Shockwave: Countdown to Hiroshima

by Stephen Walker

Book Overview

The story of the bombing of Hiroshima presented in a new and dramatic way: a minute-by-minute account told from multiple perspectives, both in the air and on the ground

British feature and documentary director Stephen Walker tells the story of the bombing of Hiroshima in a way only a filmmaker can--not as a dry history of the sad, regrettable, mission, but as an immediate and perilous drama. Walker has extensively interviewed American soldiers,...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060742844
• ISBN13: 9780060742843
• Release Date: July 2005
• Publisher: Harper
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 1.48 lbs.
• Dimensions: 2.0" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Roshomon

"Shockwave" is a riveting book, made all the more powerful because the story is told from the dual perspectives of the Americans who dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and the citizens of Japan who suffered its effects. The story begins on August 5, 1945 in the Shukkein Garden of Hiroshima, as two lovers part company. The narrative flashes back to the deserts of New Mexico, where the first atomic bomb was detonated on July 15, 1945. In tense, tight chapters, Walker carries the tale forward day by day, week by week, as the Americans move the bomb inexorably toward Hiroshima: the plane flights out of New Mexico, the mysterious loading of materials aboard the ill-fated USS Indianapolis, the bizarre training of aircrews who had no clear idea of what they would drop on Japan, the assembly of the first bomb on Tinian, the delicate procedure by which the bomb was armed in flight. The Americans in the book are driven by their determination to end the war quickly, their resolve strengthed by the thousands of young Americans killed and maimed in four years of brutal fighting. On the other side of the tale are the citizens of Hiroshima, who go about their lives in war-torn Japan. They have no inkling at all of the fate that awaits them, but they are determined to defend their homeland to the bitter end. With the grim certainty of tragedy, the two sides collide in one horrific moment in which tens of thousands of Japanese are instantly killed and tens of thousands more begin the long and painful process of dying. It is impossible not to be moved by this book. Walker brings the events to life with a series of gripping vigenettes: the young scientist who spent the night atop the first atomic bomb in New Mexico, wondering whether it would be detonated prematurely by an electrical storm; the officer who had to arm the bomb in a delicate seven-step procedure and whose brother had lost his face fighting the Japanese; the politicans who were determined to drop the bomb after spending so much of the taxpayers' money to build it; the lovers who never saw each other again after the bomb fell; and the Japanese leaders who refused to surrender even after Hiroshima had been destroyed. If Hollywood ever gets out of the habit of making movies about comic book characters and seventies sitcoms, perhaps it could make a movie from this book--the story is compact, the characters are compelling, and the climax is as dramatic as it gets. In the meantime, read "Shockwave"--I wasn't able to put it down.

"It rose from the desert like a second sun."

"Shockwave" is a compelling account of the frantic and surreal three weeks that culminated in the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Walker's detailed description of the logistical nightmares, the uncertainties, and the political maneuvering that took place during this pivotal time makes for a fascinating page turner. Walker captures the terror, the conflicts, the determination, and the resourcefulness of the dozens of people involved in the Manhattan Project and its aftermath. Using lucid and vivid prose and even occasional dry humor, Walker takes us to the Trinity Test Site at Ground Zero in the desert of New Mexico. There, J. Robert Oppenheimer and his team worked around the clock to prepare for the world's first nuclear bomb test. Would the device explode or would it prove to be a dud? If it worked, would the explosion destroy the entire state of New Mexico, or would the damage be localized? There were no definite answers, because this project was both experimental and very dangerous. "Shockwave" also takes us inside Japan. Walker describes the beautiful city of Hiroshima before the blast, with its busy entrepreneurs, its young and hopeful lovers, its verdant gardens, and its beleaguered and starving citizens frantically building weapons for the expected American invasion. The author also explores the thinking of key Japanese leaders, including Hirohito and Togo, of President Harry Truman and his Secretary of War Henry Stimson, and even of Josef Stalin. Was the bomb dropped for the sole purpose of ending the war and avoiding a catastrophic American invasion of the Japanese mainland? Or was Truman anxious to use the bomb in order to make a statement about American might that would deter a future Soviet threat? Walker explores all of these possibilities and lets the reader decide for himself. What brings this book to life is Walker's brilliant storytelling. He puts the reader in the tower with Harvard-trained chemist Don Horing as he baby-sits the bomb prior to the test while a thunderstorm rages around him. He places us in the desert with the observers after the world's first nuclear test. One general called it "stupendous, magnificent, and terrifying, an act of blasphemy in which puny man had dared tamper with the forces of the Almighty." We accompany Paul Tibbets in his B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, as he and his crew fly over Hiroshima and prepare to drop their deadly cargo. Finally, we are on the ground after the blast, the black radioactive rain falling to earth, the shockwave sucking up everything in its path, and the wretched victims either dying instantly or wishing that they had. Was the use of atomic weapons against civilians justifiable? Truman and Tibbets claim never to have suffered a moment's doubt about the morality of using an atom bomb as a weapon of war on an entire city. On the other hand, Hungarian physicist Leo Szilard convinced sixty-nine of his fellow scientists to sign a petition urging t

