Day One: Before Hiroshima and After

by Peter Wyden

As in his earlier recreations, Bay of Pigs & The Passionate War (Spanish Civil War), Wyden relies on novelistic touches drawn from interviews to spice up a story already well known. Here, too, we're treated to repetitions of insignificant pieces of color--such as J. Robert Oppenheimer's way with a martini--or of trivial details: does anyone care that the pistol tucked into General Leslie Groves' trousers was a "tiny Colt automatic...a .32 caliber on a .25 caliber frame"? But his technique, while no more insightful than in his previous narratives, is easier to take here--partly because the main figures, the physicists, are real characters. Take Leo Szilard, the Hungarian scientist who adopted the atomic bomb as a personal crusade in fear of a German military juggernaut. Living out of two suitcases that contained everything he owned, Szilard provided the impetus to fission research & teamed with Enrico Fermi in executing the successful chain reaction test at the Univ. of Chicago. (The test was kept secret from its president, Robert Hutchins, by physical science dean Arthur Holly Compton for fear that Hutchins would veto it as too dangerous.) Szilard, a delicatessenfare addict, didn't join Oppenheimer's Los Alamos project; but he did manage to keep up a running feud with Groves--in part, over the extravagant remuneration Szilard expected from his reactor patent. Wandering about, lost in thought, Szilard drove the security men tailing him crazy. (Groves was trying to get something on Szilard. He never did.) When Szilard began another crusade, this time to forestall the actual use of the bomb on Japan, he became Groves' principal pain (& a pain to Oppenheimer, who'd come out forcefully in favor of the bomb's immediate use). About as close as Wyden gets to anything of substance is the thread of lack-of-attention to radiation & its effects. (They assumed radiation effects wouldn't carry as far as the blast effects.) The news of radiation death from Hiroshima & Nagasaki was a shock to the scientists & covered up by Groves; but this, too, is familiar. The establishment of Los Alamos & the bureaucratic labyrinths are handled well, however. Drawbacks & all, this account will serve excellently for 1st-timers.--Kirkus (edited)

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Science, World War II, Military History, War, Japan

444 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Peter H. Wyden, born Peter Weidenreich, in Berlin to a Jewish family, was an American journalist and writer.

He left Nazi Germany and went to the United States in 1937. After studying at City University of New York, he served with the U.S. Army's Psychological Warfare Division in Europe during World War II. After the war, he began a career in journalism, during which he worked as a reporter for The Wichita Eagle, a feature writer for The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Washington correspondent for Newsweek magazine, a contributing editor for The Saturday Evening Post in Chicago and San Francisco, articles editor for McCall's, and executive editor for Ladies' Home Journal. He authored or coauthored nine books, and numerous articles that appeared in major magazines. In 1970, he became a book publisher in New York City and Ridgefield, Connecticut.

Source: wikipedia.com

Reviews

[Jill H. · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are easily depressed, do not read this book. I had read Hiroshima by John Hershey and it was very affecting.......but this book goes into the detail of the making and testing the atomic bomb as well as the horror of the bombing from the view point of those in Hiroshima.

This book stirred many feelings in me....anger, sadness, shame, and frustration. J. Robert Oppenheimer, a physicist who was not a very stable person, gathers in Los Alamos, at the direction of the government, a group of Nobel laureates to study nuclear fission and create the weapon to end all weapons. They had no idea if it would work and what it might do......set Earth's atmosphere on fire, break the Earth's crust or be a dud. They were working with the unknown and the idea of radiation sickness never crossed their minds. It was very disturbing to see how the government and politics played into the equation and whether the bomb should be used at all. As the first test bomb exploded over the desert at Los Alamos, Oppenheimer uttered his famous words, "Now I am become death, the shatterer of worlds".

There is so much information in this book which was new and disturbing to me, that I am still bothered by it. This is a very chilling book, regardless of your position on nuclear power and its use for war.

