When the atom bombs were dropped on Japan, war correspondent George Weller realized that therein lay a story, and he decided to get to Nagasaki at all costs to interview survivors and American POWs. He managed the feat, impersonating a colonel along the way, and went on to tour several prisoner of war camps, all without authorization.

The pages and pages and pages of dispatches he filed, however, never made it back to the United States, because they were caught by censors in Tokyo. Not long after the war, he lost his original copies, and spent the rest of his life lamenting the loss.

In 2002, his son found the original dispatches while he was cleaning up his father’s home after his death, and he decided to publish them. The result was First Into Nagasaki, which is a fascinating book. It’s interesting for two reasons. The first is that Weller really was one of the first into Nagasaki, and he interviewed all kinds of people and saw all sorts of interesting things, so it’s awesome just from a historical perspective. What’s almost more interesting is Weller’s reaction to the bombs, which must be viewed in the context of the Second World War. It’s fascinating to watch his attitude shift, as he at first dismisses the death toll and calls the bombs “humane,” and then slowly begins to realize the extent of the damage, and the brutality of radiation poisoning.

When I first started reading, I really disliked this book, because I thought Weller was too flippant, and he didn’t do justice to the situation. This attitude was, of course, informed by the fact that I was reading these reports over 60 years after the fact, with years of education about the long-term effects of the bombs. As his attitude shifted and he started to learn about radiation poisoning, I found my own reaction changing, as it was really brought home to me that people didn’t fully understand what the bombs could do.

The book also included a lot of material from prisoner of war camps in Japan, which was really interesting. I don’t really agree with the hyperbole in the afterward that “no one” reported on prisoner of war camps in Japan and that people don’t know about them, although I will grant that prisoner of war camps in Asia are not as widely publicized as those in Europe. But the information is there, if you know where to look, and the interviews in this book with prisoners of war and camp officials were certainly intriguing.

Demographics:

First Into Nagasaki, by George Weller. Edited by Anthony Weller. Published 2006, 320 pages. History.