Hiroshima Diary Lib/E: The Journal of a Japanese Physician, August 6-September 30, 1945

by Michihiko Hachiya, Warner Wells (Translator), Robertson Dean (Reader)

282pages. in8. Broché jaquette.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Japan, War, Memoir, World War II, Biography

Audio CD

First published January 1, 1955

Reviews

[Petra X · Rating 5 out of 5]

After the bombing of Hiroshima, the author acting as both a doctor and patient in a hospital now devoted to the victims of radiation sickness decided to keep a diary. it was a personal diary, not one written with an eye to publication.

The attitude of the Japanese to being bombed was one I could not have imagined. Within a few days there was the "news" that Japan had used nuclear bombs on the West Coast of America, and the cities were destroyed and that the people were either killed or suffering. This cheered the patients in the hospital up immensely who wanted greater use of nuclear warheads against America. They were totally devastated up to and including suicide over the decision of the Emperor to cede victory and urged him to revenge their nation, even if they all died. Their thirst for revenge and anger at the Emperor were extreme. Possibly their main regret was that they hadn't done it first.

I mentioned in the Notes on Reading that the author was an extreme misogynist. He felt that the rape of a girl by soldiers was her fault and that it would be best if women just stayed at home as when they were out they were too much of a temptation to some men.
_________

Notes on reading and why I wrote this short review:
I never felt sorry for the bombing of Dresden. Now I don't feel sorry for Hiroshima either. Why is it that the victors, if they have an organised military structure, are held to higher standards and blamed for atrocities when the losers and terrorist organisations are not?

I really want to write a review of this book, explaining the above statement. The author is a very measured scientific man, but also a misogynist of the most extreme kind.
_________

The book was excellent and very well written. The sufferings of the people as radiation sickness took hold, an illness never seen before so each symptom was new and unexpected, is terrible. Many died, but many recovered. They were civilians, just like the Germans, but they supported the war and the cruelty of their thoughts towards the enemy, the Allies knew no bounds.

[Shimaa Mokhtar · Rating 5 out of 5]

وستظل كارثة هيروشيما نقطة سوداء في ضمير الانسانية صعب أن تمحى

[Chrissie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title of Hiroshima Diary: The Journal of a Japanese Physician, August 6-September 30, 1945 makes clear the book’s content. The Japanese physician, Michihiko Hachiya, is the book’s author. He has written in daily diary entries what exactly he experienced and witnessed starting from August 6, 1945 at 8:15 in the morning through the fifty-five following days.

Dr. Hachiya was director of the Hiroshima Communications Hospital. This hospital was located a mere 1500 meters from the hypocenter of the bomb. Dr. Hachiya writes in the fashion of the academic, physician and director that he was. A Buddhist and devout Japanese at heart. He writes in a straightforward manner. He relates what he observed with little emotion--despite the fact that he had lost all his possessions, his house had crumbled, his wife was badly burned, and his own life hung in the balance. Beside the deaths, chaos, trauma and physical wounds that occurred at the bomb’s impact, there followed the frightening symptoms of radiation sickness that were at this time not understood. Imagine being in his shoes. Think about this. This book depicts vividly what many in Hiroshima experienced. It puts you right there. You are given an eyewitness account. Despite its straightforwardness, or maybe because of its straightforwardness, the reader is shaken. There is an immediacy to the prose. Even if the book does not contain new information to those who have read of the bombing of Hiroshima before, it is well worth reading.

One is struck by how individuals are shaped by the culture and the society to which they belong. The Japanese people’s devotion to and adoration of their emperor is hard for a westerner to fully comprehend. The book goes a long way in illustrating the depth of their devotion. One observes the excuses made and the explanations constructed to hold on to one’s national and cultural beliefs.

The audiobook is narrated by Robertson Dean. The narration I have given four stars. It is clear, simple to follow and read at an appropriate speed.

Reading this book one gets uncomfortably close to the individuals there at the bombing of Hiroshima. This is a difficult read but definitely worth the time and effort spent. Don’t miss this book.


************************

*Hiroshima Diary: The Journal of a Japanese Physician, August 6-September 30, 1945 by Michihiko Hachiya 4 stars
*Hiroshima by John Hersey 3 stars
*Sachiko: A Nagasaki Bomb Survivor's Story by Caren Stelson 3 stars
*The Bells of Nagasaki by Takashi Nagai 2 stars
*Hiroshima Nagasaki: The Real Story of the Atomic Bombings and Their Aftermath by Paul Ham TBR
*Nagasaki: Life After Nuclear War by Susan Southard TBR
*The Last Train from Hiroshima: The Survivors Look Back by Charles Pellegrino TBR

[Sahar Zakaria · Rating 5 out of 5]

من أبشع الجرائم التي أرتكبت في حق الإنسانية .. مآسي وأهوال تقشعر لها الجلود وتنخلع لها القلوب ..
ستظل الأيادي الأمريكية ملوثة بالدماء اليابانية مادامت على الأرض حياة.

