The events of a few days in August 1945 brought WWII to an end. They also destroyed the city of Nagasaki & killed 80, 000 of its inhabitants, half of them instantly. Craig Collie is the first person to interview elderly survivors & descendants of the victims, & to stitch together their recollections with contemporary diaries & letters, & details from official documents. The result is a unique, unprecedented work of narrative reconstruction that follows ordinary Japanese in the hours after the blast to provide a gripping account of the decision-making, the denials &, above all, the devastation & the loss.