Hiroshimas Shadow: Writings on the Denial of History the Smithsonian Controversy by Kai Bird

Hiroshimas Shadow: Writings on the Denial of History the Smithsonian Controversy Reviews

• 
  Kirk Sinclair

  How's this for an endorsement: it's the most depressing book I've ever read. And I read it at the end of my research for
  Systems out of Balance during which I read many depressing books. The book is a compilation of original documents about the dropping of the atomic bomb, mostly from "people in the know" at the time it occurred. Yet the book is really more about the canceling of an exhibit fifty years later, which I'll get to shortly. I give it five stars because of three things this book reveals directly or indirectly that every citizen should understand.
  
  1. If you were against dropping the bomb in the fifties you were statistically more likely to be a conservative Republican. Of course, in the new millennium you are more likely to be a liberal Democrat. This says volumes about party loyalists and ideologues. If you are a loyal Democrat right now please take this review (or read the book) as a precaution against what you might feel fifty years from now. If you are a loyal Republican wait fifty years first before continuing on.
  
  2. The original documents in the book were to be part of a Smithsonian exhibit for the fifty year anniversary of dropping the bomb. The exhibit got canceled due to pressure from interest groups and corporate media. The editors then felt compelled to put these original documents in the book as a rebellion against censorship. This is a lesson that misinformation is not always about distortion, but also about cherry-picking, cover-ups and noise. Two interest groups leading the charge of silencing the exhibit, under an ironic assault of "revisionist history," were the Air Force Association, a trade group for nuclear weapons, and the American Legion. The American Legion's dalliance with censorship is particularly ironic considering their normal affiliation with the military. I'll get to that point next.
  
  3. The original documents gave opinions and evidence both pro and con in regards to the need for dropping the bomb. Yet the following can be surmised:
  A.. The State Department was for dropping the bomb, the Armed Services were against it, with Eisenhower and Leahy declaring quite emphatically in original documents it was not necessary for ending the war.
  B.. The State Department's primary motivation was not ending the war with Japan but sending a message to the Soviet Union at the beginning of the Cold War.
  
  After I put down this book I spent the next few months reading Bloom County and Calvin and Hobbes anthologies.
• 
  Ethan Everhart

  Basically even the introduction is enough to destroy the idea that the atomic bombs were dropped to save lives.
• 
  Jen

  This is a bone chilling book. I strongly recommend it.
• 
  Lisa

  Excellent book, well documented but still has strong personal/individual voices. Also, not for the faint-hearted.
• 
  Gary Itano

  15c11 RT Watching the Hawks .5 Alice Slater, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation .22 Pope, anti-nuke