Through narrative nonfiction text, readers learn about the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki through the perspectives of American and Japanese leaders, scientists, U.S. Army officials, and Japanese citizens. Additional features to aid comprehension include a table of contents, primary-source quote sidebars, fact-filled captions and callouts, a glossary, an introduction to the author, and a listing of source notes.

On August 9, 1945, on the tiny island of Tinian in the South Pacific, a twenty-five-year-old American Army Air Corps major named Charles W. Sweeney climbed aboard a B-29 Superfortress in command of his first combat mission, one devised specifically to bring a long and terrible war to a necessary conclusion. In the belly of his bomber, Bock's Car, was a newly developed, fully armed weapon that had never been tested in a combat situation. It was a weapon capable of a level of destruction never before dreamed of in the history of the human race, a bomb whose terrifying aftershock would ultimately determine the direction of the twentieth century and change the world forever. The last military officer to command an atomic mission, Major General Charles W. Sweeney has the unique distinction of having been an integral part of both the Hiroshima and the Nagasaki bombing runs. Now updated with a new epilogue from the co-author, his book is an extraordinary chronicle of the months of careful planning and training; the setbacks, secrecy, and snafus; and the nerve-shattering final seconds and the astonishing aftermath of what is arguably the most significant single event in modern history: the employment of an atomic weapon during wartime. The last military officer to command an atomic mission, Major General Charles W. Sweeney has the unique distinction of having been an integral part of both the Hiroshima and the Nagasaki bombing runs. His book is an extraordinary chronicle of the months of careful planning and training; the setbacks, secrecy, and snafus; and the nerve-shattering final seconds and the astonishing aftermath of what is arguably the most significant single event in modern history: the employment of an atomic weapon during wartime.

Hiroshima is the story of six people—a clerk, a widowed seamstress, a physician, a Methodist minister, a young surgeon, and a German Catholic priest—who lived through the greatest single manmade disaster in history. In vivid and indelible prose, Pulitzer Prize–winner John Hersey traces the stories of these half-dozen individuals from 8:15 a.m. on August 6, 1945, when Hiroshima was destroyed by the first atomic bomb ever dropped on a city, through the hours and days that followed. Almost four decades after the original publication of this celebrated book, Hersey went back to Hiroshima in search of the people whose stories he had told, and his account of what he discovered is now the eloquent and moving final chapter of Hiroshima.

Harry S. Truman, the president of the United States, and his military advisers were committed to using all available means to finish the war as soon as possible. Around 80,000 people were killed when the Little Boy atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Hiroshima on the morning of August 6 by the B-29 bomber Enola Gay. More than 40,000 people were killed by another atomic bomb codenamed Fat Man that was dropped over Nagasaki three days later on August 9 by bomber B-29 named Bock’s Car. One particular group of people had to deal with something else when world leaders and common people struggled to digest the metaphorical aftershocks. Before it was a global event, the arrival of the bomb was a personal one for the hibakushas of those destroyed cities. It may be good fortune, fate, or intelligence that preserved them in the midst of death and ruin, preserving the voices that can still describe to the world what it looks like when people find new and awful ways to harm one another. The hibakushas have spoken about their experiences in the aftermath of the twin bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki though many of the survivors were reluctant to share their stories because of the stigma attached to these hibakushas of Japan. Follow the journey of the survivors from 6 and 9 August 1945. Their Unforgettable stories of courage and resilience in this must-read copy will show the importance of peace and understanding in the world.

August 1995 will mark the 50th anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. This new volume in the Eyewitness Series reconstructs how pre-war scientists laid the bomb's theoretical foundations, provides the details of the Manhattan Project, and bears witness to the Japanese experience of the bombings and their legacy. Media attention.

Lost for more than half a century, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist George Weller’s legendary dispatches from post-atomic-bomb Nagasaki were discovered after his death by his son, Anthony Weller. Here, this historic body of work is published for the first time.