American Survivors Trans-Pacific Memories of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

American Survivors is a fresh and moving historical account of U.S. survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings, breaking new ground not only in the study of World War II but also in the public understanding of nuclear weaponry. A truly trans-Pacific history, American Survivors challenges the dualistic distinction between Americans-as-victors and Japanese-as-victims often assumed by scholars of the nuclear war. Using more than 130 oral histories of Japanese American and Korean American survivors, their family members, community activists, and physicians - most of which appear here for the first time - Naoko Wake reveals a cross-national history of war, illness, immigration, gender, family, and community from intimately personal perspectives. American Survivors brings to light the history of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that connects, as much as separates, people across time and national boundaries.

List of Figures; Acknowledgements; Notes on the Text; Abbreviations; Introduction; 1. Cities of Immigrants; 2. Remembering the Nuclear Holocaust; 3. Reconnecting Families; 4. War and Work Across the Pacific; 5. Finding Survivorhood; 6. Endlessness of Radiation Illness; Epilogue; Glossary; Select Bibliography; Index.

Naoko Wake is Associate Professor of History at Michigan State University. A historian of gender, sexuality, and illness in the Pacific region, she has authored Private Practices: Harry Stack Sullivan, the Science of Homosexuality, and American Liberalism and co-authored with Shinpei Takeda Hiroshima/Nagasaki Beyond the Ocean. She was born and raised in Japan.