Historical Storytelling at its Finest

"Shockwave" is historical storytelling at its finest. Stephen Walker transports us back to the summer of 1945, when the country's $2 billion+ investment in nuclear weaponry - and its gambit to shorten the war - faced its decisive moment of truth. Walker recounts the extraordinary secrecy that cloaked the Manhattan Project - military personnel thought to be security risks were summarily dispatched to guard duty in Alaska -- and the enormous pressures on men like Oppenheimer and General Groves to make it succeed. Oppenheimer was so pessimistic that he was actually betting that the New Mexico test firing would fail, and, at one point, was banned from the testing site so that his negative energy would not affect other scientists. We see an emboldened Pres. Truman at Potsdam "bossing around" a phlegmatic Stalin, who knew more about the U.S.'s "secret" weapon than he let on thanks to the espionage of the notorious Klaus Fuchs. Japan foreign ministry peace overtures through the Soviets run into a diplomatic cul de sac when Truman insists on unconditional surrender, and Stalin opts instead to declare war on Japan and stream his forces into Manchuria. Despite the protestations of some in the scientific community - including Leo Szilard, "the father of the bomb" - Truman and his advisors never doubt their decision to target a Japanese population center - without warning or demonstration. (Only War Secretary Stimson has some qualms, but he doesn't express them very forcefully.) It's just "not a decision to worry about," Truman says, famously. Certainly, Paul Tibbets and the Enola Gay crew don't have any reservations about the mission they're asked to perform. And Walker captures their harrowing, tension-filled ride from Tinian Island to Hiroshima in vivid detail. Given the weight of their payload, it's not certain Enola Gay will even make it off the ground, let alone survive a scamper across the Pacific or the sprouting, six-mile-high mushroom cloud. Still, the reader cannot help but be moved by Walker's graphic accounts of Hiroshima's widespread devastation, and the heart-rending experiences of a local populace caught completely unaware. A doctor called out of the city on a post-midnight emergency is one of the few medical professionals to survive (his medical center lost 85% of its nurses and doctors). An adolescent girl perseveres only through the good graces of her teacher, while a young conscript returns home to collect the bones of his wife and infant daughter. Sixty years on from the event, "Shockwave" had me spellbound from cover to cover - an enthralling, captivating, engrossing read.

Fine and balanced narrative of events of the three weeks leading up to August 6, 1945

This is a superb narrative history of three weeks in the summer of 1945 that culminate in the atom bomb destroying Hiroshima and what ensued immediately thereafter. It is impossible to talk about this event without reflecting on the reporting by John Hersey, but Stephen Walker has done something a bit larger. Not only has he read broadly the various histories (including Hersey) written about that time, he takes us through the conference at Yalta, the politics Washington D. C., what was happening at Los Alamos, at Tinian Island, in the war rooms in Tokyo, and what a few of the citizens in Hiroshima were doing to get through the hard times of the war. We also get to ride on the plane with the crew of the Enola Gay and the other planes that were part of that mission. By admitting that I was afraid of that this book was going to be a criticism of the way America ended the war in the Pacific, I also admit that I believe the bombing was a necessary and important act. However, my beliefs are not important in this review. What I want to tell you is that the author does a superb job of reporting how different people viewed the events without tipping his own hand. It would be easy for any reader to project his own beliefs on his writing, but it is hard to say definitively what Mr. Walker believes about August 6, 1945. I was afraid he would not include the spying that went on for the Soviets at Los Alamos. He does include Klaus Fuchs, but not David Greenglass or Ted Hall. This is probably a good choice because it would divert from the main narrative. The main point is that Stalin knew about the bomb at the Yalta conference and that Truman and Churchill did not know that Stalin already knew. The discussion of peace efforts of the Japanese reaching out to the Soviets and some of the views in the administration in Washington about using the bomb might lead the reader to believe that Mr. Walker believes that there were other better choices than dropping the bomb. Maybe the author believes that. I don't know. However, the author does note other voices that claim that dropping those bombs saved lives. Not only American lives, but Japanese lives as well. He is clear that the Soviets had begun their invasion of Manchuria. Mr. Walker is also very clear that Hiroshima and every other major Japanese city would have been part of the fire bombing campaign that had already burned Tokyo and other Japanese cities killing many hundreds of thousands. The author also notes the suffering that Americans endured during the Bataan Death March, during the taking of Iwo Jima and other islands in the Pacific campaign, let alone Pearl Harbor. He is careful to not make the Japanese into innocents. I particularly enjoyed the material the author had from Japanese survivors of the blast and how he weaves their lives and accounts into this story. It does humanize those who died and suffered in Hiroshima. It is clear that it was a city rather than the military bas

Vividly bringing to life a time of fears and destruction

I am in absolute awe of Stephen Walker's ability to tell a story. His descriptive eloquence flows from one page to another, profoundly unveiling in first-person detail that chain of events that brought a decisive end to World War II. Even though Hiroshima took place years before my birth, through Walker's words, I felt as though I had been given a rare privilege - that of peering into the hearts and minds of those who lived and were forever changed by it. Thank you, Stephen Walker, for bringing to life a time wrought with catastrophic death as well as victory. Only now can I begin to imagine the feelings and fears of the men and women touched by the Manhattan Project.