Shockwave: Countdown to Hiroshima
by Walker, Stephen
- Used
- Very Good
- Paperback
- Condition
- Very Good
- ISBN 10
- 0060742852
- ISBN 13
- 9780060742850
- Seller
-
McKeesport, Pennsylvania, United States
4 Copies Available from This Seller
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Synopsis
At 31,000 feet above Japan, Tom Ferebee sits hunched over his bombsight. Below him lies the primary target of an operation called "Special Mission Number 13" by the few military personnel aware of its existence -- Hiroshima, a city of over 300,000. He waits until the aiming point is directly below the crosshairs and releases his cargo -- a five-ton bomb known as Little Boy by the scientists who built it. If all goes as theorized, the resulting destruction will lead to Japan's surrender and the end of World War II. But right now, a very real question occupies the minds of everyone involved:Will it work?The historical record is clear: It did work. On a quiet Monday morning in August 1945, the bomb detonated as expected, resulting in the deaths of nearly 100,000 people.The Japanese Supreme Council surrendered nine days later, after a second bomb, to similarly devastating effect, had leveled Nagasaki. But if, in retrospect, the bombing of Hiroshima represents the climax of one of the signal events of the twentieth century -- indeed, in the history of mankind -- at the time it was but another episode in an unprecedented drama whose final act had begun three weeks earlier, at Los Alamos, a secret laboratory in the high plains of New Mexico.Shockwave is the story of those terrible three weeks, as seen through the eyes of the pilots, victims, scientists, and world leaders at the center of the drama. Extraordinary interviews with American and Japanese witnesses tell the story of the bombing of Hiroshima with unparalleled immediacy and veracity -- including the story of the copilot, who writes a minute-by-minute diary on board the Enola Gay; the atomic scientist who arms the bomb in midair, equipped with a screwdriver; and the Japanese student desperately searching for his lover in the ruins of the city.Combining a brilliant gift for storytelling and a keen eye for detail, Walker constructs a shocking and unforgettably moving portrait of an event that changed the world forever.
Reviews
(Log in or Create an Account first!)
Details
- Bookseller
- Spellbound (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- HCP-PBD-VG-0060742852
- Title
- Shockwave: Countdown to Hiroshima
- Author
- Walker, Stephen
- Format/Binding
- Paperback
- Book Condition
- Used - Very Good
- Quantity Available
- 4
- Edition
- Illustrated
- ISBN 10
- 0060742852
- ISBN 13
- 9780060742850
- Publisher
- Harper Perennial
- Place of Publication
- Scarborough, On, Canada
- Date Published
- 5/9/2006
- Size
- 5x0x8
- X weight
- 1 oz
Terms of Sale
Spellbound
30 day return guarantee, with full refund including shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged.
About the Seller
Spellbound
About Spellbound
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Remainder Mark
- Usually an ink marking of some sort which indicates that the book was designated a remainder. In most cases, it can be found on...