First Into Nagasaki

The key here is the subtitle of the book: “The censored eyewitness dispatches on post-atomic Japan and its prisoners of war.” The book is not just about Nagaski. It covers a variety of themes:

1. Extreme censorship by MacArthur of information relating to what had happened in Japan due to the atomic bombs.

2. Extreme control by MacArthur who basically shut down parts of Japan to reporters.

3. Absolutely terrible stories of what happened to prisoners-of-war under Japanese control.

4. How many Japanese responsible for the horrible treatment of prisoners-of-war got away unpunished.

5. How the Americans let off people from the Unit 731 unit that performed unspeakable experiments on living beings, simply because the US wanted the information they had obtained from there biological warfare and other experiments.

6. What Nagasaki was like a month after the bomb had been dropped.

Weller was a reporter who made his way to Nagasaki even though at the time no reporters were allowed in that portion of Japan at all. He talked to numerous prisoners-of-war and various Japanese and wrote up a series of stories on what he had learned, only to have the stories censored, if not outright destroyed, by MacArthur's censors.

The parts about Nagasaki actually form only a very small portion of the book. The strongest part is the part about what happened to the prisoners-of-war, including the “death ships” where numerous prisoners died while being transported to Japan and other places.

The stories of the totally inhuman way these men were treated by the Japanese military officials in command would sicken virtually anyone. Nowhere else have I read such a vivid description of exactly what happened. This is absolutely not the type of material that should be read by anyone who is really sensitive and easily disturbed.

At a time when many in Japan's government want to take a revisionist view on what Japan did during World War II, this is a book that is a must to read (for those not easily upset), to remember that there was a time when the Japanese military behaved in a totally bestial fashion. Excuses are always made, of course (the military training was harsh, they expected people to die rather than be taken prisoner, etc.), but he bottom-line truth is that numerous American prisoners-of-war, and prisoners-of-war from other countries, died directly due to the cruelty of their Japanese captors. Even the Nazis treated their prisoners-of-war better.

The past can be forgiven, but it must never be forgotten.

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