{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20261010T034321Z-reviewed-full-unique-works","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/0593472284?tag=bookfrontie00-20","asin":"0593472284","authors":["M. G. Sheftall"],"book_id":"9780593472286","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/nagasaki-9780593472286","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780593472286.jpg?v=b8d17c763c02cb6a","description":"The second volume in a prize-worthy two-book series based on years of irreplicable personal interviews with survivors about each of the atomic bomb drops, first in Hiroshima and then Nagasaki, that hastened the end of the Pacific War. On August 6, 1945, the United States unleashed a weapon unlike anything the world had ever seen. Then, just three days later, when Japan showed no sign of surrender, the United States took aim at Nagasaki. Rendered in harrowing detail, this historical narrative is the second and final volume in M. G. Sheftall’s series Embers. Sheftall has spent years personally interviewing hibakusha —the Japanese word for atomic bomb survivors. These last living witnesses are a vanishing memory resource, the only people who can still provide us with reliable and detailed testimony about life in their cities before the use of nuclear weaponry. The result is an intimate, firsthand account of life in Nagasaki, and the story of incomprehensible devastation and resilience in the aftermath of the second atomic bomb drop. This blow-by-blow account takes us from the city streets, as word of the attack on Hiroshima reaches civilians, to the cockpit of Bockscar, when Charles Sweeney dropped “Fat Man,\" to the interminable six days while the world waited to see if Japan would surrender to the Allies--or if more bombs would fall.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9780593472286","publication_date":"20250805","publisher":"Penguin Publishing Group","slug":"nagasaki","subtitle":"The Last Witnesses","title":"Nagasaki"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"HIS027030","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Nuclear Warfare","score":0.7498,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS027390","confidence_band":"medium","label":"WWII Pacific Theater","score":0.7101,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS027100","confidence_band":"medium","label":"World War II History","score":0.7086,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"hint":[{"bisac_code":"HIS027030","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Nuclear Warfare","score":0.7498,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS027390","confidence_band":"medium","label":"WWII Pacific Theater","score":0.7101,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS027100","confidence_band":"medium","label":"World War II History","score":0.7086,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"HIS021000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Japanese History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"HIS027030","confidence_band":"high","label":"Nuclear Warfare","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"HIS027100","confidence_band":"high","label":"World War II History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"Nuclear Warfare","score":0.7498,"slug":"nuclear-warfare"},{"label":"WWII Pacific Theater","score":0.7101,"slug":"wwii-pacific-theater"},{"label":"World War II History","score":0.7086,"slug":"world-war-ii-history"}],"reader_fit":["For readers interested in firsthand testimony from Nagasaki atomic-bomb survivors","For readers exploring the Pacific War’s atomic bombings"],"related_lists":[],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["M. G. Sheftall"],"book_id":"9780593472255","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780593472255.jpg?v=2e966e46cfb54cec","score":0.8827,"title":"Hiroshima","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780593472255"},{"authors":["Susan Southard","Traci Kato-Kiriyama","Recorded Books","& 0 more"],"book_id":"9780143109426","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780143109426.jpg?v=734bf2d4ec26ba26","score":0.841,"title":"Nagasaki","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780143109426"},{"authors":["George Feifer"],"book_id":"9781493048755","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781493048755.jpg?v=36043b9439312b61","score":0.7209,"title":"The Battle of Okinawa","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781493048755"},{"authors":["John Hersey"],"book_id":"9780679721031","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780679721031.jpg?v=bc550ec2d0c134cd","score":0.7177,"title":"Hiroshima","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780679721031"},{"authors":["William J. Craig","William Craig"],"book_id":"9781504046893","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781504046893.jpg?v=0b44dd47ce3e993d","score":0.7123,"title":"The Fall of Japan","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781504046893"},{"authors":["Richard B. Frank"],"book_id":"9780141001463","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780141001463.jpg?v=aa2f5d1cf91eaef4","score":0.7079,"title":"Downfall","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780141001463"},{"authors":["Charles W. Sweeney","James A. Antonucci","Marion K. Antonucci","& 0 more"],"book_id":"9780380973491","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780380973491.jpg?v=712f1f561de74af3","score":0.7038,"title":"Wars End","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780380973491"},{"authors":["Jess Brallier","Who HQ","Tim Foley"],"book_id":"9781524792657","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781524792657.jpg?v=812568d1ffcdeaa2","score":0.7014,"title":"What Was the Bombing of Hiroshima?","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781524792657"}],"topics":[{"evidence_refs":["keyword:history of japan"],"label":"History","score":0.4536,"slug":"history"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:world war 2 books"],"label":"World","score":0.0848,"slug":"world"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:japanese history books"],"label":"Japanese","score":0.0552,"slug":"japanese"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:military books"],"label":"Military","score":0.035,"slug":"military"}],"what_you_get":["Themes: Atomic bombing and its aftermath, Survivor testimony, Devastation and resilience.","Pacing: steady blend of plot and character.","Themes: History, Japanese, Military."]},"llm_signals":{"confidence":0.91,"pacing":"steady","reader_fit":["For readers interested in firsthand testimony from Nagasaki atomic-bomb survivors","For readers exploring the Pacific War’s atomic bombings"],"themes":["Atomic bombing and its aftermath","Survivor testimony","Devastation and resilience"],"tropes":[]},"source_presence":{"amazon":true,"book_detail":true,"goodreads":true,"llm_signals":true,"similarity_seed":true},"stats":{"amazon_ratings_count":0,"goodreads_ratings_count":124,"goodreads_reviews_count":26,"quality_score":0.8744}}