Lieutenant William B. Walsh: first U.S. doctor in Hiroshima after the bomb, with previously unpublished photographs.
Lt. William B. Walsh, then serving on a U.S. destroyer-minesweeper in the Pacific Theater as a ship's doctor, was the first U.S. physician on the ground in Hiroshima, Japan, after the atomic bomb was dropped. This is his story, gleaned from interviews and his own letters to his wife written while he was serving on the USS Ellyson. His thoughts on the war, the enemy, and the bomb and the fears of the probable invasion of the Japanese mainland are a reflection of the thoughts of many in his position in the Pacific Theater at that time. The article is accompanied by previously unpublished photographs Dr. Walsh took when he was able to go to Hiroshima after the surrender ceremony.
Wilensky
Robert J
RJ
George Mason University, Fairfax, VA 22030, USA.
D049673:History, 20th Century; D007564:Japan; D054043:Nuclear Weapons; D010820:Physicians; D047789:World War II