71 years ago the United States of America made the top secret decision to drop atomic bombs on Japan. The first bomb exploded above the Japanese city of Hiroshima. A short time later a second bomb was detonated over the city of Nagasaki. World War Two ended soon thereafter as Japan surrendered.
The 70th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki passed in August, 2015. At that time I spoke to Susan Southard about her book "Nagasaki - Life After Nuclear War." Southard conducted extensive interviews with survivors of the bombing of Nagasaki. Those individuals had been teenagers on that terrible day when their city bore the brunt of another powerful and destructive explosion which unleashed a second cloud of radioactivity over Japan.
"Nagasaki - Life After Nuclear War" is the recipient of this year's Dayton Literary Peace Prize for non-fiction. Susan Southard returned to the program for another conversation about this important book. After you listen to this one I would encourage you to dip in to our Book Nook archive to hear the original interview that we recorded in 2015.
The Book Nook on WYSO is made possible by six local library systems in southwest Ohio: the Greene County Public Library, Washington-Centerville Public Library, MidPointe Library System, Clark County Public Library, Dayton Metro Library, and Wright Memorial Public Library.
