"Hiroshima" by John Hersey

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Web Name: "Hiroshima" by John Hersey

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page last updated 21 August 2015

"Hiroshima" by John Hersey inThe NewYorker

An article called "Hiroshima" written by John Herseywas publishedin The New Yorker magazine in August 1946, a yearafter WorldWar II ended. The article was based on interviews with atomic bombsurvivors and tells their experiences the morning of the blast andfor the next few days and weeks. It was a calm and accurate accountof survival in the first city to be destroyed by a single weapon.

There were many remarkable things about the "Hiroshoma"article. Just afew:

"Hiroshima" took over the entire issue of the TheNew Yorker, there were no articles or cartoons. The issue caused a tremendous effect, and sold outwithin hours. Many magazines and newspapers commented on thearticle. The full text was read on the radio in the U.S. andother countries. The Book-of-the-Month club sent a free copy in bookform to all its members.

"Hiroshima" was quickly published as a book, and remainsin printtoday.

I spent a few weeks working on a term paper about thepublicationof "Hiroshima" for my one-and-only graduate level liberal artscourse (in 1997) and wanted to make my research availableto all who are interested (all 53 of you, that is).My paper discusses the events leading up to the publication of thearticle, what happened afterwards, and the effects of the article.

Read the original article, published online by The New Yorker: Hiroshima.

Read my paper, The Publication of Hersey's "Hiroshima" in The New Yorker.

Read about John Herseyonline.

If you have found my paper useful (as a student orteacher) please letme know.

I've gotten nice notes from folksassociated with the following institutions:

Alb-Gymnasium (Bopfingen, Germany), American School of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil),Arizona Lutheran Academy,Bay Shore High School (New York), Berkner High School (Texas),Birmingham Groves High School (Michigan),Cantebury School (Florida),Carleton University (Canada),Chinese University of Hong Kong, Colonia High School (New Jersey), Columbia State Community College (Tennessee),Columbia University (New York),Complutense University of Madrid (Spain),Churchlands Senior High School (Australia),Delta College (Michigan), Fordham Prep (New York), George Mason University (Washington, D.C.),Georgetown University (Washington, D.C.), Georgia Southern University(Georgia), Haddonfield Memorial High School (New Jersey),Hancock County High School, (Kentucky), Harvard University(Massachusetts),Headstart School (Pakistan), Holy Family University (Pennsylvania),Hudson Valley Community College (New York), International High School Eastern Seaboard (Thailand), James MadisonUniversity (Virginia), John Abbott College (Montreal), Johnson andWales University (Rhode Island),Kent State University (Ohio),Lady Manners Comprehensive School (England), Lamar University (Texas), Long Island University (New York), Lyman Hall High School (Connecticut),Lyon University (France), McEachern High School (Georgia),Mary Persons High School (Georgia),Marymount (Mexico),McGill University (Montreal),Milligan College (Tennessee),MLC School Burwood, Sydney (Australia), Musashino University (Japan), New York University, Northern Virginia Community College, Northglenn High School (Colorado), Northwestern University (Illinois),Notre Dame Academy (Georgia), Nova Scotia Community College (Canada), Oak Park High School(California),Ohio State University (Ohio),Old Dominion University (Virginia), Palms Middle School (California),Parkersburg High School (West Virginia), Portsmouth University (UK),RMIT University (Australia), Saint Charles High School (Michigan),Saint Joseph's University (Pennsylvania), Sam Houston State University (Texas), Saugatuck Jr/Sr High School(Michigan),Southern Utah University,State University of New York,Sunway College (Kuala Lumpur),Texas Christian University,Tyngsboro Middle School (Massachusetts),University of rhus (Denmark),University of California (Berkeley), University of California (Santa Cruz),University of Houston (Texas),University of Illinois at Chicago, University of Kentucky,University of King's College (Nova Scotia, Canada), University of Missouri, University of Nebraska, University of Otago (New Zealand), University of Pennsylvania, University of Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania),University of Rochester (New York),University of Southern Mississippi, University of Sydney (Australia), University of the Virgin Islands, University of Virginia, Ventura High School (California), Warwick University (UK),Woodburn High School (Oregon)

Also many kind notes from people who haven't mentionedany academic affiliation - thanks everyone.

Some Related Links

Comprehensive Hersey obituary in Yale Alumni magazine.

Some teaching resources for secondary school teachers.

You can see the first page of thearticle. Click the page image to enlarge it. (Thanks, CH, and thanks toyour wife too!)

Carol Meyerson isa JohnHersey book collector.

In February 1999, NYU'sjournalism departmentpublished a list of the"Top100 Works of Journalism in the United States in the 20thCentury." 'Hiroshima' places first.

Another American journalist,George Weller,visited Nagasaki in September 1945, just a few weeks after the secondatomic bomb had been dropped there. He filed detailed stories aboutwhat he saw there, but the articles were censored by the Americanmilitary. More info at the Wikipedia entry First Into Nagasaki.

In 2012 (15 years after doing my paper) I learned from a scholar in Spain that a remarkably similar paper had beenpublished in 1974 by a historian named Michael J. Yavenditti in The Pacific Historical Review. The article is available via jstor.org at http://www.jstor.org/stable/3637589?origin=JSTOR-pdf&. If you aredoing serious research on this topic you probably need to get this paper. I didn't have access to this article when I was putting togethermy stuff but it's clear from a quick review that we used a lot of the same sources.

Books

Hiroshimaby John Hersey others by John Hersey ABell for Adano

TheCall

TheWall

about John Hersey JohnHersey Revisited by David Sanders

TheSurvival Tales of John Hersey by Nancy L. Huse

about Hiroshima HiroshimaNotes by Kenzaburo Oe

about The NewYorker Geniusin Disguise: Harold Ross of The New Yorker by Thomas Kunkel

Here at the New Yorker By Brendan Gill

about US Culture in the 40's Bythe Bomb's Early Light: American Thought and Culture at the Dawn of theAtomic Age by Paul S. Boyer

TheDecision to Use the Atomic Bomb by Gar Alperovitz, et al.

other books City of Seven Rivers a historical novel by William P. Bekkala (partly based on research from this site). A related topic...

Terrorism,War, and the Press A collection of research paperswritten by Fellows and Faculty of the Joan ShorensteinCenter on the Press, Politics, and Public Policy (John F.Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University). Contributorsinclude: Tim Cooke, AndrewGlass, Nik Gowing, Jack Nelson, Frederick Schauer, Nachman Shai,Ramindar Singh, Matthew Storin, and Gadi Wolfsfeld. Editedby my beloved wife, Nancy Palmer!

Steve Rothman, Arlington Massachusetts. E-mail:steve@palmerrothman.com

TAGS:by Hiroshima Hersey John 

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