Hiroshima in America : fifty years of denial /

President Truman was ambivalent about the decision to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Yet, according to this unsettling study, Truman, influenced by army general Leslie Groves and Secretary of War Henry Stimson, went into denial and developed a sense of omnipotence that allowed him to deploy weapons that killed vast numbers of civilians. Eminent psychologist Lifton (whose National Book Award-winning Death in Life dealt with Hiroshima survivors) and former Nuclear Times editor Mitchell (The Campaign of the Century) draw on primary sources, including the diaries of Truman and other decision-makers, in an attempt to refute the widely held belief that the atomic bombings hastened WWII's end, thereby preventing an invasion of Japan and saving countless American lives. The authors demonstrate that the U.S. military and media for decades systematically suppressed on-site photographs, as well as American and Japanese documentary films, that showed the devastation produced by the bombs. They argue that the lasting, harmful impact of Hiroshima on American society includes a defense policy in thrall to nuclear weaponry, self-propelling arms buildups, patterns of psychic numbing and secrecy and denial of the health effects of radiation from bombs and from U.S. nuclear waste dumps. BOMC and History Book Club selections. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Lifton (The Journey of the Adopted Self, LJ 3/1/94) and Mitchell (The Campaign of the Century, LJ 4/1/92) bring their expertise to bear in this well-researched book examining the reaction of the American people to the bombing of Hiroshima in 1945 and its domestic aftermath. The authors examine what they perceive to be a conspiracy by the government to mislead and suppress information about the actual bombing, Truman's decision to drop the bomb, and the birth and mismanagement of the beginning of the nuclear age. The authors claim that Americans then and now are haunted by the devastating psychological effects of the bomb. The most interesting aspect of their book is the analysis of Truman. The development of nuclear weapons and the bombing of Hiroshima will continue to foment debate and will be of interest to students of history and current affairs. Highly recommended for most collections.‘C. Christopher Pavek, Putnam, Hayes & Bartlett, Inc. Information Ctr., Washington, D.C. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Noted authors Lifton (Protean Self, 1993, etc.) and Mitchell (The Campaign of the Century, 1992) ``explore what happened to America as a consequence of Hiroshimaboth the bomb's existence in the world, and our having used it.'' In a painstaking and painful psycho-historical analysis, the authors are concerned with examining the motivations of those who made the decisions, particularly Truman, and the effects of that decision on Truman and on the development of subsequent US policy. A careful analysis, for instance, of Truman's announcement of the bombing shows his ambivalence about it and his determination to justify the bomb's use as a military necessity. As this ``official story'' continued to develop, early American responses included government suppression of evidence of the radiation effects on residents of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Lifton and Mitchell also analyze the process that resulted in Truman's fateful decision. He emerges as a fundamentally decent man who, as an inexperienced president newly inducted into the nation's secret weapons program, became caught up in the atomic fervor of scientists and military men. The authors appear to argue that the official Hiroshima narrative was a myth driven by a psychological need on the part of Americans to distance themselves from what they had done. In the end, the authors argue, our need to defend the official narrative and avoid thinking about what happened when we dropped the atomic bombs is dangerous: the existence of the bomb, and the moral consequences of the US having been the first to use it, have had profound moral, psychological, and political effects on Americans as a people, and our failure to recognize this has made it easier for us to decide to use these weapons again. Eloquent, somber, and immensely thought-provoking. (Book-of- the-Month Club/History Book Club featured alternates)