HIROSHIMA NAGASAKI

In this Australian production, Paul Ham takes listeners back to the hellish world of 1944-1945 to make, comprehensively, the argument that the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was both strategically unnecessary and morally reprehensible. American listeners may be surprised by Ham’s emphasis on the British role in the development of the atomic bomb and may be equally surprised by some of Ham’s more colloquial English phrases. Narrator Robert Meldrum’s voice is always clear, and his pace is consistent. His British accent matches Ham’s vocabulary and preoccupations. Further, Meldrum’s slightly pedantic delivery matches Ham’s didactic purpose. It’s terrifying that the atomic devastation visited on Japan in 1945 is fading from the popular imagination. Ham reminds us of what we should never forget. F.C. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine [Published: NOVEMBER 2012]