling read.

The stories told here give a highly personal look at an event that is too big to comprehend easily otherwise. ( )

Matter-of-Fact Biographies

John Hersey’s “Hiroshima” is a short book and a quick read about the first use of an atomic bomb against civilians.

It first appeared a year after the bombing in “The New Yorker” and was shortly thereafter published in book format. When it was published, “Hiroshima” was one of the first reports about the impact of the atomic bombs on real people that Americans read. It even angered General MacArthur, who was nominally in charge of Japan’s occupation, because he tried hard to control information that was leaked about the bombings.

Hersey identifies six survivors of the bomb and recounts the first few days after the impact: a German Jesuit, a Methodist minister, a Methodist mother of three, two medical doctors, and a woman who later converts to Catholicism. Each person continues to suffer long after the bombing itself. Several of the survivors are socially related.

The writing is a very matter-of-fact of chronological facts with little editorializing. However, the writing is in no way bland considering the horrors of the bombing.

Most new versions of the book include an additional chapter that summarizes the years between 1945 and 1985. This chapter is a valuable reminder that the bombings occurred in a very recent memory. ( )

Just as anyone unconvinced of taking action to help those who lose everything should read the grapes of wrath, those who are hawkish or play loose and wild with nuclear weapons should read Hiroshima by John Hersey. Never a more devastating detailed account of the horrors of nuclear war and disregard for the aftermath of weapons of mass destruction. Once its unleashed it's over for our beloved planet and for mankind. Nuclear power has no preference for race or color wealth or power. We all suffer and die the same. ( )

El 6 de agosto de 1945, en el momento que la bomba atómica relampageó sobre Hirosshima, la señorita..... ( )