First Into Nagasaki: The Censored Eyewitness Dispatches on Post-Atomic Japan and Its Prisoners of War

In the foreword, Walter Cronkite says: "This is an important book -- important and gripping." Somehow, categorizing a book as "important" has always struck me as a rather weak recommendation ... until now. A gentleman I have known for years has told me often of his brother, a prisoner of the Japanese, beaten repeatedly in the coal mines of Japan. In fact, almost 50 years later, he lost a kidney as a direct result of those assaults. This book illustrates that I did not have even the foggiest idea until now of the intensity of base brutality in the coal mines of Baron Mitsui. Although a better title may have been "The Censored Dispatches" or something similar, that takes absolutely nothing away from the power of this book. As a published historian, I have learned that there is no substitute for the firtshand account of someone who was actually there, and the immediacy of these dispatches, feverishly written over a few weeks, have the unmistakeable ring of on-the-spot authenticity as told by a skilled observer. This is strong stuff, disturbing and hard to read. I found that setting the book aside from time to time helped me to be better able to stop and ponder the ramifications of these distant events in our days ... * Is cansorship right or wrong? And who decides? * When is harsh brutality right (whether in person or by a remote weapon)? * When (if ever) is it right to make a "deal with the devil" for "the greater good" (such as leaving some wrongdoers go unpunished so that they might share their research or help the Allied cause -- i.e., Baron Mitsui died wealthy and at a comfortable old age) * What other important things are we ignorant of because they were censored? * How can we learn from the horrors of the past in our history-poor present? This book is highly recommended as a window into an almost forgotten chapter of the past, one that we cannot afford to forget or ignore.

It was perhaps the most underreported story of World War II. Very little has ever appeared in print about the incredibly inhumane treatment of American soldiers and civilians in Japanese POW camps. Until now. In the days immediately following the surrender of the Japanese empire, Chicago Sun Times reporter George Weller, who Walter Cronkite charactorizes as "one of our best war correspondents" slipped quitely and without authorization into Nagasaki, Japan to see for himself the legacy of the atomic bomb that had been dropped just four weeks earlier. In terms of press coverage of this horrifying and historic event Mr. Weller was indeed "First Into Nagasaki". Upon his arrival in Nagasaki George Weller immediately embarked on a tour of the devastated city. What he saw shocked him. There was devastation everywhere. He learned from various officials that at least 21,000 people had already died and that thousands more were injured. He saw first hand those people who were suffering from what he referred to as "Disease X". These doomed individuals were destined to die a slow and painful death due to atomic radiation. George Weller reported his findings in a series of dispatches to his newspaper. Unfortunately for him General Douglas MacArthur was not particularly disposed to having any negative news coming out of Japan. Unbeknownst to George Weller, his reports were being 100% censored by the United States military. After completing his tour of the city proper Weller moved on to a number of the POW camps in the city, among them Omuta and Izuka. He interviewed scores of American POWs along the way. These former POW's told Weller of the inhumane and sadistic treatment they had received at the hands of their Japanese captors. Once again, Weller sent another series of dispatches to the Chicago Sun-Times only to have them totally censored by our own military! For a host of political and security reasons, the American people would never hear the troubling stories George Weller was trying to tell. His reports it seemed had been lost forever. He had made carbon copies of all of them but these too seemed to have disappeared. After George Weller died in 2002 his son Anthony was sifting through some of his dad's papers in an old trunk when lo and behold he came upon those tattered and yellowing copies. And so now, more than six decades after these historic events took place "First Into Nagasaki" finally presents George Weller's compelling dispatches for all to read and digest. This is powerful stuff folks. Over the decades much has been written about the atrocities in Nazi POW camps. Curiously, very little has ever been disclosed about the inhumane conditions that existed in Japanese POW camps. "First Into Nagasaki" does much to set the record straight. This is an extremely important book and one that should prove to be a real eye opener to those like myself who were born after the end of World War II. It might be useful to conclude this rev

George Weller's First into Nagasaki is one of the best books I've read of late. Much of what Weller tells us about the bombing of Nagasaki we already new, at least in total. Weller provides details the make the aftermath of the bombing vivid in the mind of the reader. It is such a shame that it took two atomic bombs to get the Japanese to surrender. What I found particularly moving were the interviews that Weller conducted with surviving allied prisoners of war. The brutality of the Japanese toward helpless prisoners is still mind blowing even after all these years. Those of the "greatest generation" who fought the Japanese had ber strong feelings. On page 120 of First Into Nagasaki, Marine Sergeant Charles Eckstein summed up the opinions of most Americans who fought in the Pacific when he said "I believe the Japs are the lowest people on earth, and I would rather have spent my three years on Alcatraz." I don't think the revisionist historians can deny the truth as brought to us by Weller. I'm also amused by a story told by Weller and reported by another reviewer by a Japanese who asked Weller what he thought about a people who would drop such a bomb on the people of Nagasaki. Weller quickly reminded the Japanese of the unprovoked sneak attach on Pearl Harbor. First Into Nagasaki should be required reading in every high school in America. A superb read.

Anthony Weller has made a real contribution to history in locating and having published -- after over 60 years -- the dispatches of his renowned war correspondent father describing the first outsider's impressions of the atomic bomb attack on Nagasaki. These dispatches -- and those covering his visits to nearby POW camps where he interviewed the Allied victims of over three years of Japanese brutality -- were submitted by George Weller but fell afoul of General MacArthur's self-serving censorship and never saw the light of day -- until his son rescued the carbon copies of the dispatches from oblivion in 2002. Also included in this remarkable volume are graphic descriptions -- published in part only -- of the POW experiences of two American civilians captured on Wake Island and of the 300 survivors of the 1600 American officers and enlisted men transferred under horrendous conditions -- including attacks by American submarines and aircraft -- from the Philippines to Japanese-held Formosa. Without the benefit of his lost 1945 dispatches, George Weller did manage to have his recollections of his Nagasaki experience published in 1966 as a essay, focusing on the veil of censorship that dogged his efforts 21 years earlier, and that full account is also included in this volume. In addition to making all this material available in one place, a major effort of research, Anthony Weller has contributed his own essay analyzing his father's struggles with wartime censorship and the controversial "atomic bomb" issue that was so sensitive immediately after World War II. In all, this book is highly recommended by the reviewer to anyone concerned about the Nagasaki attack and the effects of censorshp in World War II -- and afterwards -- who is sympathetic to the efforts of honest and dedicated reporters like George Weller to get the truth out.

This is a splendid report from a reporter who actually chose to report rather than just be a mouthpiece for MacArthur in Japan. For unknown reasons, the areas around Hiroshima and Nagasaki were declared off limits to American reporters. Mr. Weller managed to get assigned to a visit to a air base in Southern Japan he then 'escaped' from supervision by an Army PR type and made his way to Nagasaki. I was particularly struck by an exchange between he and a Japanese lieutenant. 'What do you think of the culture of a people who could drop such a terrible weapon on the people of Japan?' 'To give you an honest reply, I would have to ask my own people. And of course I would have to begin with those who were walking to church on Sunday on Red Hill in Hawaii when your planes struck them.' My own discussions with young Japanese of today have them almost thinking that the story of World War II was basically that the US began dropping Atomic bombs on them for no reason. In travels around Southern Japan Mr. Weller visited POW camps near Nagasaki and interviewed dozens of American POWs who told stories of torture, starvation, murder and above all of their travel in a 'hellship' which carried US prisoners. A splendid book that brings to light several stories that have been little reported.