[فطومه · Rating 3 out of 5]

اليوم الأول قبل هيروشيما وما بعدها

الكتاب يتكلم عن كيفية اكتشاف القنبلة الذرية ومن الذي طرأت عليه الفكره
ومن قام بتنفيذها
والكثير مما شارك في انجازها
القسم الأول من الكتاب جاء مملاً جدا وخاصة إن يتكلم عن تراكيب فيزيائية
وعن الكيمياء حتى إني في فتره شعرت إني لاستطيع اكماله
لم يعجبني الا الفصول التي تكلمت عن القاء القنبلة وتحدث فيها الكاتب عن الدمار والموت الكامل الذي حدث لهيروشيما
شعرت بالم كبير اثناء قراءة هذا الجزء لاستطيع ان اتخيل كمية الالم التي حدثت لهذه المدينه ولا اتخيل ان من شاهد الاحداث التي حدثت والدمار التي حل ولم يتأثر يحمل ذرة إنسانيه
تحدث الكتاب عن اضرار القنبلة والموت الفضيع الذي حل وحتى من نجا من الموت ظل يعاني من تأثير الاشعاعات وكثير منهم توفى بعد فترة قصيرة
وبعد ذلك الجوع ونقص الماء ونقص الملابس حتى اضطر بعضهم أن ياكل السمك وهو ميت ومتأثر من الاشعاع
العجيب في الأمر إن من قام وخطط لصنع القنبلة لم يتأثر ولو بشكل بسيط ولم يبدِ الندم على الدمار الذي خلفته
الكتاب في معلومات مفيده وتوضح بشاعة الحروب ولكن بالنسبه لي لم اندمج إلا في الجزء بعد القاء القنبله وماقبلها اصبني الملل كثيرا

[Mohamed Abdelsttar · Rating 4 out of 5]

كتاب متميز لا يعيبه الا الكثير من الاطناب والتفاصيل الغير مهمة للقارئ
انقسم الكتاب لثلاثة أجزاء الاول عن بداية فكرة شطر الذرة من الاصل والخطوات التطبيقية لصناعة القنبلة النووية وتفاصيل اتخاذ القرار السياسي باستخدام القنبلة وتحديد "مدينة الموت" وانتهي بالقاء القنبلة النووية الاولي علي هيروشيما .. تضمن الجزء الاول الكثير من المعلومات العلمية القيمة
الجزء الثاني يشرح بالتفصيل اأثر المرعب والمدمر الذي احدثته القنبلة النووية في هيروشيما
هو الجزء الاكثر تأثيرا .. وانتهي بالحديث عن هيروشيما بعد ان استفاقت من موتها ونجحت ف النمو مرة ثانية كأحد اهم واكبر المدن اليابانية
الجزء الثالث عبارة عن البوم صور لاهم العلماء والسياسيين اللي شاركوا ف صنع القنبلة النووية والقائها وصور ايضا لهيروشيما بعد الدمار الكامل

كتاب رائع استفدت منه جدا

[Abigail · Rating 4 out of 5]

The research that went into this book is incredible. The author has dug up interviews and excerpts from memoirs that contemporary discourse around this subject deliberately pretends don't exist. An essential read, really. I have to say though, that the actual writing is not very good. Much of it reads like one of those cheap and scandalous magazines, especially early on. If you've watched the movie Oppenheimer, it can feel a bit redundant. I did not know that Harry Truman called August 6, "the greatest day in history". I also did not know just how hawkish Oppenheimer actually was, how hard he opposed Leo Szilard and the people in Chicago who did not want the bomb used without a prior demonstration or at least a warning... The theory seems to be that the nuclear bomb was never about ending the war, which was after the firebombing of Tokyo, largely over, except in sub warfare, but rather, about demonstrating to Stalin what would happen to the USSR should they find themselves on the wrong side. It also seems to me that it was more of a case of petty politics for Truman, of wanting to be reelected.


A survey report showed that over 85 percent of Americans supported the atomic bomb and some wished for even more bombs, ostensibly for their loss over Pearl Harbor. In Hiroshima, after the initial 130,000 deaths, still 70,000 or so would die over the next decade, due to the atomic plague being inflicted upon them by men who not only justify the bombing as necessary but say it was "reasonable" and even "Christian".

