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A review by greatlibraryofalexandra
To Hell and Back: The Last Train from Hiroshima by Charles Pellegrino
4.0
Very disturbing read full of mostly first hand accounts from Hiroshima survivors. It’s very focused on what happened in the moment and in the hours and days after.
Pellegrino wastes no paper trying to justify the American reasoning for making this attack. He just focuses on the victims. It’s chilling, but I think very necessary. Perhaps the creators of this weapon didn’t know what it would do to human bodies and spirits, but now that we do, I think the obvious conclusion is that nuclear weapons should never be issued again.
There is some controversy surrounding this book (specifically, some of Pellegrino’s sources are called into question), and it’s worth reading up on it. This version was wished to account for his reevaluation of some of his (American) sources. The Japanese survivor accounts are recorded elsewhere and are sound - and frankly I think they are what matters.
Pellegrino wastes no paper trying to justify the American reasoning for making this attack. He just focuses on the victims. It’s chilling, but I think very necessary. Perhaps the creators of this weapon didn’t know what it would do to human bodies and spirits, but now that we do, I think the obvious conclusion is that nuclear weapons should never be issued again.
There is some controversy surrounding this book (specifically, some of Pellegrino’s sources are called into question), and it’s worth reading up on it. This version was wished to account for his reevaluation of some of his (American) sources. The Japanese survivor accounts are recorded elsewhere and are sound - and frankly I think they are what matters.