Hiroshima & Nagasaki by M. G. Sheftall

I had already read volume 1 and now I won volume 2 in a Goodreads Giveaway

Book 2 will be released August 5 by Dutton Books (Penguin Random House)

Start with Hiroshima here.

5 stars

This is an amazing duology. The author was very respectful of the history but also of the people. My favorite aspect is that he worked with them and wasn't just giving his perspective of the event. No. This is a work driven by the people's testimonies, their memories, their experience. It's not about opinions. It's about their detailed description of the consequences of one order, one set of actions on civilians. Most of these would have been children and young adults at the time who survived and now provide us with very detailed, hard but honest descriptions of what they witnessed and how their culture and traditions made them cope with it. The first book focuses on testimonies from Hiroshima (after the release of Little Boy), and this awaited second volume gives her Nagasaki's destruction of so many lives with the drop of Fat Boy. A duology I highly recommend. Although the books look long, the diversity of scenes, testimonies, and memories (sometimes just 1 paragraph, sometimes extensive detailed ones) will keep us reading to the last page.

One of the survivors said something like: if I hated the Americans, I would have to hate her country as well.

These are not about the leaders of the war, who were in safety commanding this and that to happen without living agonizing months and years of consequences. These are true memories of those who were (in some cases) on their way to school...

Thank you, author, for taking the time and effort to do this the right way.

I also recommend as audiobooks the narrator is very good.