Choosing Life: My Father’s Journey in Film from Hollywood to Hiroshima
by
Leslie A. Sussan (Goodreads Author),
Greg Mitchell (Goodreads Author) (Foreword)
4.25 · Rating details · 12 ratings · 6 reviews| Combine
In 1946, with the war over and Japan occupied, 2nd Lt. Herbert Sussan received a plum assignment. He would get to use his training as a cinematographer and join a Strategic Bombing Survey crew to record the results of the atomic bombings in Nagasaki and Hiroshima. From his first arrival in Nagasaki, he knew that something completely novel and appalling had happened and that he had to preserve a record of the results, especially the ongoing suffering of those affected by the bomb (known as hibakusha) even months later.
When the U.S. government decided that the gruesome footage would not be "of interest" to the American public and therefore classified it top secret, he spent decades arguing for its release. His last wish was that his ashes be scattered at ground zero in Hiroshima.
The author, his daughter, followed his footsteps in 1987, met survivors he had filmed more than 40 years before. And found that she met there a father she never really knew in life.
This book recounts Herbert Sussan's experiences (drawn directly from an oral history he left behind), his daughter's quest to understand what he saw in Japan, and the stories of some of the survivors with whose lives both father and daughter intersected. This nuclear legacy captures the ripples of the atomic bombing down through decades and generations.
The braided tale brings human scale and understanding to the horrors of nuclear war and the ongoing need for healing and peacemaking.About the Author
?Leslie A. Sussan was born and raised in Manhattan, and now lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, with her daughter Kendra and their cat, Neko-chan. She was born and raised in New York City and graduated from Bryn Mawr College and Georgetown Law School. Over a long career as an attorney, she litigated for the U.S. Department of Justice, represented migrant farmworkers and abused children, and has now served for fourteen years as an administrative appellate judge for the federal government. (Everything written here, however, reflects only her own work and not any government position.) She attends Bethesda Friends Meeting. She loves to learn about different cultures through books and travel; she cannot carry a tune or follow a recipe. She and Kendra lived in Hiroshima for a year in 1987-88 and have visited Japan many times since.?Greg Mitchell is an author and journalist who has published twelve non-fiction books on many aspects of United States history. He wrote the 2011 book, Atomic Cover-Up: Two U.S. Soldiers, Hiroshima & Nagasaki, and The Greatest Movie Never Made, and co-wrote, with Robert Jay Lifton, the 1996 book Hiroshima in America. In the 1980s, he edited Nuclear Times magazine. His latest book is The Beginning or the End: How Hollywood--and America--Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, and he is completing a documentary on the footage shot by Herbert Sussan and the other American and Japanese filmmakers.
--This text refers to the paperback edition.
Top reviews from the United States
S. Sayler
5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating story on the bombings of Nagasaki & Hiroshima — a multi-generational quest to understand
Reviewed in the United States on September 7, 2020
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A fascinating story of a multi-generational quest, told from different views, to come to terms with a WWII assignment that at the time was a ‘plum-assignment’ — to join the Strategic Bombing Survey crew as a cinematographer to record the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. In honor of her father, author Leslie Sussan, along with her daughter, recount the oral history of 2nd Lt. Herbert Sussan and tell their life-journeys on what had consumed their father and grandfather’s life — the horrors of the bombing and why it drove him to spend the remainder of his life trying to get the real story told. A captivating read.
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Coach Bob
5.0 out of 5 stars A terrific juxtaposition of stories - the author and her family and the horror of nuclear war
Reviewed in the United States on November 22, 2020
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Full disclosure: I'm the pastor she mentions who visited her in Hiroshima in 1987 so I've known Ms. Sussan for a long time, though we don't talk very often. I moved from the church of which she was a member in 1992.
I loved the book. It captures Leslie's own emotional and spiritual journey, trying to discover more about what her father experienced in Hiroshima and thus to learn more about him and his reticence to share those experiences. She is candid about her own rebellion against her parents and how she grew immensely as she met and talked with bomb survivors and others seeking to tell about the horror of an atomic bomb.
Her message is very apt for our polarized and dangerous world. She eloquently argues for more knowledge about and the elimination of nuclear and thermonuclear weapons.
Get the book. It will make you laugh and cry and reflect on what you can do.
