Public Lecture: The Last Witnesses of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Public Lecture: The Last Witnesses of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

This lecture by Professor Sheftall, the author of Hiroshima: The Last Witnesses (Dutton, 2024) and Nagasaki: The Last Witnesses (Dutton, 2025), will take place at St Andrews Anglican Church. In these recent books, Sheftall layers the stories of the survivors in harrowing detail, to give a minute-by-minute account of the leadup, execution, and aftermath of the world-changing atomic bombing missions of 6 August and 9 August 1945. The personal accounts they contain serve as cautionary tales about the horror and insanity of nuclear warfare and their stories also stand as testaments to the incredible resilience of the human spirit in the face unfathomable horror, suffering, and destruction.

About the speaker: M.G. Sheftall is a professor of modern Japanese cultural history and communication at Shizuoka University, Japan. His research focuses on the modern evolution of Japanese national identity, with particular emphasis on WWII and the lingering effects of that conflict at both collective and individual levels of Japanese consciousness.