Sometimes, you have to see the big picture.

Look wide, take it all in if you want a good overview of something. Study in every direction, as far as you can and deep as it goes to make the best assessment — but remember the lesson you’ll find in the new book “Nagasaki: The Last Witnesses” by M.G. Sheftall: sometimes, the best way to see a big picture is one portrait at a time.

There were many unknowns, and the clock was ticking.

On August 8, 1945, the deployment of a bomb similar to the one that had been dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, was imminent, as American scientists and engineers knew, but specifics were lacking. This second device, meant for “inherently chaotic conditions,” was “far more complex” than the first, dropped two days prior, and its deployment relied heavily on the weather. Hours before detonation, they still hadn’t determined a target.

There were two options. Nagasaki was one of them.

Ishida Masako’s father, a judge, had moved his family to Nagasaki after a job reassignment. Unlike many teenagers who were pressed to work at the Mitsubishi ordnance plants, Kiridōshi Michiko left boarding school after a devastating attack on Tokyo in March, and joined her family in Nagasaki. Sister Itonaga Yoshi of Nagasaki’s Immaculate Conception church was working as “a faculty chaperone for mobilized Junshim girls.” Sixteen-year-old Gunge Norio worked making weapons overnight, while his older brother attended pharmaceutical school by day.

The residents of Nagasaki had been told on August 8 about the bombing of Hiroshima, the damage of which then was “incalculable.” Some may have had “prior vague awareness” of it. Still, “those news items were abstractions about things happening far away to other people” so when air raid alarms went off in Nagasaki early on the morning of August 9 and the “all-clear” was given shortly thereafter, few imagined the horror that was about to happen…

The very first thing you need to know about “Nagasaki” is that it might be helpful to keep a pen and paper close, for note-taking. You’ll need it because there’s a lot to absorb here, and such jottings will facilitate better understanding. Yeah, it’s complicated.

In writing this, the second of a two-part series, author M.G. Sheftall personally interviewed hibakusha, or survivors of atomic bombs, adding their stories to historical documents to create a larger account. This puts a more substantial spin on that day eighty years ago, allowing readers to meet real individuals who were in Nagasaki during and after the blast, and the men who were behind the blast itself. Sheftall attempts to properly convey the horror of August 9, 1945, but words sometimes don’t seem to be enough — although what he has to say at the end of the book may stun readers and leave them deeply affected.

Along with the first volume, “Hiroshima,” this is a well-done update to the incendiary end of World War II, and it’s a must-read for history buffs. Just remember that, as you’d expect, “Nagasaki” paints a historically not-at-all-pretty picture.

“Nagasaki: The Last Witnesses” by M.G. Sheftall
c.2025, Dutton
$35.00
477 pages