[Yazeed AlMogren · Rating 5 out of 5]

اذا أردت أن تتعرف على حقيقة ماحصل عندما ألقت الولايات المتحدة قنبلتها النووية على هيروشيما فهذه اليوميات هي أفضل سبيل لذلك.
يوميات طبيب يعمل في مستشفى يقع في وسط هيروشيما ولا يبعد عن موقع سقوط القنبلة النووية سوى 1500متر!
كتب هذا الطبيب يومياته لحظة بلحظة منذ وقت سقوط القنبلة وعلى مدى 54 يوم، يوميات كانت مليئة بالبؤس والرعب والدمار الذي لم يحصل قبل على سطح الأرض، يتميز هذا الكتاب بأن كتابة اليوميات كانت مشاهدة لحظية لأوجه الدمار والموت في هذه المدينة ولم يكن كغيره من الكتب التي كُتبت لاحقًا بعد انتهاء الحادثة.
يبدأ الكتاب بسرد كيف صعد الحكم العسكري في اليابان حتى أصبحت مفاصل الدولة بأيدي العسكريين مرورًا بيوميات الطبيب لمشاهد الدمار والمصابين الذي أخذ على عاتقه علاجهم وانتهاءًا بثلاثة قصص محزنة لأشخاص عايشوا لحظات الألم مع عائلتهم وكانوا بالقرب من موقع سقوط القنبلة.

[zahra haji · Rating 4 out of 5]

يعتبر هذا الكتاب الثاني الذي اقرأه عن هيروشيما وما حصل فيها بعد سقوط القنبلة الذرية .. وإن كان هذا الكتاب يتناول فترة زمنية محدودة

يشاركنا الدكتور هاشيا والذي أصيب في الانفجار الذري يومياته الموجعة من تاريخ وقوع القنبلة .. حتى نهاية الشهر الثاني
سجل فيها أدق التفاصيل والأعراض التي ظهرت على المرضى .. مع محاولته الاطمئنان عليهم ورفع معنوياتهم
وتسجيله الدقيق لأبرز وأهم التغييرات التي حصلت في البلاد
ومع نهاية اليوميات ملحق فيه شهادة بعض الضحايا

لمن أراد أن يقرأ عن ما حدث بشكل أولي وعن قرب فهذا الكتاب جيد لذلك ولمن أراد بعدها معرفة
"تفاصيل أكثر عن هذه المأساة أنصح بكتاب " القطار الأخير من هيروشيما الناجون ينظرون للخلف

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

(two tags that never go together - or do they?)

This book's the perfect example of my criteria for five-starring something. Not only has it helped me decide that I'm a pacifist (a standpoint I'm still pondering) but the second half of the book is a medical mystery, which I was not expecting at all. In 1945 there was very little understanding of radiation poisoning, but Dr. Hachiya's friends and co-workers were dying around him from the aftereffects of the bomb. Not only did he and his diary survive, but he lived for decades afterwards ... and Hiroshima, of course, rose from the ashes.

Even so, some acts committed by my country shame me, regardless of the ends achieved.

[Tanja Berg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written in the days after the Hiroshima bomb, this is a very clear-eyed, horrifying, first person account. Despite the horrors - burning people smelling like sardines, not ruining anyone's appetite - the main theme is hope. To live another day, gratefulness for the little things. Nonetheless, given the current things happening in the world, it's deeply concerning. How far away are we from repeating this devastation?

[Smiley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book “Hiroshima Diary” is the journal of a Japanese physician, Michihiko Hachiya, M.D., who has witnessed and recorded his plights and descriptions on the aftermath of the first atomic bomb from August 6 - September 30, 1945. I think those readers having read a Japanese novel “Black Rain” (Kodansha, 2012) by Masuji Ibuse could not help comparing with it; however, Dr. Hachiya has written in his journal like a true academic, in other words, he has recorded everything as a matter of facts, rather than emotions, as we can see from his account on the unimaginably devastating explosion impact by the atomic bomb at 8.15 a.m. on August 6, 1945 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroshima):

Suddenly, a strong flash of light startled me – and then another. So well does one recall little things that I remember vividly how a stone lantern in the garden became brilliantly lit and I debated whether this light was caused by a magnesium flare or sparks from a passing trolley.
Garden shadows disappeared. The view where a moment before all had been so bright and sunny was now dark and hazy. Through swirling dust I could barely discern a wooden column that had supported one corner of my house. It was leaning crazily and the roof sagged dangerously.
… (p. 1)

Unthinkably tinged with a chilling horror beyond words, this is not from any sci-fi novel but from Dr. Hachiya’s unfortunate fate as reflected by his first-hand account in which we should realize and keep in mind since the explosion did not only cause injury and but also radiation sickness which definitely claimed lives, sooner or later, according to its radioactive intensity.

