The Last Train from Hiroshima: The Survivors Look Back

[RamboLiberal]

Release Date Jan 19, 2010

Drawing on the voices of atomic-bomb survivors and the new science of forensic archaeology, Charles Pellegrino describes the events and aftermath of two days in August when nuclear devices detonated over Japan changed life on Earth forever

Last Train from Hiroshima offers readers a stunning “you are there” time capsule, gracefully wrapped in elegant prose. Charles Pellegrino’s scientific authority and close relationship with the A-bomb’s survivors make his account the most gripping and authoritative ever written.

At the narrative’s core are eyewitness accounts of those who experienced the atomic explosions firsthand—the Japanese civilians on the ground and the American flyers in the air. Thirty people are known to have fled Hiroshima for Nagasaki—where they arrived just in time to survive the second bomb. One of them, Tsutomu Yamaguchi, is the only person who experienced the full effects of the cataclysm at ground zero both times. The second time, the blast effects were diverted around the stairwell in which Yamaguchi had been standing, placing him and a few others in a shock coccoon that offered protection, while the entire building disappeared around them.

Pellegrino weaves spellbinding stories together within an illustrated narrative that challenges the “official report,” showing exactly what happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki—and why.

http://www.amazon.com/Last-Train-Hiroshima-Survivors-Look/dp/0805087966

[gateley]

1. Someone just posted that James Cameron bought the rights to this. nt

[RamboLiberal]

4. I posted that in GD

While "Avatar" continues to clean up at the box office, James Cameron may have signaled his next move as a director this week by buying the rights to "The Last Train From Hiroshima: The Survivors Look Back," an upcoming non-fiction book by Charles Pellegrino, the Guardian reports.

This news follows on the heels of reports that Cameron visited with Tsutomu Yamaguchi, who was identified last March as the first certified survivor of both U.S. atomic bombings of Japan during World War II, about a possible film project while in Japan last month doing promotion for "Avatar." Yamaguchi died this week at the age of 93, and is still the only person recognized as a survivor of both attacks. He was remembered by the mayor of Nagasaki as a "precious storyteller."

Yamaguchi was in Hiroshima on a business trip on Aug. 6, 1945, when a U.S. B-29 dropped an atomic bomb on the city. He suffered serious burns to his upper body and spent the night in the city. He then returned to his hometown of Nagasaki just in time for the second attack, city officials said.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/08/james-camerons-next-proje_n_416770.html

Hope Cameron stays a bit more historically accurate than he did in Titanic. He played loose in that movie with a few facts I believe.

[gateley]

6. Oh, was that you? :-). Hollywood, unfortunately, doesn't always stick to the

facts.

[catnhatnh]

2. Which part of the "official report"

does it "challenge" as in what is new in this report?

[RamboLiberal]

3. Guess we'll have to wait for the book n/t

[catnhatnh]

5. I've read this stuff since Hershey's "Hiroshima"

Which was damning enough. I'd be fascinated by new information.

[RamboLiberal]

7. I read Hershey's Hiroshima back when I was a kid in the 60's

That was an eye opener on the horror of The Bomb and that there is an ambiguity to war and no one is really "the good guy". That and the horrendous accounts of the fire bombing of Tokyo and other Japanese citizens - first I read of that was by Martin Caidin. And other accounts of the Battle of Britain and the firebombings of German cities.

[Sequoia]

8. Over the weekend the news said a survior of both bombs had died.

He was in both cities when the bombs were dropped. Geez, what are the odds of that? Thanks. I bet my library has a huges waiting list.