A Dimly Burning Wick — Memoir from the Ruins of Hiroshima
Sadako Okuda, with Pamela Vergun
Availability
Pre-Publication Review
You can purchase A Dimly Burning Wick: Memoir from the Ruins of Hiroshima (Publication date November 1, 2008) online now through Amazon. To do so, please click on the following link:
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Available for purchase through Amazon |
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A Dimly Burning Wick — Memoir from the Ruins of Hiroshima
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To order from Amazon jp (in Japanese), please click here.
The publisher has indicated that it will also be available for purchase online through Barnes & Noble (www.barnesandnoble.com/). Dr. Vergun is working to make it available in more bookstores as well. One way you can help is by requesting that your local independent bookstore carry this important book.
Retailers, libraries, college bookstores, and individuals can order copies directly from the publisher at: http://www.algora.com/204/book/details.html#reviews/.
College or other faculty teaching history, peace studies, sociology, political science, public policy, psychology, or other relevant courses may send a request to Algora Publishing for examination copies. See http://www.algora.com/content/howtoorder.html for details.
Pre-Publication Reviews
This month from Independent Publisher—A Dimly Burning Wick chosen as a Highlighted Title:
A Dimly Burning Wick, Memoir from the Ruins of Hiroshima
World War II / Peace Studies
by Sadako Okuda and Pamela Vergun; Illustrated by Mia Nolting
Algora Publishing, New York; 202 page paperback; $22.95 (Nov. 2008)
ISBN-10: 0875865607
The children of Hiroshima, Japan, were heading for school the morning of August 6 when the Enola Gay soared overhead and dropped the atomic bomb that exploded some 2,000 feet above the city, killing or destroying the lives of hundreds of thousands of civilians. In the aftermath, Sadako Okuda searched for eight days for her young niece and nephew in the smoking ruins.
In this agonizing diary she documents for the world the selfless compassion of the youngest victims. The children Okuda tried to save stunned her with their dignity and enduring will to help others and to hold their families together.
She, and the children, generously insist on avoiding bitterness and blame. But as responsible citizens, we still have to face ourselves in the mirror.
The first part of the book presents a series of immediate, sickening, and amazing impressions as the sufferers extend gestures of enormous humanity and generosity amid hell-like conditions. Most harrowing and heartbreaking of the victims were the children she encountered, helplessly roaming the streets in pain and dismay.
In the second part of the book, historians, medical experts and sociologists explore the background of the event and the social psychology that allowed Americans to accept this atrocity committed in their names.
The official story used to justify the use of the bomb fails to match up with the facts at the time; racial prejudices were fanned into hatred and biased reporting was used to whip up a desire for revenge. The techniques are still with us and they frustrate honest citizens of a democracy as they seek to make responsible decisions.
Also check out ForeWord's “Titles of Note from Our Review Stacks”:
“Biography & Autobiography. A DIMLY BURNING WICK: MEMOIR FROM THE RUINS OF HIROSHIMA by Sadako Teiko Okuda, translator Pamela Vergun (Algora Press, 202 pages, softcover, $22.95, 978-0-87586-560-7, hardcover, $31.95, 978-0-87586-561-4): teacher 35 miles away from where the first atomic bomb was dropped (1945) describes looking for family members in the city: August 7: “’Mom was crushed under the house,’ said a little boy with a gaping wound holding the hand of his dead sister”; August 8: “With both arms out stretched, burnt bodies stumbled toward me in desperation”; August 9: “They must not have been able to endure the heat of their burns, and so they had died as they ventured into the fearsome river to try to cool their skin.”
http://www.forewordmagazine.com/ftw/ftwarchives.aspx?id=20080723.htm
From ForeWord Footnotes, “Titles of Note from Our Review Stacks”
For other Reviews, please visit the Praise page.
White Dove of Peace © Rob Palmer
Website Copyright Pam Vergun, 2007-2009, all rights reserved.
Unauthorized distribution and copying strictly prohibited without the express written permission of Pam Vergun.
Website Creator: Pam Vergun
Illustrations by Mia Nolting; Web Contributor: Jim Wilson
www.adimlyburningwick.com