Nine days later, his entry on August 15 has revealed the scene and how the victims at the Hiroshima Communications Hospital reacted to the historic radio broadcast from the Emperor:

Word came to assemble in the office of the Communications Bureau. A radio had been set up and when I arrived the room was already crowded. I leaned against the entrance and waited. In a few minutes, the radio began to hum and crackle with noisy static. One could hear an indistinct voice which only now and then came through clearly. I caught only one phrase which sounded something like, “Bear the unbearable.” The static ceased and the broadcast was at an end.
…
I had been prepared for the broadcast to tell us to dig in and fight to the end, but this unexpected message left me stunned. It had been the Emperor’s voice and he had read the Imperial Proclamation of Surrender! My psychic apparatus stopped working, and my tear glands stopped, too. Like others in the room, I had come to attention at the mention of the Emperor’s voice, and for a while we all remained silent and at attention. Darkness clouded my eyes, my teeth chattered, and I felt cold sweat running down my back.
…
The ward was quiet and silence reigned for a long time. Finally, the silence was broken by the sound of weeping. I looked around. There was no look of gallantry here, but rather, the faces of all showed expressions of despair and desperation.
By degree people began to whisper and then to talk in low voices until, out of the blue sky, someone shouted: “How can we lose the war!”
Following this outburst, expressions of anger were unleashed.
“Only a coward would back out now!”
“There is a limit to deceiving us!”
“I would rather die than be defeated!”
… (pp. 81-82)

[Ahmed · Rating 5 out of 5]

دون الدكتور ميشيهيكو هاشيا مدير مستشفى المواصلات بهيروشيما يوميات خالدة

سجل فيها تلك الأحداث الهائلة التى وقعت ف المدينة منذ اللحظة التى ألقيت فيها القنبلة الذرية حتى نهاية الشهر التالى

و كان الدكتور هاشيا فى هذة اليوميات طبيبا يسجل كل الظواهر و الأعراض التى طرأت على السكان قدر علمه و فهمه كما كان مؤرخا أمينا يصف كل ما وقع من دمار و خراب و يكشف لنا عن مجريات الحوادث فى اليابان فى تلك الفترة الحرجة

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hiroshima Diary: The Journal of a Japanese Physician August 6 -September 30, 1945 [1955] - ★★★★1/2

"Hiroshima was no longer a city, but a burnt-over prairie. To the east and to the west everything was flattered" [Hachiya/Wells, 1955: 8].

This book is a diary of a Japanese physician as he recounts his and others' daily movements, thoughts and feelings from the moment the nuclear bomb fell on his city Hiroshima, Japan on 6 August 1945. Often, this is a distressing and heart-breaking account of human suffering and pain as the physician Hachiya tries to make sense of the bewildering symptoms of others: "people were dying so fast that I had began to accept death as a matter of course and ceased to respect its awfulness. I considered a family lucky if it had not lost more than two of its members" [Hachiya/Wells, 1955: 29], writes the doctor. When seemingly uninjured people started to develop strange symptoms, such as haemorrhages, and die one by one, Hachiya was one of the first to raise the alarm and point to the radiation sickness. This is an important anti-war book about the savagery, meaningless and devastation caused by the war, and especially about the horrific impact of a nuclear bomb, which can persist generations and affect the most innocent (such as the still-to-be-born).

[Ahmad · Rating 4 out of 5]

مذكرات القنبلة الذرية
الفوضى والضياع الخوف والانين
إلى أين تذهبون إلى هناك من أين اتيتم من هنآك هذه كانت أجوبة طوابير من الآلاف من جرحى القنبلة النووية،، مذكرات الدكتور هاتشيا مدير مستشفى المواصلات في هيروشيما كانت مركزة عن تجارب ومشاهدات زوار المشفى من مرضى ووفود ومتطوعين وأصدقاء وزوار للمرضى،، وصفت تجارب هولاء الناس وما سمعوه أو ما رأوه،، بعضهم شاهد البيكا من بعيد وبعضهم كان قريباً،، بعضهم جرح وكابر واستمر بالعمل ككادر المستشفى المتفاني وبعضهم فقد قوته

المذكرات تروي لنا أعراض المصابين وتطور حالاتهم في بيئة ما تبقى من مستشفى المواصلات لتكون مثالاً مصغرا عن وضع المدينة المنكوبة.

