"Hiroshima and Nagasaki: The Last Witnesses" presented by M.G. Sheftall

 

Thursday, July 17 at 5PM

 

M.G. Sheftall's Hiroshima: The Last Witnesses and its companion volume, Nagasaki: The Last Witnesses, are the result of nine years of personal interviews with survivors, onsite fieldwork, and archival research. His work extensively shares the stories of hibakusha (atomic bomb survivors). These survivors and witnesses, who now have an average age over ninety years old, are quite literally the last people who can still provide us with reliable and detailed testimony about life in their cities before the bombings, the experience of the bombings, and what it means to live with those memories and scars during the subsequent seventy-plus years. As the 80^th anniversary of the bombings approaches, join us as Prof. Sheftall discusses these accounts, as they serve as cautionary tales about the horror and insanity of nuclear warfare but also stand as testaments to the incredible resilience of the human spirit.

M.G. Sheftall is a professor of modern Japanese cultural history and communication at Shizuoka University. His research focuses on the modern evolution of Japanese national identity, with particular emphasis on WWII and its lingering effects. He has been a research fellow at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies (Nichibunken)in Kyoto and a technical consultant and commentator for numerous historical documentaries in both Western and Japanese media. His best-known works to date include: Blossoms in the Wind: Human Legacies of the Kamikaze (2005); Hiroshima: The Last Witnesses (2024); and its companion volume, the upcoming Nagasaki: The Last Witnesses (2025). 

 

-To attend the event in person, there is no need to register. For a map and directions to Lakeland's Ryogoku campus, see our website: https://luj.lakeland.edu/contact

 

--To join on Zoom, please register here (before 4PM on the day of the event). You will be emailed a link that afternoon

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1MrnQwRz-zrQFladB4tlzokllM9XlRlHvfPA6d9Su47I/edit

--

Roger Grabowski, Jr.

Assistant Professor of General Studies

Lakeland University Japan