John Hersey's ground-breaking account of the bombing of Hiroshima that brought the world face to face with the human reality of nuclear war. Told through the voices of six survivors, this powerful and unflinching retelling includes detailed accounts of the injury, loss, courage and consequence of that morning in August 1945.
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’s 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.
Part One takes us through the morning of the bombing and its immediate aftermath.
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 BBC Studios Audio Production