Fallout: The Hiroshima Cover-up and the Reporter Who Revealed It to the World

If you like the current trend of blaming the United States for all ills, then buy this book. But if you have lost anyone during WW2, especially in the Pacific, do not buy this book. It will only upset you. The author displays a complete ignorance of the actual history of WW2 and the reasons for dropping the bombs. Once again, America is the guilty party and everyone else is the victim. Buy at your own risk!

Knowing what we know today about the nuclear bomb and its devastating consequences, its so amazing to read this thoroughly researched report on the man who, against all odds, exposed to the world the true damage of the bomb when it was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
New Yorker journalist John Hersey was able to infiltrate Japan, meet with the victims, witness the carnage and report it without being filtered by propaganda and misinformation. This was an emotionally strenuous task taken at great cost by Hersey, who was accustomed to writing articles about pretty flowers, happy thoughts, and good things, not total annihilation by a cruel and ongoing invisible bomb that makes no sound.
Johns approach to conveying the horror is what made it so effective: he centered his article on six survivors, giving them the personable and human story that they deserved to be shared with the world. Its no stretch of the imagination to believe that if Hersey had not persevered and printed his findings, the world would have easily seen more nuclear bombs in its future wars.
With the release of this book on the 75th anniversary of the dropping of the bomb, its a lucrative piece of history for anyone with any desire to learn what happened and how the world was irrevocably changed that day.
(I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review. Thank you to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for making it available.)

Fallout is a multi-faceted account of the writing of Hiroshima by John Hersey, its publication in The New Yorker, the cover up and navet of the US government relative to radioactivity, and much, much more. Blumes writing is journalistic, on point and weaves numerous scenarios into a tight mosaic of personalities integral to the making, deployment and aftermath of the atomic bomb. Most notable, Blume tells the individual stories of the six Hiroshima survivors, John Herseys interview dynamic, the behind close doors editing of Hiroshima and it publication in full in The New Yorker. Additionally, Blumes narrative encompasses the military, journalistic, cultural, human tragedies and triumphs of the times, while allowing one to reflect on that time past as it relates to our present and future world not only from a nuclear standpoint but also from a journalistic and cultural standpoint.

Its all about being honestly and truthfully informed through an unbiased media, and trustworthy leaders in government which Blume intimates in a subtle manner, and what happens when transparency becomes translucent and hazy and when deception, misinformation and sleight of hand rules prevents an event from being reported accurately.

Can not relate. Trying to constantly make the US look like the aggressors. Remember we were not in the war at all until Pearl Harbor. How many lives were saved by the ending of the war. Those statistics you do not report. No one knows. I feel I just wasted time reading this. Found nothing informative and have read Hiroshima as well. Great job writing about someone elses great job. Write a book on George Orwell now and his predictions.

I found John Hersey’s Hiroshima in my parents’ bookshelves when I was about 13. This was early 60s and, like most of my generation in the UK, I had been brought up on how wonderful the UK (not forgetting its US ally, of course) had been in winning WW2.

Reading Hersey’s book had a profound impact on me and radically altered my view of war in general and nuclear weapons in particular.

Fallout is a splendid and gripping account of the background to Hersey’s writing, the process of getting it into the public domain and the enormous impact it had. It’s extremely readable and makes its points clearly and persuasively. Whatever one’s view of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, breaking the cover-up in place was a landmark in journalism.

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