Misunderstanding Hiroshima

Charles Pellegrino's The Last Train from Hiroshima (Henry Holt, 2010) came highly touted. Its special claim to fame seemed to be its scientific background. The jacket identified the author as someone who "has contributed articles to many scientific journals based on his work in paleobiology, nuclear propulsion systems for space exploration, and forensic archaeology." A blurb from a research associate at the American Museum of Natural History (he is an associate professor of biology at C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University) praises the "scientist's eye for detail" that Pellegrino exhibits. The reviewer in the New York Times wrote: "He pays particular attention to forensic detail, and provides a slow-motion, almost instant-by-instant explanation of how the atom bomb discharged its fury." The reviewer for the Washington Post wrote: Pellegrino "lets cool, scientific description produce its own shock effects. He shows us the physics of atomic destruction. It may be that what makes Hiroshima so horrifying is seeing human beings reduced to bare elements, death a matter of chemicals, not consciousness. Pellegrino describes what happens inside: iron separating from blood, an atomic refinery, bones becoming incandescent, marrow boiling away, soft tissue dissolving in Ebola-like bleeding

Japanese History and Culture · Korean Peninsula Historical and Political Studies · Psychology