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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
Customer Reviews
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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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