Nagasaki: Life After Nuclear War

Written by Susan Southard

Narrated by Traci Kato-Kiriyama

A powerful and unflinching account of the enduring impact of nuclear war, told through the stories of those who survived On August 9, 1945, three days after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, theUnited States dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, a small port city on Japan's southernmost island. An estimated 74,000 people died within the first five months, and another 75,000 were injured. Published on the seventieth anniversary of the bombing, Nagasaki takes readers from the morning of the bombing to the city today, telling the first-hand experiences of five survivors, all of whom were teenagers at the time of the devastation. Susan Southard has spent years interviewing hibakusha ("bomb-affected people") and researching the physical, emotional, and social challenges of post-atomic life. She weaves together dramatic eyewitness accounts with searing analysis of the policies of censorship and denial that colored much of what was reported about the bombing both in the United States and Japan. A gripping narrative of human resilience, Nagasaki will help shape public discussion and debate over one of the most controversial wartime acts in history.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Jul 28, 2015
• ISBN: 9781490684307

Susan Southard

Susan Southard's first book, Nagasaki: Life After Nuclear War (2015) received the Dayton Literary Peace Prize in Nonfiction and the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize, sponsored by the Columbia School of Journalism and Harvard University's Nieman Foundation for Journalism, and was also named a best book of the year by the Washington Post, Economist, Kirkus Reviews, and the American Library Association. Nagasaki has been published in England, Spain, Denmark, China, Taiwan, and Japan, and excerpts of the book have appeared in journals around the world. Southard's work has also appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Politico, and Lapham's Quarterly. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Antioch University, Los Angeles, and was a nonfiction fellow at the Norman Mailer Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Southard presents keynote addresses and lectures at international disarmament conferences, universities, and public forums across the United States and abroad. In 2016, she spoke before the United Nations on behalf of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), which won the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize. Southard teaches graduate-level nonfiction seminars and has directed creative writing programs for incarcerated youth and at a federal prison for women outside Phoenix. She is the founder and artistic director of the Phoenix-based Essential Theatre, a professional company now in its 30th season serving marginalized communities across the Southwest.

Reviews for Nagasaki

[flippinpages-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Although meticulously researched I feel at times this actually hindered the story. Chapters 8-10 weighed the story down and although the information written was different it started to feel repetitive. I think these chapters could easily have been edited down to one. I would have liked more information on the personal lives of the survivors throughout the years. By the time I got through the above chapters I just wanted to finish the book.

[etxgardener · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Three days after the bombing of Hiroshima, a second nuclear bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, and the devastation of two of their cities in one week finally convinced the Japanese government to surrender and end World War II. The debate has gone on ever since whether or not using nuclear weapons was necessary or moral ever since.In this book author Susan Southard follows fie residents of Nagasaki from just before the bomb was dropped on their city and follows them through their experiences afterwards both in the immediate aftermath of the bombing and their struggles to live as hibakusha (survivors) in the years afterwards. Ms. Southard's point of view is definitely with the people who believe that the bombs should never have been used, but her even-handed reporting brings up doubts about whether or not Japan would have actually surrendered if they hadn't been deployed.

[chrisblocker · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Nagasaki: Life After Nuclear War is a haunting account of the second atomic bomb to fall on a civilian populace. As the title implies, this book goes far beyond the events of August 9, 1945, though it is in the initial weeks and months after the bombing that the story of Nagasaki is most gripping. Southard has clearly devoted significant time and energy researching the bombing, but she does an admirable job keeping her personal feelings from clouding her narrative.A book that removes the layers of shame, pride, and decades of censorship, Nagasaki: Life After Nuclear War takes a fresh look at the bomb that “ended the war.” As seventy years have passed and survivors of nuclear war are dwindling, I think it is time we approach the subject with a fresh perspective and asks ourselves if we really want to do this ever again.