Author | Charles R. Pellegrino |
---|---|
Original title | The Last Train From Hiroshima: The Survivors Look Back. |
Illustrator | Patricia Wynne |
Cover artist | Kelly S. Too |
Language | English |
Subject | History |
Publisher | Henry Holt and Company |
Publication date | January 19, 2010 |
ISBN | 978-0-8050-8796-3 |
940.5425 |
The Last Train From Hiroshima: The Survivors Look Back and its revised second edition To Hell and Back: The Last Train From Hiroshima is a book by American author Charles R. Pellegrino and published on January 19, 2010 by Henry Holt and Company that documents life in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the time immediately preceding, during and following the aftermath of the atomic bombings of Japan. The story focuses on individuals such as Tsutomu Yamaguchi, a hibakusha (explosion-affected person) who was the only person confirmed by the government of Japan to have survived the pika-don (flash-bang) of both attacks. The story of the impacts in Japan on the residents of the two targeted cities and of the response of the Japanese government to the attack is interwoven with details of the Americans who carried out the missions and their reactions to the damage they had wrought.
Pellegrino faced criticism from members of the 509th Composite Group, the unit created by the United States Army Air Forces tasked with operational deployment of the two nuclear weapons, for including extensive details provided by Joseph Fuoco, who falsely claimed to have been aboard the mission to Hiroshima as flight engineer as a last-minute substitute. [1] Questions were also raised about the existence of two characters described as survivors. [2] After further investigation, and amid questions of Pellegrino's academic qualifications, Henry Holt announced that it was suspending further publication of the book. [3]
The book was re-released in 2015 under the title To Hell and Back: The Last Train From Hiroshima.
Yamaguchi, an employee of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, had been in Hiroshima on a business trip on August 6, 1945, when the Enola Gay dropped the Little Boy atomic bomb on that city with Yamaguchi located about two miles from the hypocenter. After a night amid the devastation in that city he returned by train with a number of other bomb survivors to his hometown of Nagasaki, where he was reporting back to his superiors at Mitsubishi about his experiences in Hiroshima when the Fat Man bomb was detonated over that city. [4] Pellegrino follows what could have been as many as 165 double survivors in what Dwight Garner of The New York Times Book Review called a "sober and authoritative new book" that stands as "a firm, compelling synthesis of earlier memoirs and archival material" that could be described as "John Hersey infused with Richard Preston and a fleck of Michael Crichton". [5]
Pellegrino documents the random nature of survival, with people who had been outdoors wiped off the face of the earth in a fraction of a second, while others who had been indoors and were afforded protection in "shock cocoons" from the gamma rays and the heat blast survived. People who had been outdoors or exposed to windows facing the explosion and were wearing dark-colored clothing received severe burns, while those wearing white suffered less of an effect. Those wearing patterned or striped clothing suffered burns on their skin that matched the designs of their clothing. The shock to those who found themselves to have survived the bombing turned many into "ant walkers", following other survivors in lines walking aimlessly through the destroyed cities. At times they encountered "alligator people", whose skin had been so badly charred that their exteriors became reptilian in appearance.
He follows the experiences of doctors who had emerged from the rubble of their hospitals only to find themselves with little of the medical equipment and supplies that were so desperately needed. Some patients who had initially appeared to have survived the bomb without a scratch suffered no ill effects for a few days and then suddenly started vomiting, losing their hair, and bleeding to death as a result of the effects of the then-unknown condition of radiation poisoning. [6]
Facing withering criticism from groups that had questioned aspects of the book, publisher Henry Holt and Company suspended printing as Pellegrino "had relied on a fraudulent source for a portion of the book and possibly fabricated others". [7] Pellegrino said that he had trusted Joseph Fuoco, who had claimed to be a replacement flight engineer on one of the planes that escorted the Enola Gay to Hiroshima. [1] John Macrae, who edited the book for the publisher, said that he had questioned and received confirmation of hundreds of sections of the book. Macrae said that he had heard claims from scientist friends that the original atomic bomb had been involved in an accident and that his focus had been on confirming aspects of the book involving survivors, including efforts to speak with double survivor Yamaguchi. Richard Rhodes, author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb said that he would have sought stronger confirmation for aspects of Pellegrino's story that represented "a radical change in the historical record". [7] Pellegrino also faced questions about the existence of Father Mattias, a priest who was said to have survived the bomb in Hiroshima, and of John MacQuitty, who the book said officiated at his funeral. [8] However, director James Cameron defended Pellegrino, saying "All I know is that Charlie would not fabricate so there must be a reason for the misunderstanding" and believes that it was caused by "elaborate deception to create a false account." [9]
In early March 2010, the publisher announced that "It is with deep regret that Henry Holt and Company announces that we will not print, correct or ship copies" of the book. [3] [9]
Nevertheless, the book was revised and re-released in 2015 under the title To Hell and Back: The Last Train From Hiroshima.
