2025 marks the 80th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. “From Hiroshima to Hope” holds its annual event on this event on Wed., August 6, 2025 from 7pm to 9pm at Green Lake Park, with a special performance by Seattle Kokon Taiko. To preview the event, International Examiner has this book preview on the bombing of Hiroshima by M. G. Sheftall. Sheftall is a professor of modern Japanese cultural history at Shizuoka University. Fluent in Japanese, he specializes on the Japanese experience in WWII and the lingering effects of that conflict on the Japanese consciousness. He did extensive interviews with survivors of that bombing.
The year 2025 marks 80 years since the U.S. dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. M. G. Sheftall, a scholar of modern Japanese communication and cultural history, recently authored a new two-book series: Hiroshima: The Last Witness (2024) and Nagasaki: The Last Witness with Dutton Books.
Massive in size, Hiroshima is divided into four parts. Sheftall writes a meticulous dawn-to-dusk overview of August 6, 1945, starting with “the last few hours of its [human civilization’s] prenuclear innocence” (p. 2). He then details how Little Boy, the first nuclear weapon used in human warfare, led to immediate mass destruction and significant recovery efforts in Hiroshima. An estimated 140,000 lives, mostly civilian, were lost by the end of 1945.
Hiroshima is a compelling work for centering the narratives of the hibakusha, known in Japan as the atomic bomb survivors. In addition to testimonies from Japanese citizens, he includes firsthand accounts from ethnic minority hibakusha, whose families lived in Japan as second-class subjects under imperial rule before the bombing.
Most of the hibakusha Sheftall interviewed were children and young adults in 1945 whose lives literally changed “in a flash.” Without question, the immediate aftermath of the mass atomic destruction permanently imprinted their young minds: “Beyond the command post location, everything was knee-deep in wreckage and corpses” (p. 127). Particularly remarkable is that many hibakusha have lived into their nineties and shared moving insights about what life was like for them before, during, and after the bombing.
Sheftall outlines, in rather graphic and precise detail, the horrific destruction from nuclear-induced wreckage and thermal radiation. Readers learn about many different types of burns and injuries to the human body, as well as the toll of mystery ailments lingering long after the bombing.
Equally devastating is the lasting impact of intergenerational trauma on the lives of the hibakusha and their descendants. Sheftall delves into topics not widely discussed or known, such as how the survivors have struggled to, mostly in silence, navigate complex forms of post-traumatic stress disorder and survivors’ guilt.
Sheftall effectively uses figurative language and juxtaposition throughout Hiroshima to compel readers to honor memories of survival and recovery. Commonly used words to describe Little Boy’s mass destruction, such as blinded, burned, charred, flashed, seared, singed, and shocked, become figurative and literal descriptions or experiences that will leave readers with graphic mental imprints of the concomitant aspects of bodily, psychological, and spiritual injuries at scale. However, Sheftall refuses to solely focus on traumatic memories among the hibakusha. He also includes narratives of their collective and individual impact in raising worldwide awareness of the ongoing need for humanitarian justice.
Across national and sociocultural contexts, survivors of any mass tragedy are often reluctant to be interviewed or serve as research subjects. Yet, in Hiroshima, Sheftall maintains a remarkable balance between methodological rigor and research ethics, modeling an empathetic and respectful disposition. In addition to meticulously analyzing, summarizing, and synthesizing a broad range of primary and secondary sources, his interview methodology with the hibakusha includes memory-jogging aids and narrative-tracking tools.
Finally, Sheftall offers readers with several critical insights into the politics of “remembering” years and decades after the end of the Pacific War, presenting multiple perspectives that refrain from valorizing a U.S.-centric view. Now, 80 years after arguably one of the most devastating events in world history, Sheftall’s new series forces us, in highly disruptive times, to reflect on the dialectics of nuclear warfare and wartime conduct: “If you are going to defend these weapons’ use, it is morally imperative that you own that image. Turn it around in your head a bit. Imagine it happening to ten thousand children or even just a single child” (p. 85).
Rachel Endo is an award-winning educator, leader, and scholar who is currently based in the Tacoma area. She was born and raised in Nebraska and hails from a multi-generational Nikkei family. A first-generation college student, she graduated from the University of Nebraska at Omaha with honors, where she also earned her MA in Education and MPA in Public Management . She holds a PhD in Education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. To learn more, including how to contact her directly, visit her website at: www.rachelendo.com
