Hiroshima in History and Memory

by Michael J. Hogan (Editor)

In this timely collection of essays, prominent historians survey the Hiroshima story from the American decision to drop the first atomic bomb to the recent controversy over the Enola Gay exhibit in Washington, D.C. The first essay surveys the literature on the atomic bombing of Japan, while the second and third essays evaluate the decisions that led to that event. The remaining essays discuss how the Japanese and American people have remembered Hiroshima in the years since the end of World War II. They emphasize the construction of an official memory of Hiroshima, the challenge posed by alternative or counter-memories, and the tension between history and memory in the Hiroshima story. The collection thus unites up-to-date scholarship by diplomatic historians with the recent interest in memory that has emerged as part of the new cultural history.

Genres: History, Japan, World War II

272 pages, Paperback

First published March 29, 1996

About the author

Michael J. Hogan (born 1943) is an American academic who has served in the administrations or on the faculty of many American universities, wrote or edited numerous books, contributed as an adviser to the U. S. Department of State and several documentaries. Currently he is a distinguished professor of history at the University of Illinois at Springfield.

Reviews

[Madison Tuley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read for class. Recommend it if you want to learn about the bombing of Hiroshima through historiographical perspectives.

[Jonathan]

None

[Ned Lipes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great analysis of the circumstances around the bomb. Great for perspective.

[Rebekah]

I read this book for a college course.