محزن جدا هذا الكوكب كل مافيه يدفع للبكاء

[Paola · Rating 5 out of 5]

Una testimonianza preziosa, unica, questa del Dr. Hachiya, il quale la mattina del 6 agosto 1945 a Hiroshima mentre stava meditando, dopo aver espletato il turno di guardia notturno all'ospedale di cui era direttore medico, si ritrova scaraventato, letteralmente, in una distopia divenuta realtà. Si ritrova nudo, gravemente ferito in diverse parti del corpo, con lui la moglie anch'essa ferita, arrancare disperatamente verso l'unico edificio che é rimasto in piedi della città: il "suo" ospedale.
Per 56 giorni (6 agosto-30 settembre) tiene un diario, dove parla della devastazione caduta dal cielo su Hiroshima, dei morti e dei feriti, della rabbia (poca) e del dolore, delle condizioni terrificanti dei sopravvissuti, dei soccorsi che non arrivano e non capisce il perché, della resa dell'imperatore, dei strani sintomi che colpiscono persone le quali malgrado non abbiano nessuna ferita, muoiano lo stesso, lo seguiamo nel suo tentativo di comprendere l'eziopatologia di queste morti, e noi, noi che oggi sappiamo, vorremmo entrare nel diario e spiegargli di che cosa si tratta.
Se si vuole capire un po' di più il Giappone e la sua cultura questo diario offre un'opportunità unica.
Per me uno di quei libri da portare sulla famosa isola deserta.

[Zara Harper · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m not going to lie, as brilliant and honest as this book was, it was also brutal and harrowing! The courage and determination of the people within the pages is amazing and truly awe inspiring. The descriptions of injuries and illnesses were vile and horrific but that’s what they were trying to live through which shook me! The fact that this book was not an imaginary tale of war and atomic bombs, but written by someone that was there in the moment and suffering alongside many others is heart breaking. Humans are cruel, despicable creatures yet at the same time they can be brave and tenacious. A truly humbling read that was fascinating and devastating, parts require a strong stomach to read but I feel it’s important that people do so anyway!

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book for war nonfiction readers and anyone who wants a deeply touching story. I went into the book expecting it to be boring, but instead got a detailed account of Hiroshima and the aftermath. Learning doctor jargon and being educated on history was not something I expected when reading this and is def a top 10 book.

[William Fuller · Rating 5 out of 5]

We've all read John Hersey's 1946 book Hiroshima. (What? You haven't? Well, just drop everything and do it--now. Yes, it's that good and that valuable.) Now where was I? Oh yes, I was about to ask why, if one has already read Hersey's historically accurate account of the aftermath of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945, one should now read Hiroshima Diary by Michihiko Hachiya.

The answer is that Hachiya's is a first-person account by one who experienced the bombing and who, despite his own injuries, worked as a medical professional in the ruins of one Hiroshima hospital in the attempt to help other victims. Something, however, was very wrong. Beyond the burned skin, broken bones, and severe lacerations caused by exploding glass windows and collapsing roofs, patients experienced nausea, vomiting, and bloody diarrhea, and conventional treatment seemed to have no effect. The injured died. Then things became worse. People who had apparently escaped any injury at all began to come into the hospital with subcutaneous hemorrhaging and hair loss, and many of those also died. The doctors had never before encountered radiation poisoning.

Beyond the medical situation, Dr. Hachiya records his challenges with infrastructure breakdown, the dissolution of civil order, and the trauma of having one's social and cultural realities shattered. Hachiya's home had vanished, consumed by the flames that followed the pikadon. He and so many others had no place to shelter but at the hospital, into which wind and rain poured through twisted, glassless window frames. Outside the walls, fires burned, built deliberately to cremate the ever-growing supply of bodies. Wind spread the odors throughout the building. Human excrement accumulated around the entrances, and outdoor latrines bred relentless armies of flies.

The descriptive writing in Hiroshima Diary is effective and indicative of a learned and skillful writer. Actually, it indicates a multiplicity of effective writers. The effort, obviously, begins with Dr. Hachiya himself and is continued by his translators, one a medical doctor and the other a linguist skilled in both Japanese and English. Some works may lose meaningful nuances through the act of translation, but not so Hiroshima Diary. Simply put, I found it extremely well written, and I felt that I had come to know Dr. Hachiya quite well by the end of his diary, and I was sorry when I had to bid him sayōnara.

I value this book not so much because it adds to some great literary canon and certainly not because it left me with a happy, upbeat feeling, but because it opened a door to a greater understanding of human response to an almost unimaginable catastrophe. There are no “enemies” or “allies” in Hiroshima Diary; there are only people reacting to unprecedented events that destroy their personal worlds and leave them adrift to aid others or to be aided, to help or to hinder, and to survive or to die.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alex Wellerstein is a historian of science and nuclear technology. He is a professor at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey. He said, "the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima was the equivalent of 15,000 tons of TNT — powerful enough to kill around 300,000 people in midtown Manhattan." He has developed a NUKEMAP which enables users to model the explosion of nuclear weapons (contemporary, historical, or of any given arbitrary yield) on virtually any terrain and at virtually any altitude of their choice. If you go to https://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/ check this out. It will enable the user to detonate and see how his/her city would have been effected by the Hiroshima atomic bomb verses how it would be effected using modern more deadly atomic weapons. Pretty scary stuff when you think of the stronger potent atomic bombs that have been developed since Hiroshima.

