Fallout: The Hiroshima Cover-up and the Reporter Who Revealed it to the World

 Blume, Lesley M. M. Fallout: The Hiroshima Cover-up and the Reporter Who Revealed it to the World. 2020. 276p. ISBN 978-1-9821-2851-7. Available at 940.54 BLU on the library shelves.

As the invasion of Japan loomed large in the war planning efforts of the United States military in the summer of 1945, an atomic test was conducted in July, proving that atomic weapons would be devastating. An atomic bomb was first dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, then a second one on Nagasaki on August 9. Japan surrendered soon after, and was soon occupied by American soldiers. The United States military blocked all journalists from going to either city, and hoped to keep secret the devastation and the radiation sickness that was affecting survivors. Sanitized photos showing the destruction of the cities were published, but didn't look much different than those of German cities reduced to rubble. This secret remained hidden from the American public for over a year.

John Hersey, a Pulitzer winner journalist, decided he would investigate what had really happened to Hiroshima. Working for the New Yorker, Hersey obtained permission to visit Japan, then secured a travel permit to Hiroshima where he spent two weeks meeting survivors of the atomic blast. Hersey reported on six people: two doctors, one Jesuit priest, one Japanese priest, a widow and her young children, and a young woman who had just entered the workforce. Hershey wrote about where they were when the bomb went off, how they survived the blast, and how their path crossed each other during the day. Hersey then returned to the United States and began writing his article.

Hersey's account, simply titled Hiroshima, humanized a former enemy while at the same time revealing the horrors of radiation and of the attack. He demonstrated to Americans what could happen if a U.S. city was struck, and brought home the reality that nuclear war would usher a devastation so total no civilization could survive it. Cleared for publication by the general behind the Manhattan project, Hiroshima changed American perceptions of the atomic attack, and led to questioning on whether the bomb should have been used at all. 

Fallout details how Hershey wrote his article, how it was published, and the reception the article had after it hit the newstands. Fans of history will appreciate the details behind this well-known but little appreciated time in history.