Scientists along with the American public felt shame and guilt at the suffering of the people of Hiroshima. After reading Hiroshima, a Manhattan Project scientist wrote that he wept as he remembered how he had celebrated the dropping of the atomic bomb. The Americans could let go of some of the guilt knowing that the Japanese did not blame them for this terrible act of war. Published a little more than a year after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, the American public was shown a different interpretation of the Japanese from what had been previously described in the media.
The Book of the Month Club rushed a copy of the article into book format, which it sent to members as a free selection, saying "We find it hard to conceive of anything being written that could be of more important at this moment to the human race." Many radio stations abroad did likewise, including the BBC in Britain, where newsprint rationing that continued after the war's end prevented its publication Hersey would not permit editing of the piece to cut its length. The ABC Radio Network preempted regular programming to broadcast readings of the complete text by well-known actors in four half-hour programs. Many requests for reprints were received by the magazine's offices. The New Yorker article Hiroshima was an immediate best seller and was sold out at newsstands within hours. In plain prose, Hersey described the horrifying aftermath of the atomic device: people with melted eyeballs, or people vaporized, leaving only their shadows etched onto walls. Hiroshima in ruins, October 1945, two months after the atomic bomb exploded.Ĭontaining a detailed description of the bomb's effects, the article was a publishing sensation. wants to wake people up, and says we are the people with a chance to do it, and probably the only people that will do it, if it is done." Literary reception "Hersey has written thirty thousand words on the bombing of Hiroshima (which I can now pronounce in a new and fancy way)", Ross wrote to White in Maine, "one hell of a story, and we are wondering what to do about it . White, to whom Harold Ross confided his plans. The Editors." One of the few people other than the principal editors of The New Yorker tipped to the forthcoming publication was the magazine's principal writer E. It does so in the conviction that few of us have yet comprehended the all but incredible destructive power of this weapon, and that everyone might well take time to consider the terrible implications of its use. The New Yorker this week devotes its entire editorial space to an article on the almost complete obliteration of a city by one atomic bomb, and what happened to the people of that city. At the bottom of the page, the editors appended a short note: "TO OUR READERS. Hersey's article began where the magazine's regular "Talk of the Town" column usually began, immediately after the theater listings. The issue of August 31, 1946, arrived in subscribers' mailboxes bearing a light-hearted cover of a summer picnic in a park.
Hersey interviewed many witnesses he focused his article on six in particular. One of the first Western journalists to view the ruins of Hiroshima after the bombing, Hersey was commissioned by William Shawn of The New Yorker to write articles about the impact of a nuclear explosion by using witness accounts, a subject virtually untouched by journalists. In 1944, Hersey began working in the Pacific Theater and followed Lt. He followed troops during the invasions of Italy and Sicily during World War II. And that’s not as lonely as you might think.Before writing Hiroshima, Hersey had been a war correspondent in the field, writing for Life magazine and The New Yorker. This week, they’re thinking of adding a Facebook live event as a virtual tribute to 75 years ago.īut for the most part, it’s only the memories and the past that are keeping Jim company. In the meantime, he and Landon Wilkey, the museum curator, conduct tours on demand Wednesday through Saturday (for schedules, see ), as they wait out the pandemic like everyone else. Petersen, who just turned 73, plans to one day have many more hangars, barracks and vintage planes added to the lineup. One of them is the actual Enola Gay, but it is showcased at the National Air and Space Museum Steven F. (No easy task, since only about 20 B-29s remain in existence. Thanks to grants and contributions that poured in, the hangar is now in solid working order, ready and waiting for a B-29 to park there permanently. Now known as the Enola Gay Hangar, it was saved from destruction in 2009 when Petersen managed to get the National Trust for Historic Preservation to put the building on its list of the country’s most endangered historic places. Other buildings have been restored, including the fire station, the bombsight storage vault, and, most importantly, the hangar that housed those massive B-29s.