To Hell and Back

The nuclear weapons of today make the ones detonated in 1945 look like firecrackers, and more and more countries possess them or threaten to do so…The virtue of [this book] is the reminder of just how horrible nuclear weapons are. – The Wall Street Journal

This is horrifying, painful, and necessary reading. – Kirkus Reviews

It’s a meticulous reconstruction of the immediate aftermath of Hiroshima and Nagasaki from the perspective of the victims. – Asia Times

Pellegrino’s book is a moving and grueling close-up look at the horrors experienced by the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki both on the day of the bombing and in the days and years afterward. . . . There are few opportunities for inspiring ‘triumph of the human spirit’ narratives amid the devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The bombings were titanic, apocalyptic events that mock human scale and comprehension. . . . Nevertheless, Pellegrino documents instances of courage, compassion, and ingenuity and people sustaining their humanity through acts of love and sacrifice. ― The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus

The book opens with imagery that leaves one speechless. Pellegrino is a poet at heart, a poet with a Japanese soul. – Francis Kakugawa, poet, Hiroshima family member

…that rare combination of scientific expertise and profound humanism. – Mark Selden, Asia Pacific Studies, Cornell University

Sober and authoritative: This is gleaming, popular wartime history, John Hersey infused with Richard Preston and a fleck of Michael Crichton…[Pellegrino] certainly studies every kind of fallout and does not neglect the spiritual variety. – The New York Times

Heart-stopping. – Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

The train of the title was bound for Nagasaki: thirty survivors of the Hiroshima bombing fled there, only to run straight into a second catastrophe. Pellegrino’s account is full of such terrible ironies – which he describes with a lucid, almost lyrical precision. – Time Magazine

A frightening, grim, yet fascinating examination of the nuclear attacks on Japan..This is shocking, well-written, and will counter the oft-expressed opinion that [nuclear bombs] are ‘just another weapon.’ – Booklist

Blurb:

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.