Historian M. G. Sheftall returns to discuss Nagasaki: The Last Witnesses, the second volume of his Embers series documenting the atomic bombings through military history and the testimony of the hibakusha who survived them. The conversation places Nagasaki within the wider escalation of the Pacific War—from precision bombing to incendiary attacks on cities—and reconstructs the troubled mission that carried the atomic bomb from its original target, Kokura, to Nagasaki. Sheftall recounts the mechanical failures, bad weather and split-second decisions that culminated in the destruction of Urakami, the centre of Japan’s largest Catholic community. The episode also explores the survivors’ experiences, the political struggle over Japan’s surrender, and why Hiroshima became the dominant international symbol of nuclear war while Nagasaki receded from public memory. Finally, Sheftall considers what may change as the last living witnesses disappear—and as memories of Hiroshima and Nagasaki exert less influence over debates about Japanese pacifism and constitutional revision. Here is a full list of his books and links to purchase: 

• Hiroshima: The Last Witnesses (Amazon US & Amazon Japan)
  The first volume of the Embers series, built around the testimony of Hiroshima’s surviving witnesses.
• Nagasaki: The Last Witnesses (Amazon US & Amazon Japan)
  The second and concluding volume of the Embers series, recounting the bombing of Nagasaki and its aftermath through survivor testimony.
• Blossoms in the Wind: Human Legacies of the Kamikaze (Amazon US & Amazon Japan)
  An oral history examining the lives, experiences, and legacies of Japan’s kamikaze pilots.

The outro song was Kyōkun I (教訓Ⅰ) by Kagawa Ryō (加川良), a Japanese antiwar folk song that rejects the demand that ordinary people surrender their lives to the state. You can listen to the track and reference English lyrics here. 

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