To hell and back : the last train from Hiroshima

456 Pages·2015·17.59 MB·English

by  Pellegrino

PRAISE FOR THE PREVIOUS EDITION “SOBER AND
AUTHORITATIVE: THIS IS GLEAMING, POPULAR WARTIME HISTORY,
JOHN HERSEY INFUSED WITH RICHARD PRESTON AND A FLECK OF
MICHAEL CRICHTON. . . . [PELLEGRINO] CERTAINLY STUDIES
EVERY KIND OF FALLOUT AND DOES NOT NEGLECT THE SPIRITUAL
VARIETY. HE WRITES ABOUT ONE DOCTOR WHO RECALLED THAT,
‘THOSE WHO SURVIVED THE ATOMIC BOMB WERE, IN GENERAL,
THE PEOPLE WHO IGNORED OTHERS CRYING OUT IN EXTREMIS OR
WHO STAYED AWAY FROM THE FLAMES, EVEN WHEN PATIENTS
AND COLLEAGUES SHRIEKED FROM WITHIN THEM. . . . IN SHORT,
THOSE WHO SURVIVED THE BOMB WERE, IF NOT MERELY LUCKY,
IN A GREATER OR LESSER DEGREE SELFISH, SELF-CENTERED—
GUIDED BY INSTINCT AND NOT BY CIVILIZATION. AND WE KNOW
IT, WE WHO HAVE SURVIVED.’”
—New York Times
“The tragedies and atrocities of World War II now belong to history, while
Hiroshima is still part of our world, our continuing present, maybe our dreaded
future. . . . Charles Pellegrino’s account about what it was actually like to be on
the ground in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki, culled from survivors’ memories
and his own work in forensic archaeology, is the most powerful and detailed I
have ever read. It puts flesh on the skeletons. . . . This book offers more than just
effective popular history. It is a kind of reminder. We have now lived long
enough with the bomb to begin to take it for granted. [As] nations join an
expanding nuclear ‘club,’ we are in danger, as MacArthur’s committee was, of
thinking of nuclear weapons as nothing but more sophisticated bows and arrows.
[This book] gives us, instead, a glimpse of their horror. It makes us afraid again.
As we should be.”
—Washington Post
“A tragic cautionary tale as well as a celebration of human resilience.
—People Magazine
“Heart-stopping. Pellegrino dissects the complex political and military strategies
that went into the atomic detonations and the untold suffering heaped upon
countless Japanese civilians, weaving all of the book’s many elements into a
wise, informed protest against any further use of these terrible weapons.”
—Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) “Pellegrino here chronicles history’s
most destructive attack by human beings on others of their species. . . . The
author includes stories of instant and total devastation—people vaporizing,
buildings disappearing—and improbable survivals and bizarre effects:
permanent human shadows cast onto walls; a teacher whose face bore the
imprint of a student’s writing she was examining when the flash came; a man
whose eye problems were cured, another whose cancer went into remission. . . .
Enormously painful to read, but absolutely essential to do so.”
—Kirkus (Starred Review) “The train of the title was bound for Nagasaki: thirty
survivors of the Hiroshima bombing fled there, only to run straight into a second
catastrophe. Pellegrino’s account is full of such terrible ironies—which he
describes with a lucid, almost lyrical precision.”
—Time Magazine (Pick of the Week) “A frightening, grim, yet fascinating
examination of the nuclear attacks on Japan. . . . This is shocking, well-written,
and will counter the oft-expressed opinion that [nuclear bombs] are ‘just another
weapon.’”
—Booklist
To Hell and Back
[Illustration: Patricia Wynne]
To Hell and Back
The Last Train from Hiroshima
Charles Pellegrino
ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD
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Published by Rowman & Littlefield
A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
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Copyright © 2015 by Rowman & Littlefield All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in
any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems,
without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-
Publication Data Pellegrino, Charles R.
[Last train from Hiroshima]
To hell and back : the last train from Hiroshima / Charles Pellegrino.
pages cm. — (Asia/Pacific/perspectives) Originally published under title: The last train from Hiroshima.
New York : Henry Holt and Co., 2010.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4422-5058-1 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-4422-5059-8 (electronic) 1. Hiroshima-shi
(Japan)—History—Bombardment, 1945—Personal narratives, Japanese. 2. Atomic bomb victims—Japan—
Hiroshima-shi—Biography. 3. Hiroshima-shi (Japan)—Biography. 4. Atomic bomb—Social aspects—
Japan—Hiroshima-shi—History—20th century. 5. World War, 1939-1945—Japan—Hiroshima-shi. 6.
Forensic archaeology—Japan—Hiroshima-shi. 7. Hiroshima-shi (Japan)—History—Bombardment, 1945. I.
Title.
D767.25.H6P45 2015
940.54'2521954092—dc23
2015014341
™ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard
for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Printed in the United States of America
To Tomorrow’s Child
Contents
Contents
Preface
Foreword
Chapter 1: The Killing Star
Chapter 2: Gojira’s Egg
Chapter 3: Setsuko
Chapter 4: And the Rest Were Neutrinos
Chapter 5: The Crazy Iris
Chapter 6: Kaiten and the Faithful Elephants
Chapter 7: A Vapor in the Heavens
Chapter 8: Threads
Chapter 9: Testament
Chapter 10: Legacy: To Fold a Thousand Paper Cranes
Acknowledgments
Notes
About the Author
[Illustration: Patricia Wynne]