Charlotte DeCroes Jacobs' '90 Seconds to Midnight: AHiroshima Survivors Nuclear Odyssey' is a solid and challenging read.Anne Layton-Bennettreviews the comprehensive account of destruction.

AS WELL ASAuschwitz and Holocaust, Hiroshima and Nagasaki were words redolent with shock, horror and disbelief for those, like me, growing up in Britain during the post-war 1950s and 60s.

But unlike newsreel images of the death camps, photographs showing the obliteration of the two Japanese cities were scarce. Whether the nuclear bomb devastation was considered too appalling and shameful, or there really were few images taken that recorded such comprehensive destruction is unknown.

But its likely the teamsco-pilotresponsible for dropping the bomb on Hiroshima was permanently scarred by the experience, given the entry in hislogbook:

The bombs certainly signalled Japans surrender, and saw the end of World War ll in the Pacific, but achieving this outcome meant unimaginable deaths for tens of thousands of mostly Japanese civilians who were incinerated, vaporised, or buried under tons of rubble.

A single mistranslation helped trigger two atomic bombs and its warning still matters today.

Thousands more died slow and agonising deaths from their injuries, radiation sickness which nobody knew how to treat and a lack of uncontaminated food and water. Others died weeks, months or years later from cancer. But there were survivors to bear witness to this unprecedented destruction from a newly-developed and barely tested - weapon of war.

One of them wasSetsuko Nakamura, a 13-year-old schoolgirl, who, as part of Japans war effort was about to start her official decoding duties on that hot and humid August day in 1945, along with 29 of her classmates at the Second Army Headquarters. She was one of only two who survived.

'90 Seconds to Midnight' is a solid and challenging read. The physical layout of the book doesnt make it any easier with a typeface and choice of font that is both dense and unappealing for the general reader. Even so, and for all its academic approach that includes over thirty pages of notes, references, a comprehensive bibliography and an index, the book is worth the effort, because it is very readable.

Although harrowing, the description of how Setsuko emerges from the rubble and sees the smoking, flattened ruin of her beloved city, completely destroyed in a blinding flash and toxic cloud of ash, is graphic.

Reading her description of the days and weeks that followed should give anyone still supportive of developing an arsenal of nuclear weapons pause. Although both her parents survived, most of her siblings didnt.

Setsuko watched her hideously disfigured sister and nephew die in agony, while wondering when she would also succumb to the mysterious ailment affecting so many survivors that caused clumps of hair to fall out, nose and gum bleeds, and discoloured urine.

For many people, such symptoms resulted in a painful death, but her graphic description of life in the weeks and months that followed the dropping of the bomb was honed and refined by Setsuko. She made a vow and a commitment to share the warning of Hiroshima until my last breath.

With racially-motivated aggression towards China escalating, it's important to reflect on history to avoid the catastrophe of nuclear war.

This is exactly what she did, speaking out at every opportunity, urging governments everywhere to abolish the use of nuclear weapons. Setsuko presented her account as ahibakushaor Hiroshima survivor. Together with her husband James Thurlow, a Canadian she met and fell in love with while they were both volunteers at a Christian camp, organised by the National Council of Churches for university students and teachers from around the world, shes written numerous papers and presented at hundreds of anti-nuclear meetings, seminars, conferences and events held around the world.

Her tireless dedication and commitment culminated in accepting theNobel Peace Prizein 2017 on behalf of theInternational Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.

Shesaid:

In the wake of the 80th anniversary of Hiroshima, and with much of the world once again mired in escalating conflicts that could involve the use of nuclear weaponry, Setsuko Thurlow-Nakamuras message of the devastation this would unleash has never been more urgent.

90 Seconds to Midnight: AHiroshima Survivors Nuclear Odysseyis available fromMelbourneUPfor $25.99RRP.

This book was reviewed by an IA Book Club member.If you would like to receivefreehigh-quality books and have your reviewpublishedon IA,subscribeto receive yourcomplimentaryIA Book Club membership.

Anne Layton-Bennettis a writer based in Tasmania.

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