• Hiroshima Diary

  • The Journal of a Japanese Physician, August 6-September 30, 1945
  • By: Michihiko Hachiya, MD
  • Narrated by: Robertson Dean
  • Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Release date: 11-26-14
  • Language: English
  • Publisher: Tantor Audio
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars 4.7 (43 ratings)

Regular price: $27.99

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Publisher's Summary

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 50 years after the bombing.
©1983, 1995 The University of North Carolina Press. Foreword by John W. Dower by the University of North Carolina Press. (P)2014 Tantor
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Critic Reviews

"An extraordinary literary event." (The New York Times)
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful
4 out of 5 stars
By f_rele on 05-09-15

Skip the 30min intro.

First 30min segment is filled with spoilers and foreword writer tries to explain things to you like you are five that what you must think of each situation that foreword writer picks from the actual book. Book part it self is excellent listen.

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3 of 3 people found this review helpful

4 out of 5 stars
By Matthew on 10-22-16

Hiroshima Diary

I specifically read this in preparation for my visit to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. And yes, it obviously enriched my experience. For anyone planning to visit Hiroshima I would make this an essential pre-visit read.

The tone of the writing is fascinating. Extremely unemotional; a little detached even. Which, in itself, is a really curious window into the mind of the author. It’s hard to say this one man represents the fortitude of the entire population of the time… but through Dr. Hachiya’s lens the Japanese people definitely do seem stoic. Interestingly, most of the anger for their plight seems to be reserved for the Japanese armed forces with very little animosity toward the United States.

For those with any kind of scientific or medical bent… a good percentage of the diary describes the clinical symptoms of those “survivors” suffering from radiation poisoning, which is both mesmerizing and horrific. I say “survivors” but in reality, many of those who survived the blast but were exposed to radiation, eventually died.

"There is only one way in which one can endure man's inhumanity to man and that is to try, in one's own life, to exemplify man's humanity to man."
-- Alan Paton

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2 of 2 people found this review helpful

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5 out of 5 stars
By Eve on 02-11-15

Completely different insight

You've heard the military tactics and you've know the horrendous stories that pull on your heart strings, but this is a unique insight into the human psyche. It is a day by day account showing an honest, human perspective coping with defeat and devastation.

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1 of 1 people found this review helpful

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5 out of 5 stars
By Katherine on 06-03-15

Stunning and heartbreaking

I have always known the Western story of Hiroshima - how the bombing brought an end to the War, and our Diggers came home from their frightful Japanese prison camps.
Listening to this book gave me the totally different viewpoint of the people directly affected by the first atomic bomb.
How grievously terrible was their situation, yet how wonderfully the human spirit coped with this total destruction of their world. Dr Hachiya and his friends show incredible humanity and even humour in the midst of ghastliness and horror.
Unfortunately, because of the shocking descriptions of the aftermath of the atomic bomb, this book will probably not get the wide reading that it should.
It serves as a monument to the necessity of retaining Peace in our world where we are all human.

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