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Title: Hiroshima Diary

Subtitle: The Journal of a Japanese Physician, August 6-September 30, 1945

Author: Michihiko Hachiya, MD

Narrator: Robertson Dean

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-26-14

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 37 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

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.

Critic Reviews:

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

Members Reviews:

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.

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. Its hard to say this one man represents the fortitude of the entire population of the time but through Dr. Hachiyas 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

Good Point of View

I had read a similar book but it was narrated by an European POV staying in Hiroshima on the day of the events. This gave more insight into a Native's emotions about the bomb, losing the war, the love for their Emperor, the distrust of their military, and the quick adaptation to the occupation forces.

I enjoyed it.

It was also entertaining to hear the narrator try to speak like old Saeki-san :)

Interesting find

I just stumbled upon this book and I'm glad I did, what an interesting account from Hiroshima in the hours, days, weeks, months after the bomb was dropped. I love reading first hand accounts of history like this, written in the moment and not done with a revisionist agenda, it's just a diary of the day to day happenings and news as it occurred. I only wish it covered more territory, in particular more about the occupation, etc.