Author: Sagane Ryokichi.
Title: [Genshi Bakudan (ie: Atomic Bomb)].
Description: Tokyo, Asahi Shinbunsha October 1945 (Showa 20). Octavo, publisher's printed wrapper; [6],58pp including wrapper,* photo illustrations and diagrams. Expected browning of the cheap paper and trivial chips and tears to the wrapper; pretty good for such a vulnerable thing. *Pages 37-40 were removed before the crude side stapling, deleted from all copies. These are the sections, "Genshi bakudan to Nihon" and "Genshi bakudan no koka" - the atomic bomb and Japan, and the effect of atomic bombs. ¶ About a hundred years ago I decided that collecting the pamphlets and ephemera published round the world in 1945 on the atom bomb - first response so to speak - would be more fun and profitable than raising chickens. It took me a while to discover there was anything published in Japan. For some time I found nothing in any library catalogue and that, I thought, made sense. The one people unable or unwilling to rush into print would be the Japanese after August the 6th. Then I came across a mention of this pamphlet by nuclear physicist Sagane Ryokichi. Here it is. Exactly as it should be: unassuming, printed on cheap newsprint stock with diagrams, blurry and uninformative photographs and, best of all, censored after printing. Sagane was the recipient of the letter from physicist Luis Alvarez and two other former colleagues that was dropped in a canister over Nagasaki a minute before the bomb. The letter in part reads, "We implore you to confirm these facts to your leaders, and to do your utmost to stop the destruction and waste of life which can only result in the total annihilation of all your cities, if continued. As scientists, we deplore the use to which a beautiful discovery has been put, but we can assure you that unless Japan surrenders at once, this rain of atomic bombs will increase manyfold in fury." Worldcat now finds two copies outside Japan - one in the Prange collection of occupation material. That copy is marked 'Deleted' in English and Japanese on the cover with the page numbers. The other copy is also, I assure you, censored. The twist that the US occupation censors added that made Japanese writers and publishers wish for the good days of home made tyranny was that censorship itself was forbidden. That is, a publisher could not just blot out any offensive passages; all signs of censorship had to be removed which often meant a complete rewrite and reset.

Keywords: science physics atomic atom bomb hiroshima nagasaki Japan Asia c20th