This book was written after the atomic bomb detonated killing so many people in Hiroshima. Dr Hachiya has no idea what an atomic bomb is all he knows is that whatever fell is having sever consequences. The forward to the book makes note of the fact that Dr. Michihiko Hachiya is recording observations of radiation sickness without knowing what is was. He tries to hypothesize what could be causing the symptoms not knowing that it was a nuclear bomb that fell. As time goes on he realizes that a nuclear bomb has been detonated. Everyday from August 6 to September 30 1945 Dr. Hachiya records the effects of nuclear radiation on the people of Hiroshima and it will make an impression on you. These deaths and what is recorded is not light reading. Those that survive may not be recognizable. The details are graphic and the everyday accounts in this diary of this destruction are unbelievable. It is a very well documented account of what happens when man uses nuclear weapons.

[Sephreadstoo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Letto per un approfondimento su Hiroshima e Nagasaki sulla mia pagina di IG, mi sono ritrovata tra le mani un libro che non mi aspettavo di amare così tanto.

"Diario di Hiroshima" è la preziosa testimonianza di un medico, Michihiko Hachiya, che la mattina del 6 agosto '45 nella sua casa fu testimone della bomba atomica a Hiroshima. Gravemente ferito, fu portato nell'ospedale di cui era direttore.

Nel diario tenuto dal 6 Agosto al 30 settembre, Hachiya vide e visse in prima persona non solo le conseguenze devastanti che seguirono lo sgancio, ma anche gli enormi sforzi fatti dai suoi colleghi per salvare le vittime.
Lucido resoconto degli effetti della bomba - che scoprì solo a metà agosto fosse una atomica a causa della ritenzione delle informazioni operata dal governo e dalla distruzione di molti mezzi di comunicazione - con occhio clinico Hachiya cercò di trovare patterns tra i sintomi, sia attraverso le esperienze in corsia che osservando il suo stesso corpo.
Il suo bisogno di informazioni lo portò a chiedere e poi confrontare le varie esperienze dei pazienti e degli amici che furono testimoni della bomba, rendendo il suo diario un resoconto multiforme di varie esperienze, tragedie e atti di coraggio.

Il diario non si ferma qui. La vita quotidiana dei civili, l'arroganza dei militari, la fede cieca nell'imperatore sono illustrati in tutta la loro semplicità, un punto di vista di un popolo che si è privato di tanto durante la guerra e si è trovato sconfitto non solo sul piano bellico, ma annichilito dalla resa.

Impossibile leggerlo a cuor leggero, ma imperdibile.

[Hansa · Rating 4 out of 5]

was so cool to have a glimpse inside the mind of both a doctor and a patient during the hiroshima bombing. i get it was a personal journal and all translated but the writing was just okay and it got a bit repetitive

[Lauren Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

A riveting account of the personal and medic struggle immediately following the bombing of Hiroshima. The author’s composure and dedication to documenting his experiences is astounding.

