To Hell and Back

Drawing on the voices of atomic bomb survivors and the new science of forensic archaeology, Charles Pellegrino describes the events and the aftermath of two days in August when nuclear devices, detonated over Japan, changed life on Earth forever. To Hell and Back offers readers a stunning, you are there time capsule, wrapped in elegant prose. Charles Pellegrinos scientific authority and close relationship with the A-bomb survivors make his account the most gripping and authoritative ever written. At the narratives core are eyewitness accounts of those who experienced the atomic explosions firsthandthe 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 thirty people who are known to have fled Hiroshima for Nagasakiwhere 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 Yamaguchis office conference was convenedplacing him and few others in a shock cocoon that offered protection while the entire building disappeared around them. Pellegrino weaves spellbinding stories together within an illustrated narrative that challenges the official report, showing exactly what happened in Hiroshima and Nagasakiand why. Also available from compatible vendors is an enhanced e-book version containing never-before-seen video clips of the survivors, their descendants, and the cities as they are today. Filmed by the author during his research in Japan, these 18 videos are placed throughout the text, taking readers beyond the page and offering an eye-opening and personal way to understand how the effects of the atomic bombs are still felt 70 years after detonation.