First Into Nagasaki: The Censored Eyewitness Dispatches on Post-Atomic Japan and Its Prisoners of War

Censored in 1945 and lost for 60 years, First Into Nagasaki includes Pulitzer Prize winner George Weller's legendary dispatches from post-atomic bomb Nagasaki and other never-published reports from Japan's POW camps.

Review :
"This is an important book--important and gripping. For the first time in print we can read the details of the nuclear bombardment of Nagasaki, Japan, as written by the first American reporter on the terrible scene. . . [George Weller's] reports, so long delayed but now salvaged by his son, at last have saved our history from the military censorship that would have preferred to have time to sanitize the ghastly details . . . Also delayed by MacArthur's censorship were Weller's dispatches from his visits to American prison camps [w]here he uncovered the Japanese military's savage treatment of their American prisoners . . . There is so much in this volume that we never knew or have long forgotten. This volume of the last generation's history is an important reminder, a warning to inspire civilian vigilance." --Walter Cronkite, from the Foreword "Unearthed at last after six decades, George Weller's daring reportage from the ruins of Nagasaki has made an unforgettable and momentous book. From the remains of a scorched, fractured city to the unfathomable tragedy of Allied POWs in Japanese custody, he channeled his five senses straight to the page, giving eloquent testimony to the martyrs, American and Japanese alike, who were trapped in the Pacific war's bloody fun-house." --James D. Hornfischer, author of Ship of Ghosts and The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors " This is an important book-- important and gripping. For the first time in print we can read the details of the nuclear bombardment of Nagasaki, Japan, as written by the first American reporter on the terrible scene. . . [George Weller' s] reports, so long delayed but now salvaged by his son, at last have saved our history from the military censorship that would have preferred to have time to sanitize the ghastly details . . . Also delayed by MacArthur's censorship were Weller's dispatches from his visits to American prison camps [w]here he uncovered the Japanese military's savage treatment of their American prisoners . . . There is so much in this volume that we never knew or have long forgotten. This volume of the last generation's history is an important reminder, a warning to inspire civilian vigilance." -- Walter Cronkite, from the Foreword " Unearthed at last after six decades, George Weller's daring reportage from the ruins of Nagasaki has made an unforgettable and momentous book. From the remains of a scorched, fractured city to the unfathomable tragedy of Allied POWs in Japanese custody, he channeled his five senses straight to the page, giving eloquent testimony to the martyrs, American and Japanese alike, who were trapped in the Pacific war's bloody fun-house." -- James D. Hornfischer, author of Ship of Ghosts and The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors