First published in the US in 1955, The Doctor of Hiroshima, translated and edited by Warner Wells M.D., himself a surgeon dispatched on the front during the war, is the diary of following the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Dr. Michihiko Hachiya was at the time the director of the Hiroshima Communications Hospital, situated less than a mile from the center of the atomic bomb.
From 6th of August onwards, he will document, through daily entries that were not originally intended to be published, the circumstances of the event, but also the medical follow-up of the symptms and overall medical effects of the tragic events. In a way, it may operate as a self-defence mechanism: in the face of the human tragedy, looking for patterns and logical/scientific explanations is part of the tremendous efforts to bring order and logic into this floating world.
Therefore, the book may be used both by historians of the WWII and anyone interested in medical histories, especially visible medical effects of exposure to nuclear incidents.
The diary belongs to the so-called hibakusha genre, which refers to the testimonies of people who survived the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. The style is dense and very descriptive, with reference to stories of individuals he may have known or got to know only as victims of the attacks. The fact that those writings were never aimed to be published, give a certain genuine taste to the writing in general.
The Doctor of Hiroshima is an important memorialistic contribution to war narratives about nuclear power and the effects of nuclear bombing on the life of everyday people. The cover, both the picture chosen to illustrate it, and the colour range, do add visual information to this terrific memorialistic account.
Rating: 4.5 stars
Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own
Thanks for the blog tour support x
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