The Last Train from Hiroshima

The Last Train from Hiroshima (2010) by Charles Pellegrino. Looking through the eyes of survivors, this book tells in gruesome detail what it was like to be in Hiroshima and Nagasaki on those fateful days in August, 1945, when atomic bombs were dropped on both cities. In words both explicit and poetic, Pellegrino describes what Japanese survivors called the pika-don, or flash-bang, of the bombs, and their devastating after-effects. In this account, you will encounter burning horses, whirlwinds of fire, and swarms of blue "fireflies." You will read about ant people, who aimlessly followed each other in long lines of souls traumatized by the blast; and of alligator people, so badly burned by the flash of the bomb that their skin resembled that of an alligator. There are some surprises in the book, too. For example, the bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki was two to three times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb. A fact I didn't know, because news of the Nagasaki bomb was suppressed for so long. Overall, this is a vivid and touching story about the very worst results of total war. It deserves to be read by everyone who has the time to do so. Grade: A-