[Michael Havens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here is one of those unusual times when I'm not sure how to approach as subject, much less write a book review on. It's kind of like the times when in high school, I was asked to write an essay on a novel , and found myself rather at a loss or loath to write about it, not because I had nothing to say (and to those who know me know that I very rarely am at a loss for words, but that the novel had something so profound to talk about, I felt that it would serve and memorialize the work better by having others in the class talk about it. I was so interested in hearing what others had to say about it. This would happen to me with the work, 'Of Mice and Men'.
Likewise, I find it difficult to approach this excellent diary about an event so ingrained still into our imaginations and fears to this day, namely, the dropping of the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima, and by extension, the subsequent bombing of Nagasaki, the numerous testing on bigger bombs, the cousin of the atom bomb, the Hydrogen bomb, and the effect on the psyche and culture of the Cold War and beyond. 'Hiroshima Diary: The Journal of a Japanese Physician, August 6-September 30, 1945', the fifty year edition by the late Michihiko Hachiya, M.D. ' Partly because it is in some ways a medical journal into the lives of actual patients, not the least of these is doctor Hachiya himself, and partly because no matter the insight, no matter the testimony about that awful August morning, there is for certain, a desire by me not to sensationalize the suffering and tragedy that is August 6th, 1945. There is also a desire to respect, by keeping in tact, and not extricating text because of the awe and explicable feelings I may have to any one individual's story, but to respect their narrative without interruption.
But what we do have in this work is nearly the hypocenter of the blast which killed between 90,000-166,000 people. Dr. Hachiya lived very close to the hospital where he worked. The Hiroshima Communications Hospital was only about a mile away from the hypocenter, and close enough that his testimony and the variety of the patients, family, workers, and fiends are good enough for us to witness from a focused lens, the devastation, violence, and degradation one bomb had on a community. I would strongly urge readers not to pass up the introduction. There is a lot of valuable information about the times with which Dr. Hachiya found himself in, as well as the attitudes, told without embellishment (as you will find n the work itself) from both sides of the Pacific, as well as the socio-political, psychological re-evaluation and changes some Japanese, not the least Dr. Hachiya himself, had to face.
It's also important, as mentioned as well in the introduction, of what 'Hiroshima Diary' was not meant for, namely, public consumption. This was meant to sometimes be a guide to his rounds and what medical and mental issues his patients had. And sometimes to be his own struggles with despair, degradation, and restoration, not only to the benefit to his own person, but like many “hibakusha” (survivors of the atomic bomb), moved as one social and cultural group into a sense of “wholeness” (not to be mistaken for closure, as sadly for many of them and the preceding generation, were not afforded that luxury, but within and without Japan).
It is also important to keep in mind that while this work does have a definitive chronology, the work speaks more as a tapestry, little patches that work up to the complete picture. Like most eyewitness accounts of this kind, one can only expect that. The value comes in the real human factor behind Hachiya's writing, not much dissimilar to some of the great works of the Japanese “I-novels”, that style of fiction which emulates a pseudo-autobiography with the intent that the details in the narrative are not embellished on, but left as it were, without overdue moralization or narrative speculation, so popular with much of western literature. If we seem to seethe with indignity with Dr. Hachiya, or disagree with his occasional prejudices, ourselves overcome with an internal “seething” of our own, it is proper, for human conflict and emotions are the balance between civility and hostility, of which war is the worse kind. While following his eyes, do we in some way follow our own inner eye at ourselves. This is the value such remembrances have to the historical record.
As I said above, this work should not be read for the purposes of sensationalism. We only have to go to our movie theaters today to get million dollar sets to be blown up for the public's new arena addiction. This should be read in the way it was intended, as a human account, as apposed to a personal account. This is not documentation of the theoretical, it is the face of one man, driven to take care of his patients, deal with his own conflicts, and find a peace within a living hell, an unprecedented hell.

[Dennis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ricordo benissimo la giornata in cui alle scuole elementari partecipammo ad un incontro in cui ci spiegarono cos'era la bomba atomica, quali erano i loro effetti, cosa fare in caso ci trovassimo vicino all'ipocentro: tutto ciò mi sembrava così "possibile" ed attuale che feci incubi a riguardo per una settimana buona.
Ed è per questo che "Diaro di Hiroshima" è un'opera che arriva in maniera forse ancora più forte rispetto ad altri scritti riguardo ai nefasti avvenimenti della seconda guerra mondiale (mi vengono in mente "La notte" di Elie Wiesel, "Se questo è un uomo" di Primo Levi, "Fino a quando la mia stella brillerà" di Liliana Segre).

«Sensei-san», mi disse con voce triste «perchè non è ancora venuto nessuno a liberarmi? Quando potrò andarmene?».
«Vecchia signora», la redarguii con dolcezza, «a nessuno è lecito voltare le spalle alla vita solo perchè soffre».

Il fatto che questa frase sia stata pronunciata da Michihiko Hachiya, l'autore del diario, circa 15 giorni dopo l'esplosione della bomba atomica che rase al suolo Hiroshima, dovrebbe farvi capire di che libro stiamo parlando: un vero e proprio manifesto sull'identità, la cultura, la mentalità del popolo giapponese, che anche in condizioni estreme (termine ahimè ridefinito quel 6 Agosto 1945) non abbandona quegli atteggiamenti che lo contraddistinguono tra molti.
Come scritto nell'estratto di Potere e sopravvivenza. Saggi (1974) di Elias Canetti (estratto che chiude questa edizione del libro):

Mai come in questo diario sono riuscito a conoscere un giapponese. Per quanto abbia letto, già prima, su di loro. Solo ora, per la prima volta, sento di conoscerli realmente. È vero che possiamo capire intimamente gli uomini solo nella loro massima sventura? È soprattutto la sventura ciò che accomuna gli uomini?

Benché a tutti siano ormai chiare le devastazioni portate dall'arma che concluse la seconda guerra mondiale, l'opera in questione offre un punto di vista eccezionalmente diverso sulla vicenda: il punto di vista di chi, fino a dieci giorni dopo l'esplosione, non aveva nemmeno mai sentito parlare della bomba atomica e dell'avvelenamento da radiazioni. Il punto di vista di chi, in prima persona, si è trovato davanti ad una umiliazione e sconfitta senza precedenti nel mondo bellico, come a sancire la netta superiorità del nemico su tutti i fronti (soprattutto quello scientifico).

Devo ancora capacitarmi di come un libro del genere possa concludersi con una tale serenità.
Lettura consigliatissima.