In the last novel I read, Rigadoon, by Louis Ferdinand Céline, he says

there wouldn't be any more slaughterhouses if the officials in charge took a look at the eyes of the feebleminded . . . naturally wars go on and on . . . the same brutes keep it up on both sides . . . like the Goncourt Prize . . . judges, candidates, both sides do their best and it's not good enough . . . "they're not made for it . . ." our little snot-noses weren't made to exist but here they were and they were hungry . . . I was feeling kind of "abstract" myself .

I don't think truer words have ever been written.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book to be a very good summary of the U.S. struggle to harness and weaponize the power atomic energy and to employ the resulting weapons to quickly end the war with Japan. The bomb was not readied in time for use on Germany and, in my opinion, the decision to use the bomb on Germany would have involved a whole lot more soul searching than it took to drop it on the Japanese people. This book covers it all, the gathering of brain power and of intelligence on German and Japanese bomb making efforts, the spying, the mixture of personalities among the physicists, engineers and math wizards who signed on to the task, the range of political opinions being considered, the question of should we use the bomb on Japan ASAP or give them a little demo with an opportunity to surrender first and the lack of understanding of the short and long term harmful effects of radiation on people. Finally, I found this book to pair well with John Hersey's "Hiroshima" and George Weller's "First into Nagasaki" in describing the resulting devastation caused by these weapons.

[kewan alghofaily · Rating 3 out of 5]

الكتاب عبارة عن كمية معلومات كثيرة جدًا
بدايتها ماحبيتها كونها عبارة عن تفاصيل علمية بحتة وكيف تم صنعها وشخصيات كثيرة جدًا 99% منها اسماء جديدة عليّ
التشويق بدأ في اللحظات الأخيرة من رميهم للقنبلة حتى نهاية الكتاب
لمن الكاتب شرح المنطقة بعد سقوط القنبلة كيف كل شخص يحاول ينجو
الطبيب بالمستشفى يحاول يكتشف ليه المرضى صارت تتردى حالتهم
الفوضى في طوكيو هل يعلنون الاستسلام ولا يكملون الحرب؟
مشاعر المصابين بعد ما قدم لهيروشيما سكان جدد وصاروا يتحاشون المصابين
ردة فعل أمريكا وردة فعل العلماء نفسهم كيف

في النهاية يتكلم عن هيروشيما بعد سنوات طويلة كيف تغيرت
وارفق في آخر شيء صور عن اشخاص سبق وذكرهم.

[Erik Graff · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a readable overview of the history of the development of atomic power in the United States of America, from the theory to the first sustained nuclear reaction to the first bombs and their uses in the terror campaign against Japan. It was made into a television movie in 1989.

[عاتكة النفيسة · Rating 3 out of 5]

في الكتاب الأول - الجزء الأول - كانت التفاصيل الصغيرة كثيرة جداً جداً ، ولم تكن بتلك المعلومات التي تطلعت للحصول عليها حالما قرأت عنوان الكتاب.
الجزء الخامس كان قريبا جدا ككونه بداية.
أعجبني السرد من مقدمة فصل " اختيار مدينة الموت " حتى ختم الكاتب تفاصيل المأساة..

[Sharon Zink · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes it was so exciting I couldn't put it down. Other times I slogged through. I don't care for political historhy or diplomatic history, but the other parts I liked, and I am glad I read it.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Day One: Before Hiroshima and After by Peter Wyden provides a broad look at the justification for the development of an atomic bomb from the need to get there before Nazi Germany to the development and eventual use against Japan. I have read other books on this subject so there wasn't that much new material for me but it was nicely put together into a logical story. It includes a look at the security required to keep a lid on the program especially among the scientists who were accustomed to an open environment for discussion of technical developments. The book covers subplots about General Leslie Groves who organized and coordinated the efforts across multiple locations to make sure anything needed received top priority and Robert Oppenheimer who was tasked with dividing up and then coordinating all of the scientific activity. There is a significant amount of the discussion and expression of concern about the necessity of using the atomic bomb on Japan versus alternatives that would extend the timeframe of the war and ultimately result in much higher casualty rates as can be seen in retrospect from today. Given what was known at that time, there were serious arguments on both sides. A movie by this same title was made and is a good representation of the book's content.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book 21 of Nuclear Studies:

After No High Ground, I moved on to a more recent retelling of the events leading up to and directly after Hiroshima. Day One cites No High Ground as one of its many citations and was written during the 1980s.