On June 16, 2015 a review for the new, revised edition of the book was released. Released August 6, 2015, To Hell and Back: The Last Train From Hiroshima features new witness accounts and removal of the veteran who had exaggerated his war record. It was published by Rowman & Littlefield. [10]
In 2010, director James Cameron optioned the book with the possibility of turning it into a feature film. [11] After the release of Avatar: The Way of Water , Cameron said in an interview with Los Angeles Times that he would likely adapt the novel before the release of Avatar 4 , saying "the Hiroshima film would be as timely as ever, if not more so". [12]
Sadako Sasaki was a Japanese girl who became a victim of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States. She was two years of age when the bombs were dropped and was severely irradiated. She survived for another ten years, becoming one of the most widely known hibakusha—a Japanese term meaning "bomb-affected person". She is remembered through the story of the more than one thousand origami cranes she folded before her death. She died at the age of 12 on October 25, 1955, at the Hiroshima Red Cross Hospital.
Theodore Jerome "Dutch" Van Kirk was a navigator in the United States Army Air Forces, best known as the navigator of the Enola Gay when it dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Upon the death of fellow crewman Morris Jeppson on March 30, 2010, Van Kirk became the last surviving member of the Enola Gay crew.
Hiroshima is a 1946 book by American author John Hersey. It tells the stories of six survivors of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. It is regarded as one of the earliest examples of New Journalism, in which the story-telling techniques of fiction are adapted to non-fiction reporting.
Hibakusha is a word of Japanese origin generally designating the people affected by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States at the end of World War II.
Koko Tanimoto is a prominent atomic bomb survivor, peace activist, and the eldest of at least four children of Kiyoshi Tanimoto, a Methodist minister famous for his work for the Hiroshima Maidens. Both appear in John Hersey's book Hiroshima.
Morris Richard Jeppson was a Second Lieutenant in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. He served as assistant weaponeer on the Enola Gay, which dropped the first atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945.
Father Hubert Friedrich Heinrich Schiffer, S.J. was a German Jesuit who survived the atomic bomb "Little Boy" dropped on Hiroshima.
Charles R. Pellegrino is an American writer, the author of several books related to science and archaeology, including Return to Sodom and Gomorrah, Ghosts of the Titanic, Unearthing Atlantis, and Ghosts of Vesuvius. Pellegrino falsely claimed to have earned a PhD, and errors in his book The Last Train from Hiroshima (2010) prompted its publisher to withdraw it within a few months of publication.
The Hiroshima Maidens are a group of 25 Japanese women who were school-age girls when they were seriously disfigured as a result of the thermal flash of the fission bomb dropped on Hiroshima on the morning of August 6, 1945. They subsequently went on a highly publicized journey to get reconstructive surgery in the US in 1955.
Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park is a memorial park in the center of Hiroshima, Japan. It is dedicated to the legacy of Hiroshima as the first city in the world to suffer a nuclear attack at the end of World War II, and to the memories of the bomb's direct and indirect victims. The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park is visited by more than one million people each year. The park is there in memory of the victims of the nuclear attack on August 6, 1945, in which the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park was planned and designed by the Japanese Architect Kenzō Tange at Tange Lab.
Jacob Beser was a lieutenant in the United States Army Air Forces who served during World War II. Beser was the radar specialist aboard the Enola Gay on August 6, 1945, when it dropped the Little Boy atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Three days later, Beser was a crewmember aboard Bockscar when the Fat Man bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. He was the only person to have served as a strike crew member of both of the 1945 atomic bomb missions.
On 6 and 9 August 1945, the United States detonated two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The bombings killed between 150,000 and 246,000 people, most of whom were civilians, and remain the only use of nuclear weapons in an armed conflict. Japan surrendered to the Allies on 15 August, six days after the bombing of Nagasaki and the Soviet Union's declaration of war against Japan and invasion of Japanese-occupied Manchuria. The Japanese government signed the instrument of surrender on 2 September, effectively ending the war.
White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is an HBO documentary film directed and produced by Steven Okazaki. It was released on August 6, 2007, on HBO, marking the 62nd anniversary of the first atomic bombing. The film features interviews with fourteen Japanese survivors and four Americans involved in the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Substantial debate exists over the ethical, legal, and military aspects of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 August and 9 August 1945 respectively at the close of World War II (1939–45).
I Saw It: The Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima: A Survivor's True Story, titled Ore wa Mita (おれは見た) in Japanese, is a one-shot manga by Keiji Nakazawa that first appeared in 1972 as a 48-page feature in the magazine Monthly Shōnen Jump. The story was later published in a collection of Nakazawa's short stories by Holp Shuppan. I Saw It is an autobiographical piece following the life of Nakazawa from his youngest days in post-war Hiroshima, up until his adulthood. I Saw It became the predecessor for Nakazawa's popular manga series Barefoot Gen.
This is a list of cultural products made about the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It includes literature, film, music and other art forms.
Tsutomu Yamaguchi was a Japanese marine engineer who survived both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings during World War II. Although at least 160 people are known to have been affected by both bombings, he is the only person to have been officially recognized by the government of Japan as surviving both explosions.
Barbara Leonard Reynolds, was an American author who became a Quaker, peace activist and educator.
Sunao Tsuboi was a Japanese anti-nuclear, anti-war activist, and teacher. He was a hibakusha, a survivor of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, and was the co-chair of Nihon Hidankyo, a Japan-wide organisation of atomic and hydrogen bomb sufferers. He was awarded the Kiyoshi Tanimoto peace prize in 2011.
The following is a list of unproduced James Cameron projects in roughly chronological order. During his long career, Canadian film director James Cameron has worked on a number of projects which never progressed beyond the pre-production stage under his direction. Some of these projects fell into development hell or are officially cancelled.