[Marwa Khaled]

الكتاب لا يتعامل مع هيروشيما بطريقة الادراك المتأخر-هذه هي أهم نقطة فيه-كل كتب هيروشيما التي قرأتها حتى الآن صحيح أنها تروي القصة من البداية لكنك لا تشعر أنها كذلك لأن الكاتب يعرف النهاية بالضبط-يعرف أن هذه من أكبر الكوارث في البشرية ويعرف عدد من ماتوا ويعرف بلا بلا بلا-هنا الرجل لا يعرف ماذا سيحدث في الغد-ولا حتى الساعة القادمة على عكس المفترض-يتوقع في كتب ادراك النهاية والمشهد الكلي الصادم والمأساوي أن تهزك عاطفيا أكثر لكن الأمر ليس كذلك-الكتب التي تنظر إلى القصة ب"فيو النملة" ترى القصة من الاسفل وليس من الأعلى التي تكتب اليوم بيومه والتي نقصها ادراك الصورة النهائية ولم ينقصها الخوف والمجهول والتخبط والارتباك ازاء القرارات -ولم تنقصها الانسانية-النوع الاول يعرف المؤلف سلفاً عدد الذين يموتون-لا يعرف اشخاص هذه اليوميات الذين ماتوا انهم كذلك بعد-في الاولى ترى طريقاً واحدة اما في الاخرى فإنك ترى الاحتمالات التي كان يراها أصحابها والتي لا يرى منها المؤرخ الا الاحتمال الذي تحقق
يتعامل معه كبديهية-لم يكن اصحابها يرون كذلك-كانت هناك طرق كثيرة مرئية آنذاك- تاريخ السكة الواحدة منقوص
ان أول صفة تخطر ببال المرء ازاء هذا الكتاب هو انساني جدا
بضعف وقوة ذلك
إن الانسان يتعاطف مع الاشياء التي تمسه
صور جزئية وناقصة وانسانية مثله اما التي تتعامل مع المشهد من فوق فلا تمسه مهما كانت مكارثيتها وارقامها ضخمة

يشعر الآخرون حين يقولون اعداد المعتقلين او شهداء مذبحة ما أن الطرف الآخر لا إنساني-الحقيقة أن الناس يهزهم ما يشبههم والارقام لا تشبه أحدا

النسخة التي قرأتها مرفوعة من صفحة كتاب على النت بي دي اف-نسخة عربية- يوميات هيروشيما

[Indi Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very difficult book for Americans, I think. It doesn't point any fingers of guilt, it is simply a journal, written as it happened, by a doctor who happened to be very close to the epicenter of the Hiroshima bomb. Lucky to survive at all, this journal is priceless for the descriptions of what ground zero actually looked like, the symptoms of radiation sickness before anyone knew what that was, exactly. The confusion following the bomb. From a medical standpoint (which is largely what it is written in), it is brilliant and intriguing. From a human standpoint, it is devastating and difficult.

This is, in my estimation, one of those books that everyone should read.

[Raya راية · Rating 4 out of 5]

الحرب: حريق.. رعب.. بلاء

يا إلهي كم هو حجم الأهوال التي قاساها الشعب الياباني!
في هذا الكتاب، عرفت عن تاريخ اليابان ما قبل الحرب، وكانت معلومات جديدة عليّ؛ حيث تولّت مجموعة من الساسة العسكريين المتعجرفين الذي لا يقيمون وزناً لأحد بالتحكم في مصير البلاد وسوقها إلى حرب لا ناقة لها بها ولا جمل..

مذكرات الطبيب الياباني مدير المستشفى الذي بقي بعد القنبلة، يسرد فيها أحداث تلك الأيام المهولة المرعبة،،والآلام التي عايشها من بقوا على قيد الحياة، والتأثر بتلك الكارثة الإنسانية!

وعندما ننظر إلى هيروشيما اليوم، نرى عظمة وإرادة الشعب الياباني بحياة أفضل

و "ربّ همّة أحيت أمة"

[Mai Elgamel]

