Hiroshima in America - Hardcover

Lifton, R.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0399140727 ISBN 13: 9780399140723

Publisher: Putnam Adult, 1995

Synopsis

In a study of the impact of the use of the atomic bomb, two historians argue that information and debate about President Harry Truman's decision, in August 1945, to drop the bomb on Japan have been suppressed in order to prevent criticism of America.

About this title

About the Author:

Robert Jay Lifton's books include The Nazi Doctors, Death in Life: Survivors of Hiroshima (winner of a National Book Award), and Destroying the World to Save It. He is the director of the Center on Violence and Human Survival at John Jay College and also teaches at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

From Publishers Weekly:

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.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Putnam Adult
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0399140727
• ISBN 13: 9780399140723
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 425