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Kindle Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars Am Important Work About the Human Cost of Dropping the Two Atom Bombs
Reviewed in the United States on October 11, 2020
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I appreciate the author's work on many different levels...in her dedication and persistence to tell the story, in her struggles to come to know and become at peace with her father after his passing, her open mindedness to experience a new culture and doing so with her young mixed race daughter, her unflagging research efforts over many decades, her personal honesty even when it no doubt hurt, the value of reminding us all of the heavy personal toll of war and how important peace efforts are to prevent atomic warfare from happening in the future, and the story of her and her father's journeys in trying to bring the subject of her father's films to light. Well told, engagingly so. I am glad she has shared this with us!!!
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leonard kaufer
5.0 out of 5 stars Timeless perspective and a timely reminder as atomic survivors dwindle
Reviewed in the United States on August 11, 2020
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Ms. Sussan takes disparate sources, multiple timelines, several perspectives, and her unique position as both an insider and an outsider to one of mankind's most tragic moments and weaves them together in a compelling narrative. The author acknowledges that the book is about the people and their experiences rather than the geopolitical backdrop, and this is the perfect approach to bring to today's audiences the personal stories of those affected by the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And we get to see much of it through the lens of the American soldier/film maker, Herb Sussan, who captured their stories and then spent the rest of his life in a struggle to be allowed to tell those stories. Through all of this we get the heartwarming story of a daughter who finds out who her father really was when she didn't even realize she was looking. If you are a WWII buff, this personal look at the aftermath of the dawn of the nuclear age is a must. If you like uncovering dusty but fascinating corners of history, read this book. If you just enjoy a good read, this is one you will appreciate.
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doris beers
5.0 out of 5 stars An honest and kind personal history driven by the horror of nuclear war
Reviewed in the United States on August 8, 2020
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The author's voice is honest without being cruel, kind without ignoring troubling attitudes or choices.
The realities of life after the atomic bomb in Nagasaki and Hiroshima are clearly at the center of the story. What also becomes clear is how the damage is passed to witnesses and to new generations. Finally, there are the stories of how individuals face horror and destruction and move forward with purpose and light.
This book charmed me and moved me. It has stayed with me. I find myself being inspired by the author's ability to trust her path and see the effort through. She carries her responsibilities as a daughter, an activist, and a witness with grace.
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David Zarembka
5.0 out of 5 stars An emotional laiden book for the abolition of nuclear weapons.
Reviewed in the United States on October 7, 2020
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It took Tolstoy seven years to write War and Peace, while it took Leslie over thirty years to write Choosing Life. Her book is similar to Tolstoy’s classic because it is about war and peace, nuclear war, that is. But also, rather than a top-down academic history, her book is a Studs Terkel style history of average people and how the bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki affected an individual, his family and the Japanese he photographed.
Leslie is a lawyer and judge so she was adept at writing that language called “legalese.” To write this book she needed to learn how to write regular English which emphasizes experiences, stories, ambiguities, unknowns, and emotions. She admirably succeeded as the book is full of emotion. I teared up a number of times reading some of the sad stories in the book. This is why the book is so good. There are many excellent descriptions of the atomic bombs and what they did to their victims, but for horror of nuclear weapons to be effectively realized, there also needs to be that gut emotional level of disgust. There is a lot of this in Choosing Life.
Like Tolstoy’s novel, this book is also many layered as real life always is. It included Leslie difficult childhood and rebellion, her attempts to understand her father, living in and adjusting to a foreign culture, the raising of her own child, Kendra, while in Japan, and lack of bitterness that the Japanese people had about WWII and the atomic bombing. While her father and later Leslie herself are almost unknown in the United States, they both have been treated as celebrities in Japan.
This book has come out at the right time. The world has just realized that all the atomic bombs in the world did not protect anyone from Covid-19 and that the resources spent on those bombs would be better spent on making the world a better, healthier place for everyone. Choosing Life provides that needed emotional context to the abolition of nuclear weapons.
A reviewer ends a positive review by encouraging people to read the book. I will do the opposite. You will be the looser if you don’t read the book.
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I am not providing a rating as I know the author, but I will say that I was very moved by this book, and that I found the subject matter compelling.
Aug 15, 2020Sander Feinberg rated it it was amazing
This is a remarkable book. The author manages to weave together stories of: a crucial and terrible moment in history - the bombing of Hiroshima-Nagasaki; the tragic stories of the victims and survivors; the lifelong quest of her father, the US Army filmmaker of the aftermath, to make sure the tragedy was not repeated; and her search for the truth behind the events.