"انني اعجب لماذا تشتعل نيران الحرب,كم اتمني ان تتوقف تلك الحرب الا يمكن ان تحصل اليابان علي السلع التي تحتاجها من امريكا وتحصل الفلبين علي ما تحتاجة من اليابان ويعيش العالم في وئام عندئذ يتحول العالم الي امة واحدة "
كانت هذه كلمات الطفل هيروهيسا في يوم 5 اغسطس ولم يدرك انه سوف يكون ضحية لهذه الحرب في اليوم التالي 6 اغسطس 1945 ضمن نصف مليون شخص من شعب هيروشيما في يوم يمكن ان يقال مع كثير من الاسف والخزي انه الذي لقي حتفه لحظة القاء القنبلة هم اكثر الناس حظا لان ادراك هذا الخراب هو بمثابة موت بطئ وقهر لجميع من راه ولان المتضرر الوحيد من حقيقة الموت هم الاحياء الذين يذوقون مرارة الفقد ومرارة الهزيمة ومرارة الانكسار والالم الجسدي والنفسي في يوم يصبح وجود موضع قدم في احدي المستشفي كل الرفاهية والامان .
عند اتمامي قراءة الكتاب كان المطلوب اعطاء تقييم للكتاب ولكني تسألت هل اضع تقييم عن حكاية درامية وماساه مكتوبة اثرت فينا ونحن نقراها علي فراش دافئ وكوب من المشروب الدافأ ام اضع تقييما لطمع وجشع الحكومات واصحاب المناصب الذي يدفع ثمن حماقاتهم وثمن اطماهم دماء شعوبهم ام تقييما لضحايا هيروشيما ولدمائهم التي تشبعت بيها اراضي هيروشيما ام تقييما للشعب اليابان الذي اثبت للعالم انه هناك ما يدعي بكوكب الارض وما يدعي بكوكب اليابان لذا قررت ان اتجاوز هذه الخطوة خجلا منها وان اكتفي بالدعاء بالرحمة لجميع ضحايا هيروشيما

[سارّة · Rating 3 out of 5]

كتاب حي .. قوي جدا اوصافه مفزعة
مهما بلغ الخيال بالانسان لن يستطيع ابدا الوصول الى درجة الشاهد العيان
و هذا الشيء هو الذي اعطى القوة لهذا الكتاب
كتاب جعلني اشعر ان نجاح الكتب يمكن ان يكون بدون الفاظ جزلة و اسلوب كتابة خرافي
مجرد ان يكون كتاب حي مثل هذا الكتاب
مؤلم مفزع
شعرت اني ارى كل شيء امامي
يستحق القراءة.. يتيح لك الفرصة لرؤية حياتك الحالية بشكل مختلف
٣.٥/٥
كل الاحترام للكاتب لعدة اسباب :
اولا : مساعدته للاخرين رغم ما حل به من مأساة
ثانيا : ادراكه لاهمية الكتابة و التوثيق في ظل تلك الظروف المؤلمة
و هاهي مذكراته الان اصبحت مرجع للمأساة
انهيت الكتاب وانا اشعر بشعور عميق بالالم و الحزن

[Bianca Masters · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this recount but although it is infinity stars/5 for historical value, it was only a 3/5 in my entertainment factor. I mistakenly picked up this book thinking it was going to be fiction (there is so much potential in this book for it to be transformed into a novel or series) but it turned out to be diary entries from the month after the bombing. Overall I learnt a lot about Hiroshima and I do not regret reading it.

[Johanna Lehto · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one is so important and one that should never be forgotten. It shows the true horrors of atomaic bombs and should be a remainder to never be used gain in war.

[^ · Rating 5 out of 5]

The translator, Warner Wells, emphasises his guiding determination to ‘preserve the balance, simplicity, and quality of values Dr Hachiya achieved in his own tongue.” A remarkable sense of proportion, of calm rational observation, has been achieved by both author and translator of this record of a remarkable 56 days.

Dr Hachiya’s observations are many and various, and are made the more interesting because he doesn’t only concentrate on the side of recording what is of (considerable) medical interest. I learnt about the many and various reactions of the Emperor’s subjects to his forced abdication, of fears of rampant currency inflation, of the demoralisation of the Japanese Army. Through Dr Hachiya’s disparaging words I gained an insight into the shocking culture of the Japanese Army officer class that had made them the inhuman brutes who tortured and killed so many Allied POWs.

On the other hand, Dr Hachiya begins his diary each day with a note of the weather: “Another hot day” (14 August 1945.). “Drizzling rain” (2 September 1945). I looked out of the window, and contemplated the constant uncertainty that British weather tests me with. Particularly this year; the wettest for a century.

Dr Hachiya, is not bitter, he does not rage, shout, or condemn. As a result, I found it increasingly difficult to lay this book aside and return to the present day. Though of a desperate sorrow, the pulse of a quiet, practical, serenity lives within and brings life to the pages of this book. I was almost caught off guard when Dr Hachiya wryly confessed personal liberation, almost darkly humourous; when explaining that, “Having lost everything in the fire and being now empty-handed was not entirely without advantage. I experienced a certain light-heartedness I had not known for a long time.”(p.76).

For the first time I sense that I have gained something of a deeper understanding of the terrible fear engendered by the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, to a generation to whom the human and economic devastation wreaked by the atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, was as yet within such unspeakably painfully recent living memory. As that living memory dies out in old age, Dr Hachiya’s diary can only become ever more important to humanity: but are we prepared to change the overriding values of our Western societies to lend practical assistance to our fellow man (and woman) with quite the sense of instinctive, practical, knowledgeable, subservient devotion that Dr Hachiya and his fellow medical staff demonstrated? Whether we are farmers, scientists, bankers, public ‘servants’, or whatever, he, and they, are a lasting inspiration to us all.