Hiroshima Diary: The Journal of a Japanese Physician, August 6-September 30, 1945 Paperback – August 28, 1995

On the morning of August 6, 1945, Dr. Hachiya, the Director of a hospital in Hiroshima, was at home preparing to leave for work when the atomic bomb struck. He remembered a blinding flash followed by a devasting blast that upended his entire world. His home was destroyed, and he was badly injured, but he miraculously made his way to the hospital, where he was immediately attended to by his surviving coworkers. When he awoke, out of a sense of responsibility despite his frail condition, he turned his attention to the ever-growing stream of patients in the hospital. Dr. Hachiya began keeping a daily diary, recording his own and others' accounts of where they were and how they experienced the blast, along with his professional observations of the patients' symptoms and prognoses. He continued the diary for eight weeks until September 30, 1945. As he was writing it, Dr. Hachiya didn't intend for it to become public, but colleagues convinced him it was an important account, which he allowed to be published in serial form in a Japanese medical journal. Six years later, an American physician, Dr. Warner Wells, who was serving as the surgical consultant for the Atomic Bomb Casualty Committee in the United States, learned of the existence of the diary. He met with Dr. Hachiya, who consented to have the diary translated into English. It was published in America in 1955 and again in 1995.Because atomic weapons had not been used before, victims had no initial comprehension beyond their personal experience of the magnitude of the destruction. All communication and electricity were instantly wiped out. Dr. Hachiya and others traded stories about where they were, what they saw and heard, and what happened in the immediate aftermath as they made their way to the hospital, which was one of the only buildings standing. The hospital was far enough away from the blast and was constructed out of reinforced concrete. In the absence of facts, rumors ruled the day. One was that a similar weapon had been deployed by the Japanese in California. Despite the dire circumstances and even after Nagasaki had also been bombed, the citizens were shocked that the emperor surrendered. Dr. Hachiya and his acquaintances had nothing but admiration and affection for the emperor. Instead, they blamed their own military for the unexpected defeat. Many feared the arrival of the occupying forces, but surprisingly, in Dr. Hachiya's account, the Americans came to be regarded as gracious victors who assisted the populace.Much of the diary is devoted to Dr. Hachiya's observations of his patients. The first ones to die, mainly from catastrophic burns, had been closest to the blast. In the remaining patients, patterns of anomalies began to develop. Patients would get better, and then begin to deteriorate, with a strange set of symptoms. Small dots of blood just beneath the surface of the skin would appear and multiply. Their hair would fall out. Samples showed extremely low levels of white blood cells and platelets. Dr. Hachiya became one of the first physicians to diagnose and document the effects of radiation sickness. As the diary continued, more and more patients came to the same inevitable end of a slow and painful death. The sadness was personal, because many of the dying were friends or family of the doctor. The stark realities of the diary are quite disturbing, but as a firsthand account by a survivor, this is a compelling read. Hopefully, it will serve as another deterrent to the use of nuclear weapons in the future.

I don't normally review books. I don't know if it's because I'm lazy or because I just don't care to do so. However, with this book I feel the need to talk about it. Maybe that's because I've never had a book that was assigned to me (albeit I chose this particular book from a long list of books that discuss the atomic bomb) that I found hard to put down.Let me start out by saying 'Hiroshima Diary' is written from the perspective of Dr. Michihiko Hachiya - the director of the Hiroshima Communications Hospital (located about 1,500 meters from where the bomb hit) - and contains his thoughts and experiences from the moment the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 up through September 30 of the same year.Now, what draws you (and when I say you, I clearly mean what drew me) into this diary is not just getting a first hand perspective of someone who witnessed this momentous event in human history and its impact on the city and its people (along with the recollection of second hand accounts of NUMEROUS other witnesses of the event), but that we as the reader take this journey with him as he strives to make sense of what's happening around him. Hachiya really has no hindsight as he writes his entries on what's going to happen in the future, which is what makes this such a compelling read. You get to understand the mayhem of that period in time, the fear, and the attempt to make sense out of this disastrous event.The diary starts out with general speculation on what actually happened in Hiroshima. When word reaches that it was an atomic bomb, for a while there is speculation that Japan also had a similar weapon and had actually used it in retaliation against America. Also rumors about whether Japan is going to surrender, when and how occupation will occur, how allied troops will treat them - and how those rumors turn from...well...rumors to facts. Then comes the radiation sickness and Hachiya and the rest of the hospital staff trying to figure out what exactly this sickness is. How to differentiate the symptoms of radiation sickness to those who are sick in other ways, what caused it, what the treatments are for it, if there are treatments, why are some people getting sick with symptoms later than others, why do some symptoms lead to death sometimes in certain people, but don't necessarily in others?And yes, there are some medical words used in the book, but in no way does that hinder its readability. Any term or medical event that does occur is explained in a way that someone not familiar with medical knowledge would understand (and trust me, I'm FAR from doctor material, and I had no problem with anything in here). If you can understand two terms: Epilation and Petechiae (which he explains about a hundred times), if you've heard of such organs as the lungs, the liver, the spleen, the pancreas, etc., and what white blood cells, red blood cells, and blood platelets are, then you're golden. And besides, while an important part of the book, it's not the only part of it.Overall, this is just a great first hand account of an important moment in the history of the world from the viewpoint of a man who lived through it. The book is not about the facts of the bombing, it's about speculation and an attempt to recover the facts. It's about getting into the head of someone experiencing that moment in time - someone who doesn't really know what's going on around him. It's about the reaction he and others have to their whole world getting turned upside down, to seeing the dead and dying everywhere, the suffering, the rumors, and the uncertainty of whether they'll live another day or whether more bombs are going to come and finish the job they started on August 6.

Dr. Hachiya's account of post a-bomb Hiroshima is particularly interesting in that he plays dual role of victim and doctor. Through his portrayal of many caring interactions, the reader can infer that Dr. Hachiya is a well-liked and respected man; it is these relationships/interactions that make his story that-much-more powerful.I would've liked to known what future research, if any, Dr. Hachiya did on the subject of radiation sickness. I've got to imagine that, with his first-hand exposure to the illness and his natural curiosity as a doctor, he continued to passionately study the subject.