Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2019 - Humanities — Art & Architecture — Native American Studies

The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki brought WW II in the Pacific to a close, but at what cost? More than a half century after the bombings, the memory of Hiroshima and Nagasaki lingers. Until now Anglophones have had only Western perspectives of this ominous event, in such texts as John Hersey's Hiroshima (1946) and Alain Resnais's landmark New Wave film Hiroshima, Mon Amour (1959). These two works are the focus of this book. Shibata (International Peace Research Institute, Meiji Gakuin Univ., Japan) uses them, and comparisons with Japanese accounts of the bombing, to crack open the events surrounding the bombings and their aftermath. Using the ways in which the bombings have been historicized and interpreted in the West, the author produces a telling critique of othering, colonialism, and history as recorded by the Allied forces. Drawing on a stunning array of books, articles, films, and historical documents from both Japanese and Western sources, Shibata convincingly demonstrates that the true cost of the two bombings has never been accurately conveyed to the public. This slim yet compelling volume presents an entirely different approach to the bombings, offering a fresh perspective on history, memory, and the brutal realities of civilian nuclear attack.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.