If you're the type of person who finds historical or military history to be boring at times, I would have to recommend this version to you. The author visits the facts with a novel-like approach, making this an easy-to-get-into, but lengthy read. And, while No High Ground was most certainly interesting in its assessments of the people involved, Day One goes even deeper into the psyches of the people who worked on the atomic bomb.

With more time having passed between the events of Hiroshima and the book, the after-effects are discussed in greater, and often heart-breaking detail. Not a happy tale, to be sure, but an essential one, and if you're willing to spend time with a longer book, this is the one you should choose.

[Shane Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

The more I learn about history, the more I see that sometimes events start off small and insignificant, then snowball out of control before anyone realizes the implications. This is a sad account of one of those histories. Centering mainly on The Manhattan Project, it's origins, structure and aim, it shows how a group of brilliant scientists and a military minded government tried to take that quantum idea and blow it up. Really interesting stuff, about the project itself, the scientists and generals running the show and the secrecy behind the project are fascinating to learn about. The last quarter of the book then shifts to Hiroshima, the morning of and aftermath of the devastation, its horrors and heroes. This is where it hits home, I cannot even imagine the horror that those in Hiroshima and Nagasaki felt on those days. The author impresses the importance of scientific study and analysis instead of ignorantly rushing into something to meet a quota (or beat the Nazi's). Hindsight is always 20 20 I guess...

[James Crawford · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is subtitled Before Hiroshima and After. It is filled with a lot of material on the events leading up to the bombing and events just after the bombing. It's also written in a rather readable style.

The book starts off noting a physicist (the chief scientist on the Tinian forward Air Force base) who had been told that it might take fifty atomic bombs before Japan would be conquered.

Some days after the dropping of the atomic bomb Tokyo Rose announced that radiation injuries and illnesses were affecting many of the survivors of Hiroshima. This came as a surprise to the scientists. The book says that a ranking radiation expert claimed the reports were a hoax.

There was concern that a plane carrying an atomic bomb might crash on takeoff, blowing up the entire island.

Before any bomb was dropped, it was also considered possible that once the bomb exploded the shock waves would destroy the plane.

Major General Groves was Oppenheimer's boss. The book says “He wanted to adminnister the most horrifying possible psychological blow to shock the Japanese into surrendering and that meant he needed maximum casualties.”

Tokyo was briefly considered, but it would be having bad weather when the bomb would be ready to be dropped, and a large part of the city had already been destroyed by the firebombing, so it would make it hard to tell just how effectively the atomic bomb was. For that they needed an almost pristine city.

Kyoto meant the various criteria for being a target city. Yokohama was a possiblity, as was Yawata, but Hiroshima was the largest target that had not yet been on the firebombing list. Kyoto and Hiroshima were the two top targets; Yokohama and Kokura Arsenal were the next level down, and below that was Niigata, which was eventually dropped from the list of possible atomic bomb targets.

Kyoto had many lacquer factories that had been converted to explosives-making plants. Over 26,000,000 square feet of industrial plant area had been identified in aerial photographs. There was also an aircraft engine plant in the area. Hiroshima had various military headquarters, plants for aircraft parts and machine tools, and home factories.

Kyoto received a reprieve, though, when the Secretary of War said he didn't want that city to be a-bombed since it was a city of great religious significance to Japan, and that bombing such a city could cause American to lose “stature” after the war.

Thus, Hiroshima became target 1 by default.

There is an eye-witness account of an American captive being attacked by civilians who were throwing rocks at him. Some other airmen who had ditched (at some other time; not during the atomic bomb dropping) had been picked up by fishermen who were going to behead them, but they were saved by a Japanese military policeman. This is an area I haven't read a lot in, and that is the reaction of the average Japanese civilian to American prisoners, but from what I have read it seems the prisoners were safer in the hands of the Japanese military, or at least no worse off.

