To Hell and Back cover art

To Hell and Back

The Last Train from Hiroshima

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To Hell and Back

By: Charles Pellegrino
Narrated by: David Colacci
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About this listen

To Hell and Back offers listeners a stunning "you are there" time capsule, wrapped in elegant prose. Charles Pellegrino's scientific authority and close relationship with the A-bomb survivors make his account the most gripping and authoritative ever written.

At the narrative's core are eyewitness accounts of those who experienced the atomic explosions firsthand - the Japanese civilians on the ground. As the first city targeted, Hiroshima is the focus of most histories. Pellegrino gives equal weight to the bombing of Nagasaki, symbolized by the 30 people who are known to have fled Hiroshima for Nagasaki - where they arrived just in time to survive the second bomb. One of them, Tsutomu Yamaguchi, is the only person who experienced the full effects of both cataclysms within Ground Zero. The second time, the blast effects were diverted around the stairwell behind which Yamaguchi's office conference was convened - placing him and few others in a shock cocoon that offered protection while the entire building disappeared around them.

Pellegrino weaves spellbinding stories together within a narrative that challenges the "official report", showing exactly what happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki - and why.

©2015 Rowman & Littlefield (P)2020 Tantor Asia Japan Military Weapons & Warfare Survival Imperial Japan

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All stars
Most relevant
I’ve never been so lost for words, or had so many hairs stand up on my arms as I’ve read a book. I would think, or at least I would hope, that if everyone read this book there would be less war. It puts into perspective the catastrophic loss that comes from playing God. No one should possess the power to instantly vaporise the world. I think of all those people lost to shadows, lives struck from the register before they could even think of the danger coming for them. Yet the worst pain comes from those who survived it. The title isn’t wrong, weapons make hell on Earth. This novel will always be relevant and I can’t help but feel sad about that. The victims are unparalleled in their wisdom, advocating for hope and peace where many would want revenge. If people who have suffered that much can be so decent there is no excuse for the rest of us.

What should never have happened

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This is equally a historic record of survivors stories, as it is a thought provoking and deeply emotional book.

Told through accounts of survivors who experienced the bombings first hand. The narrative is gripping, and an emotional journey unlike any I have experienced.

The whole story is covered, from those that dropped the bombs to those who witnessed the bombings first hand. The descriptions convey the horrors of atomic weapons in the language of those who suffered the effects.

I cannot recommend this book enough. It is read in a reverent and easy to listen to manor. The juxtaposition of the voice and the horrors descried are rightly unsettling. These are stories that need to be told. A warning from history that we all need to hear.

Easily the book I would recommend as a must read.

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Hard to read but a light needs to be kept focused on this to remind the world of what we did and should never do again.

Terrible story that had to be told.

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A dark part of human history that has to be told. Glad this book was released after the uproar over the last train from Hiroshima.

This and the previous edition are my favourite books I have ever come across. The people involved had to live through an unreality that is impossible to grasp. Then the survivors / victims where treated like diseased untouchables. Thank you Charles Pellegrino for this.

Brilliant and harrowing

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There’s barely a single paragraph in this book that doesn’t contain a deeply unsettling account or detail. Every leader of a nuclear armed nation should have to listen to the description of the short term and generational impact of a nuclear weapon. From the initial blast impact through to the deeply unsettling effects of radiation on humans (and animal) the sheer scale and variety of harm these weapons can do is far worse than I ever imagined.

Deeply troubling and thought provoking

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