17/08/2025
John Hersey's searing account of the bombing of Hiroshima and its aftermath. The survivors come to terms with the medium and longer term effects of the bombing.
John Hersey's searing account of the bombing of Hiroshima and its aftermath.
John Hersey's Hiroshima is a ground-breaking piece of journalism that gave voice to the survivors of the 1945 atomic bombing. Written after two weeks spent interviewing citizens in the devastated city, the article was originally published in The New Yorker in 1946 under tight secrecy, due to U.S. suppression of the bomb鈥檚 long-term effects. It sold out rapidly and helped shift public understanding from triumphalist narratives to the harrowing human cost of nuclear war.
Hailed by New York University as the most important work of journalism in the 20th century, Hiroshima remains a moving testament to the power of bearing witness.
Hersey focuses his account on six of the survivors he interviewed. Miss Toshiko Sasaki; Dr. Masakazu Fujii; Mrs. Hatsuyo Nakamura; Father Wilhelm Kleinsorge; Dr Terufumi Sasaki; Reverend Mr. Kiyoshi Tanimoto.
In Part Two, the survivors come to terms with the medium and longer term effects of the bombing.
Read by:
Akie Kotabe
Ami Okumura Jones
Dai Tabuchi
Kae Alexander
Mark Edel-Hunt
Matt McCooey
Directed by Anne Isger
Sound by Andy Garratt
Production co-ordination by Sara Benaim and Jon Powell
A 蜜芽传媒 Studios Audio Production
On radio
Broadcast
- Sun 17 Aug 2025 15:00蜜芽传媒 Radio 4
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