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numberonebug
@numberonebug

anyways. please consider reading Hiroshima in the The New Yorker https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1946/08/31/hiroshima

It was the first accounting of the actual impact of automic bombs to make it past American censorship, completely changing the conversation around nuclear warfare in America (and also it changed journalism in general, Wikipedia refers to it as the earliest example of New Journalism whatever that is). The article (book? it's 150 pages) follows six survivors through their experience of that day and the following weeks and god it's so important to actually know how bad it was

One part that really sticks with me is that in the only hospital left standing, only one doctor was left uninjured (solely because he was between two windows in the corridor, had he walked slightly quicker he would have been in front of the window and would have died). He did loose his glasses though and had to borrow some from an injured nurse whose eyesight was worse than his.

10,000 survivors would come to the hospital and he would treat them on his own for the three days it took for relief to arrive, just one hour of rest, all without proper eyewear. they didn't have electricity or lighting, but the city burning was bright enough to work through the night. the whole story is unfathomable and amazing


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in reply to @numberonebug's post:

I found that article/book decades ago while trying to find the lyrics to the Rage Against the Machine song featured in an anime music video (Neon Genesis Evangelion, of course).

I was Not Prepared for what I got into but absolutely couldn't stop reading. The writing is so good, and the stories so compelling. The horrors of war and the atomic bomb have rarely been made clearer for a western audience.

I've read the (translated) words of some folks who survived, at least initially, while at the memorial in Hiroshima Peace Park. To say that they're moving is an understatement.

If you ever get the chance, I recommend it. Just be aware you'll be weeping mid-day in public.