The second atomic bomb was destined for Kokura, but because of bad weather the plane went for the secondary target, which was Nagasaki.

A partial timeline can be constructed from the book:

August 6th, 1945: 8:16 a.m.: telephone lines to Hiroshima go dead.

ca. 8:20 a.m. Tokyo railway signal determines loss of telegraph line near Hiroshima.ca. 10 a.m. Osaka Central Command HQ reports military communication with Hiroshima had failed.

Afternoon: editors of various newspapers are called into Information and Intelligence Agency. An army press officer tells them a different type of bomb had been dropped on Hiroshima. No other details were available, and papers were to treat the bombing as being normal.

6 p.m. Radio reports Hiroshima was attacked by B-29s dropping incendiary bombs, and damage was being investigated.

Aug. 7Th, 1945, 1 a.m. Americans broadcasts that an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima were picked up. Government bureaucrats want to minimize the reports of damage.

3:30 p.m. Japanese Imperial HQ says a new type of bomb had been used on Hiroshima the previous day and the matter was still being investigated.

August 8th. Arguments still going on among government bureaucrats as to what everything meant. “Defensive measures” against the bomb were considered, such as wearing light clothing.

August 9th, 11 a.m. Meeting of military leaders where some still expect an actual invasion of Japan, and that the Japanese military could “destroy the major part of an invading force.” The men are told that Nagasaki has been bombed. Afternoon meetings still see deadlock, with many still wanting to continue the fight.

11 p.m. Imperial Conference with the Emperor attending. There was a rumor that Tokyo would be a-bombed on the 12th. The Emperor basically says enough is enough, and that the war was over. (There was nearly a coup after this, though, which could have changed the length of the war but not the result.)

Aug. 15Th: Japan surrenders.

Sept. 8Th: Delegation allowed to go to Hiroshima with medical supplies and to investigate the reports of radiation sickeness.

Sept. 19Th: MacArthur imposes censorship on all media, wanting to shut down the reports of radiation sickness. Some documentary footage filmed by a Japanese was confiscated and held by the US military for twenty-five years.

For at least seven months food and water were in short supply in the bombed cities.

The book also talks about how disfigured survivors of the atomic bombing were treated like outcasts by the Japanese themselves.

[Maha Rashwan · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's like watching a documentary , very informative and strangely "non-boring" , at first you get confused with too many names, but as you go through the book you link the names to pieces of the story and to information you already know. A fantastic book that tells the story from the perspectives of both the Americans and the Japanese to come out with the morale of how wrong war is and how destructive the "abuse" of science can be.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Published in 1984 in the midst of President Reagan’s calls for a first-strike missile defense system using “star wars” technology, “Day One” is a very thorough examination of the circumstances behind the building of the first atomic bomb and the arms race that followed.

The author uses never-before-published documents and interviews with surviving eyewitnesses from the Manhattan Project. He shows how a combination of wartime group-think, irrational secrecy, and misunderstandings led to the creation of the bomb and the decision to drop it on a Japanese city without first staging a peaceful demonstration.

For example, FDR gave the go-ahead to build the bomb because he mistakenly believed the Nazis were ahead of the United States in the “race” to build an A-bomb.

President Truman made the decision to drop the bomb on Japan not only to bring a swift end to the war, but also because he thought he was continuing President Roosevelt’s policy. In fact, Roosevelt had never told anyone what he had decided to do in regards to the bomb.

The author’s chapters on the devastated city of Hiroshima, which tell the stories of several Japanese survivors of the first A-bomb attack, make for very grim but necessary reading.

[Sara Ibrahim · Rating 3 out of 5]

مش عارفة ابتدى منين .. كتاب يوجع القلب

ابتدى بالكلمة اللى دايما باقولها بعد كل كتاب تاريخ " الرجال مواقف " موقف او قرار واحد ممكن يكتب اسمك بماء الذهب او بالدم !!

ولا ابتدى بهيروشيما اللى اتكررت تانى وتالت ولسه بتكرر كل يوم باشكال واساليب مختلفة من اول فيتنام لافغانستان للعراق ..... وبنفس المبررات

ولا ابتدى باليابان واللى اصبحت كوكب اليابان بعد قصف نووى لمدينتين فيها خلال سنوات معدودة !!!!

