Remembering Hiroshima 80 years on

In October 1945, towns and cities across the United States celebrated ‘A Tribute to Victory Day’ in celebration of the United States’s military victory over Nazi Germany and imperial Japan. The biggest event was held in Los Angeles and broadcast live across the country. In scenes ‘reminiscent of the pre-war Nazi rallies at Nuremberg’, Iain MacGregor writes, more than 100,000 people crammed into the Memorial Coliseum to watch the ‘cinematic legend’ Edward G. Robinson lead a massive cast on giant stage sets recreating key moments of the defeat of the Axis powers. For the evening finale, in the glare of searchlights, three Boeing B-29 Superfortresses flew low over the stadium and, as the audience gasped, a huge mushroom cloud rose behind the stage. ‘Ladies and gentlemen, I give you…Hiroshima!’ Robinson boomed.

Published to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the first use of the atomic bomb as a weapon of war, The Hiroshima Men tells of the ‘quest’ to develop the bombin a gripping, challenging and sometimes provocative manner. With the help of new research and fresh voices, MacGregor traces the story from the discovery of nuclear fission in 1938 through to the decision to use it and the instant destruction of Hiroshima at 8.15 a.m. on 6 August 1945.

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The inclusion of Japanese voices is a vital ingredient often missed from earlier accounts. Readers of MacGregor’s The Lighthouse of Stalingrad will find much to admire in this new book, which benefits from his ability to reframe the grand narratives of earlier lengthy books into accessible ‘micro-narratives’ told through eyewitness accounts, describing scenes not easily forgotten. The author’s decision to begin with his interview of the 87-year-old Michiko Kodama, one of the few remaining survivors of 6 August, means that the bookopens under the pall of a mushroom cloud that is impossible to ignore.