The Bells of Nagasaki

By Takashi Nagai

Book Overview

Witness the best and the worst of humanity in The Bells of Nagasaki. . .

On 9th August 1945, the Japanese city of Nagasaki is hit by an atomic bomb. Forty thousand people are killed instantly. Doctor Takashi Nagai is not one of them.

Pulling himself, broken and bloodied, from the wreckage that was once the city's university hospital, Takashi bundles together a tattered group of survivors. Doctors, nurses, students, each with their own injuries and losses, their own bone-chilling fears for the future, they work tirelessly at the impossible task of aiding the countless wounded and easing the deaths of the dying. They remain determined to heal their fallen city, to find solace and hope among the rubble, even as a strange and growing sickness begins to claim them, one by one.

Eyewitness to one of the most fatal events in human history, this is Takashi's record, written from his sickbed - a chilling historical document, and undeniable evidence of the capacity for human kindness.

'A book that everyone should read' The Times

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1529952603
• ISBN13: 9781529952605
• Release Date: November 2025
• Publisher: Vintage Classics
• Length: 192 Pages

Customer Reviews

TOUCHING AND HEART FELT STORY

a Japanese friend of mine was born in nagasaki and her birth was just after the war her mother has suffered alot from the after affects of this terrible tragidy of nuclear bombing and my friend gave me this story to read. I was moved to tearsseveral times from the accounts in the book.

Christian view of Nagasaki bomb by victim

The author's friends, colleagues and wife were killed instantly by the atomic bomb and he died of injuries after a few years leaving his children orphans. He was a Christian, a part of the Nagasaki Christian community which had experienced persecution from the time the Portuguese brought Christianity to the city. His view of God's provision as it relates to the horror of the bomb is very profound. I wish the book had provided supplementary information regarding the author's life and the Christian community in Nagasaki.