عموما الكتاب اكتر من رائع اعتبره مرجع متكامل لولا بعض الملل والتفاصيل الكتيرة فى الجزء الاول .. اعتقد انه مادة ثرية لاى سيناريست



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لو فى اى فيلم بيتكلم عن موضوع الكتاب اتمنى اعرفه :)

[René · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written while the Cold War was reaching new heights of folly with US President Ronald Reagan's Star War project, this book (which reviews the lives of the scientists who gathered to build the first atomic bomb and its impact on the people of Hiroshima) is built on two naively simplistic ideas : the A-bomb would never had existed had those scientists not gathered at that specific period of time, and the Cold War and its accompanying arms race for annihilation would never have happened had the secrets of this destructive bomb been shared with the Russians before it was used. Unfortunately, the dynamics of inventions and of Stalinism are ignored, making this book just another revisionist approach to a sad chapter of history.

[Jeffrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Classic overview of the development of the atomic bomb, the decision to use it to end the war, and the horrifying impact on its victims. Each of these topics has filled up entire volumes on its own, so this book is necessarily abridged in its depth; but it's nonetheless well done in the space it does have and if a reader is seeking a single volume treatment on the early history of nuclear weapons, this book serves well.

[Hatim Qa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book shows how ugly and devastating war is. The book tells the story of the atomic bomb from its infancy and how Hiroshima is today. While the first two thirds were packed with new names and scientific names and focused on the science behind the bomb and it's scientists, the last third was the most intriguing one. It captured the great horror that was set upon Hiroshima by the bomb and how the city turned to hell.
Let's hope that the world never sees another Hiroshima.

[Feras Alropa]

أنا قرأت السيرة الذاتية للقنبلة الذرية
كانت معضلة تصنيف اخلاقي ...هل هذه القبلة أنقذت العالم أم دمرته
كان اليوم الأول قبل القنبلة مليئ بالأحلام والحماسات ,عبارة عن مضرب مثل لصنع المستحيل الذي يحتذى به
أما اليوم الأول بعدها لا يمكن وصفه,لا الموت ولاالعذاب أو حتى الإنكسار النفسي ومحاولت العيش على أنقاض الذكرى الأليمة
أعترف أني سأكمل عمري كله بأخلاقيات هذه القنبلة
هذا البيتر أبدع بنقل تلك الفترة

[Joe N. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book about how the atom bomb came to be and the effects afterward. His writing style is different than I am used to but still a worthwhile read. Peter has clearly done some extensive research.

[Chris Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great read. It went deep into what went into the making of the Bomb and the decision to use it. Way more than I ever would have heard in high school history. In my opinion it is information everyone should have.

[Israa Dahash · Rating 3 out of 5]

استفاضة في التفاصيل ..
القسم الأول منه يتحدث عن القنبلة النووية من الناحية الكيميائية
اما القسم الثاني فهو الأهم

كارثة إنسانية عظيمة من الصعب تخيلها
والتفاصيل مؤلمة جداً

أغلب المعلومات الواردة في الكتاب موجودة ضمن هذا الفيلم الوثائقي
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2W0zo...

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very readable account of the the events leading up to and the aftermath following the development and dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Peter Wyden introduces the reader to the scientists and military personnel who started the atomic age. Not just for history fans.

[Cws]

940.54

[Haski · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the last book I read with 1st Battalion 3rd Marines. I read it when I was at PTA(Pohakaloa Training Area).

[Daniel Bakken · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tells the story of the development of the first nuclear weapons by American physicists Oppenheimer, Teller, and others during WWII. Also tells the sad story of their use on civilians at Hiroshima.

[Becca Crane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great Content! The Atomic Bomb fascinates me! However, there are a lot of characters to keep track of and forget about immediately.

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

What took me so long to read about Hiroshima. The story of how the bomb came to be. It's remarkable how dumb and blind we truly are. We have so much to learn.

[Donna Kubiak · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned more about the atom bomb than I ever wanted to know, but this book really was a lesson in the human costs of war as well as the financial ones.