Leslie Sussan succeeds in bringing the story to life in the connections between Herbert Sussan and his film subjects. Her journey of discovery about Herb and her meeting some of those he filmed in Japan make this more than a history book. The included photos bring to life the narrative.
The book inspired me to a recommitment to work for peace and tolerance for all humans. I learned a lot and was moved deeply. Read this! (less)
Leslie Sussan succeeds in bringing the story to life in the connections between Herbert Sussan and his film subjects. Her journey of discovery about Herb and her meeting some of those he filmed in Japan make this more than a history book. The included photos bring to life the narrative.
The book inspired me to a recommitment to work for peace and tolerance for all humans. I learned a lot and was moved deeply. Read this! (less)
Oct 11, 2020Susan Williams rated it really liked it
Am Important Work About the Human Cost of Dropping the Two Atom Bombs
I appreciate the author's work on many different levels...in her dedication and persistence to tell the story, in her struggles to come to know and become at peace with her father after his passing, her open mindedness to experience a new culture and doing so with her young mixed race daughter, her unflagging research efforts over many decades, her personal honesty even when it no doubt hurt, the value of reminding us all of the heavy personal toll of war and how important peace efforts are to prevent atomic warfare from happening in the future, and the story of her and her father's journeys in trying to bring the subject of her father's films to light. Well told, engagingly so. I am glad she has shared this with us!!! (less)
I appreciate the author's work on many different levels...in her dedication and persistence to tell the story, in her struggles to come to know and become at peace with her father after his passing, her open mindedness to experience a new culture and doing so with her young mixed race daughter, her unflagging research efforts over many decades, her personal honesty even when it no doubt hurt, the value of reminding us all of the heavy personal toll of war and how important peace efforts are to prevent atomic warfare from happening in the future, and the story of her and her father's journeys in trying to bring the subject of her father's films to light. Well told, engagingly so. I am glad she has shared this with us!!! (less)
Oct 13, 2020Russell rated it it was amazing
I feel compelled to write something about this book. I found it free in the Kindle store and thought it might be interesting, but it turned out to be much more.
This is a very personal account of the author's journey in coming to understand her father's journey as he lived as a US victim of the devestating nuclear bombing of Japan at the end of WW2.
We discover Herb's (Her Father's) journey as a cameraman tasked with filming the aftermath of the bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the deep scars that this task left him with through the rest of his life. We discover the author's journey as the daughter of a victim and the damage caused in her personal relationship with her father, and we discover some amazing Japanese survivors/victims of the bombings and hear their personal stories.
The book is a personal journey of discovery and growth of understanding of the ongoing consequences of the bombings. We hear the voices of many people through time since the bombings and experience a personal emotional impact.
The author doesn't dwell on the horrors of the bombings, but conveys her empathy for all parties involved in this tragic part of history, and holds hope for more people to become peacemakers in this damaged world.
I'm very pleased to have discovered this book and commend it to all.
(less)
This is a very personal account of the author's journey in coming to understand her father's journey as he lived as a US victim of the devestating nuclear bombing of Japan at the end of WW2.
We discover Herb's (Her Father's) journey as a cameraman tasked with filming the aftermath of the bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the deep scars that this task left him with through the rest of his life. We discover the author's journey as the daughter of a victim and the damage caused in her personal relationship with her father, and we discover some amazing Japanese survivors/victims of the bombings and hear their personal stories.
The book is a personal journey of discovery and growth of understanding of the ongoing consequences of the bombings. We hear the voices of many people through time since the bombings and experience a personal emotional impact.
The author doesn't dwell on the horrors of the bombings, but conveys her empathy for all parties involved in this tragic part of history, and holds hope for more people to become peacemakers in this damaged world.
I'm very pleased to have discovered this book and commend it to all.
(less)
Feb 06, 2021Sasha Vosk rated it really liked it
Set against a sweeping, background of insider information on pre-war, war-time and post WWII in Hollywood and Japan (mostly Hiroshima),a grownup daughter discovers an entirely different man in her long departed father. Full of gems, this book presents a multilayered narrative - enough for 3 different books! To me, the Japanese narrative after the signing of the peace treaty, was the most fascinating and shocking. Overall this book is a captivating mosaic of different experiences, places, cultures and personalities. I found it very enjoyable and learned quite a bit from it.
- Sasha Vosk, author of 400 Years of New York History: A Pictorial Guide (less)
- Sasha Vosk, author of 400 Years of New York History: A Pictorial Guide (less)
