The Horrors and Heroes of Hiroshima

Hiroshima Diary, the book

Two pages of paper, yellowed with age, with dotted line boxes filling up the space. Japanese characters are in many of the boxes. This is the title page and first page of Hiroshima Atom Bomb Gossip, later renamed Hiroshima Diary, that was published serially in Teishin Igaku.

Michihiko Hachiya, Hiroshima Atom Bomb Gossip, 1950, box 1, folder Hiroshima Diary: holograph manuscript by Mrs. Yaeko Hachiya (in Japanese), 1950, Warner Wells collection, 1945-1972.

Hiroshima Diary was initially published serially in a Japanese medical journal entitled, Teishin Igaku, and was entitled Hiroshima Atom Bomb Gossip. Available for viewing is a fifty-two page handwritten manuscript sent to the journal.

Black and white photo of three men. They are all facing the camera. To the viewer's left is Dr. Warner Wells, wearing a light colored suit, bowtie, and glasses. In the middle is Dr. Michihiko Hachiya in dark, pin-striped suit with a tie, and also wearing glasses. To the viewer's right is Dr. Neal Tsukifuji who is wearing a white doctor's coat and tie. His hands are in front of him while Drs. Wells and Hachiya have their hands behind them.

Photograph of Drs. Wells, Hachiya, and Tsukifuji, ca. 1951, box 1, folder Hiroshima Diary correspondence and photographs, 1945-1955, Warner Wells collection, 1945-1972.

Dr. Warner Wells, trained at Duke Medical School and working in Chapel Hill, joined the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission in 1950 as a surgical consultant, as the Commission sought to understand the delayed effects of the atomic bombs. While working in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, he learned of Dr. Hachiya’s diary and met with him. Together with a Japanese-American doctor, Dr. Neal Tsukifuji, they translated the book with Dr. Hachiya’s blessing and participation. Dr. Tsukifuji is recognized in the Foreword of the book.

Two pages from the first draft of the English translation of Hiroshima Atom Bomb Gossip, later renamed Hiroshima Diary. The page on the viewer's left shows the title page--a gray page with a block in the center that reads "HIROSHIMA ATOM BOMB GOSSIP by Michihiko Hachiya Director Hiroshima Communication Hospital". The page on the viewer's left is browning with age, but it is white, lined paper with blue ink. The English translation is written in cursive and includes some scratched out parts and extra thoughts in parentheses hovering above the original text.

Michihiko Hachiya and Warner Wells, Hiroshima Atom Bomb Gossip, 1950-1952, box 1, folder Hiroshima Atom Bomb Gossip, by Michihiko Hachiya: holograph manuscript of English translation, draft, 1950-1952, Warner Wells collection, 1945-1972.

Dr. Wells met with the people written about in the diary, as well as visited the places in the diary, and spent four years translating and then editing the book. It was particularly important to Dr. Wells that he capture the beauty of the Japanese language as well as the quality of values he saw in Dr. Hachiya. The first manuscript draft of the English translation is next to the handwritten Japanese manuscript.

The cover of the Latvian version of Hiroshima Diary features a white mushroom cloud in the center, coming out of the black outline of buildings at the bottom of the cover, and surrounded by a light blue background. White text at the top says "Dr. Micihiko Hacija" and under that, "Dr. Vorners Velss". At the bottom of the cover in white text it says, "Hirosimas" then in blue under that, "Dienasgramata".

Mičhiko Hačija, Vorners Velss, tulkojis Augusts Millers (Michihiko Hachiya, Warner Wells, translated into Latvian by Augusts Millers), Hirošimas Dienasgrāmata (Hiroshima Diary), (Copenhagen : Imanta, 1957), Hiroshima Collection of Dr. and Mrs. Warner Wells.

Hiroshima Diary was eventually published in 15 languages, with Dr. Wells’s English translation being the basis for all other language publications. UNC Press communicated consistently that the translations needed to include Dr. Wells’s Foreword and Dr. Hachiya’s Postscript. When possible, they had trusted people read the translations and determine how well the translation had been done. This Latvian version was translated by Augusts Millers. A note in an enveloped in the back shares that Dr. Wells had a neurosurgeon working at UNC read the Latvian version and found it to be a good translation.

Some materials and descriptions may include offensive content. More info