A New Eye Witness to Nagasaki

[Paisley]

From the Wall Street Journal, an article about the book First into Nagasaki:

The atomic bomb fell on Nagasaki on the morning of Aug. 9, 1945. On Sept. 6, George Weller of the Chicago Daily News, fresh from covering the formal surrender of Japan aboard the USS Missouri, arrived in the city. He got there by impersonating an American colonel and forcing his way onto Japanese trains. He was the first Westerner to enter Nagasaki after the bomb.

By heading for Nagasaki, Weller was following his nose for news but also defying a ban imposed by Gen. Douglas MacArthur, who had declared Japan's southernmost island of Kyushu, where Nagasaki is located, off-limits to journalists. Weller reasoned that the war was over, the U.S. military's authority over journalists was now moot, and he ought to be free to travel wherever his story took him.

But MacArthur had the last word. Weller's dispatches, filed through U.S. censors in Tokyo, never reached Chicago. Weller always assumed that they landed in the general's circular file. It wasn't until after the reporter's death, in 2002, that his son, Anthony, discovered the carbon copies of his father's never-published stories, buried in a box of files that had followed the peripatetic correspondent around the globe. The result is "First Into Nagasaki," compiled by the younger Mr. Weller and edited by him into a powerful set of historical documents. His intelligent concluding essay provides the framework for his father's raw copy.

Read the rest here.

 

[jamespowers]

From the Wall Street Journal, an article about the book First into Nagasaki:

The atomic bomb fell on Nagasaki on the morning of Aug. 9, 1945. On Sept. 6, George Weller of the Chicago Daily News, fresh from covering the formal surrender of Japan aboard the USS Missouri, arrived in the city. He got there by impersonating an American colonel and forcing his way onto Japanese trains. He was the first Westerner to enter Nagasaki after the bomb.

By heading for Nagasaki, Weller was following his nose for news but also defying a ban imposed by Gen. Douglas MacArthur, who had declared Japan's southernmost island of Kyushu, where Nagasaki is located, off-limits to journalists. Weller reasoned that the war was over, the U.S. military's authority over journalists was now moot, and he ought to be free to travel wherever his story took him.

But MacArthur had the last word. Weller's dispatches, filed through U.S. censors in Tokyo, never reached Chicago. Weller always assumed that they landed in the general's circular file. It wasn't until after the reporter's death, in 2002, that his son, Anthony, discovered the carbon copies of his father's never-published stories, buried in a box of files that had followed the peripatetic correspondent around the globe. The result is "First Into Nagasaki," compiled by the younger Mr. Weller and edited by him into a powerful set of historical documents. His intelligent concluding essay provides the framework for his father's raw copy.

Read the rest here.

He probably wouldn't have been the first there if he knew what we know now about radiation poisoning and the cancers it caused. Quite a high risk.

 

[Paisley]

Weller mentioned in his papers the survivors, who appeared healthy, dying of "Disease X" three or four weeks after the bomb.

In response to the article, one person mentioned that 15 survivors of Hiroshima took refuge in Nagasaki before it, too, was bombed.

 

[jamespowers]

In response to the article, one person mentioned that 15 survivors of Hiroshima took refuge in Nagasaki before it, too, was bombed.

:eusa_doh: Wrong place to move that is for sure.

 

[Phil]

In response to the article, one person mentioned that 15 survivors of Hiroshima took refuge in Nagasaki before it, too, was bombed.

Not to make fun of them, but those people had to be having a bad week.

 

[jamespowers]

Not to make fun of them, but those people had to be having a bad week.

Really bad. With that much exposure in such a short time, they likely didn't survive anyway.
I wonder what the elder Weller died of in the long run. I would be willing to bet it was some type of cancer. [huh] Not funny at all. When MacArthur tells you to stay away---you stay away. :eusa_doh:

Regards,

J

 

[MrBern]

He probably wouldn't have been the first there if he knew what we know now about radiation poisoning and the cancers it caused. Quite a high risk.

I know guys who are dying jsut from breathing the bad air around ground Zero after 9/11.....

 

[jamespowers]

I know guys who are dying jsut from breathing the bad air around ground Zero after 9/11.....

Yep, imagine walking around and breathing in nuclear fallout. That couldn't have been very good for him or the soldiers that had to be there.
You always see those old movies where a nuclear bomb goes off and there are GIs standing there close enough to see the explosion. If you are close enough to see the explosion then you are too darned close.
Thsi also brings up a possible side effect that I have noticed around here with WWII aged vets. Many I know never had children---they couldn't. Gee, I wonder why. :eusa_doh:

Regards,

J