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The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill. Published date: 1955. Hardcover with dust jacket, xi, 238 pp; 21 cm. First edition. Illustrated with maps. Dark cloth boards with gilt lettering on spine and a blind stamped torii gate device on the front cover.
In good condition with an acceptable dust jacket. Boards show light bumping to edges and corners and mild surface and edge wear with a hint of color loss at edges and top and bottom of spine; binding sound; interior pages lightly toned but otherwise unmarked. Dust jacket shows moderate edge wear with several small nicks and tears, light creasing, and rubbing with mild to moderate surface soiling and toning; original $3.50 price remains present on the front flap; now in an archival quality (removable) Brodart cover. Personal diary of Japanese physician Michihiko Hachiya (1903-1980), director of the Hiroshima Communications Hospital, documenting the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and the weeks that followed. Beginning on August 6, 1945, when the author himself was injured in the blast, the journal records the immediate devastation of the city, the suffering of survivors, and the efforts of physicians and nurses attempting to treat victims while the nature of radiation sickness was still poorly understood. Written from the perspective of a physician and eyewitness, the diary provides one of the earliest detailed personal accounts of the medical and human consequences of the first atomic bomb used in warfare.