Thank you Dutton for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Mr. Book just finished Hiroshima: The Last Witnesses, by M.G. Sheftall.

I am not normally a fan of military history and I have never shown any interest in any other particular military weapon. But, for some unknown reason, ever since I’ve been a child, I’ve been fascinated by the atomic bomb. Not just its two times being used, but also the other times we’ve come close to nuclear war and what the preparations for nuclear war have been. I don’t know why this is the case. It just is. So, when I saw this book was available, I immediately knew I needed to read it.

One of the things I love about history books is the little tidbits that they always contain. I don’t remember ever hearing about this story: before the Enola Gay took off, Paul Tibbetts, the pilot, was given 12 cyanide pills—1 for him and one each for his crew. Tibbetts accepted his, along with only one of his crew. The only other crew member to accept, Captain William Parsons, was the only person, other than Tibbetts, who knew anything about the atomic bomb and the US plans for further use. So, even if something had gone wrong and, they were captured, none of the other crew members who declined to accept their pills would have had any useful information about the bomb to reveal to Japanese captors.

The first part of the book is on the Enola Gay and its journey to Hiroshima, along with a brief discussion of the history of the building of the bomb. We are also introduced to the Japanese civilians who would be affected when the bomb was dropped.

Then, the book moves into more about the building of the bomb and the science behind it. Whenever the book describes the scientific aspects, it is always in clear, easy to understand for laymen language.

One of the most interesting discussions in the book is exactly what happened when the bomb went off. The book does a good job dispelling the myth that people were just instantly and painlessly vaporized by the bomb.

A big chunk of the book is telling the stories of survivors.

One story really stands out. On August 5, 1945, Professor Mimura Yoshitaka, a physicist, came to speak at a seminar. In a Q&A session afterwards, a lieutenant colonel asked what is the atomic bomb and can Japan get one in time to use it during the war. He was told that this was investigated by Tokyo University that “found that although such a weapon would have an unimaginably destructive capacity, there is no way that it could be developed in time to use I the current conflict. Just to give some idea, if a single weapon with a nuclear core the size of a caramel were exploded over Hiroshima, the entire city could be completely destroyed.”

The next day, the professor was one of the survivors who watched as the bomb was falling to the earth.

This book was filled with good information and stories. The author is also planning on a second volume, covering Nagasaki. I look forward to reading that one too. After finishing this book, I placed my preorder for the audiobook version.

I give this book an A+, which also means that it has been inducted into my Hall of Fame. Goodreads and NetGalley require grades on a 1-5 star system. In my personal conversion system, an A+ equates to 5 stars. (A or A+: 5 stars, B+: 4 stars, B: 3 stars, C: 2 stars, D or F: 1 star).

This review has been posted at NetGalley, Goodreads and my blog, Mr. Book’s Book Reviews.

Mr. Book originally finished reading this on June 5, 2024.