Page 54 - Australian Defence Magazine Feb-Mar 21

54 BOOKS OF INTEREST
FEBRUARY – MARCH 2021 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
COMPILED BY PETER MASTERS | BRISBANE
WWW.MILITARYBOOKSAUSTRALIA.WORDPRESS.COM
FALLOUT
THE HIROSHIMA COVER-UP AND THE REPORTER WHO REVEALED IT TO THE WORLD
By Lesley Blume
Published by Scribe
RRP $35.00 in paperback ISBN: 9781925713930
On 6 August 1945, the US dropped a nearly 10,000 pound atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 280,000 people. ‘It was a massacre of biblical proportions’, writes author
COURAGE UNDER FIRE
DANIEL KEIGHRAN VC
By Daniel Keighran with Tony Park Published by Macmillan
RRP $44.99 in hardcover
ISBN 9781760787653
On 24 August 2010, in a battle in Afghanistan, Corporal Daniel Keighran risked his life in a hail of gunfire to save his fellow soldiers. His actions saw him awarded the Victoria Cross
for Australia, making him the 99th Australian to receive our country’s highest award for bravery. He received the VC
Lesley Blume, who, 75 years on, has written this book to reveal the backstory of how journalist John Hersey managed to piece together the full horror story 12 months after the event. Until Hersey’s revelations to which the New Yorker devoted its entire issue on 31 August 1946, little was publicly known of the true extent of the devastation the bombs – a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki on
9 August 1945 – had caused. The fallout from the article was immediate. As Blume writes, the “US government – victor over fascism and tyranny - suddenly had a serious post- “Hiroshima” image problem.’ Official rebuttals were based on the idea of the bombs being ‘the least abhorrent choice’
to end the war and included unsubstantiated projections
of over a million casualties in American forces alone if the war persisted. An engrossing book.
for his actions in the battle of Derapet. In November 2012,
he was presented the VC by the then Governor-General of Australia, Dame Quentin Bryce. With Tony Park’s assistance, Keighran recounts his unlikely journey to become one of Australia’s most celebrated soldiers, beginning with his early, troubled family life to his decision to join the army and his subsequent deployments. His story is one of commitment to his comrades, commitment to the tasks assigned on his deployments and, ultimately, the story of his military life
and the reality of the war in Afghanistan from a ‘boots
on the ground’ perspective. Keighran discharged from the regular army in 2011 but there is no doubt his story will continue to inspire the next generation of recruits.
THE GOOD GERMANS: RESISTING THE NAZIS, 1933-1945
BY CATRINE CLAY
Published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson; Dist. by Hachette
RRP $32.99 in paperback
ISBN 9781474607889
Catrine Clay’s description of Hitler seizing power in Germany in 1933 has unsettling parallels with what we have seen from Trump-inspired mobs in the US recently: hysterical crowds and adoring followers endorsing
the claims of a leader bent on
TRAGEDY AT EVIAN
HOW THE WORLD ALLOWED HITLER TO PROCEED WITH THE HOLOCAUST By Tony Matthews
Published by Big Sky Publishing
RRP $34.99 in paperback ISBN 9781922387356
Author Tony Matthews pinpoints the conference in July 1938 at Évian-les-Bains, France as a ‘critical turning point in world history’. The failure of the conference, set against the backdrop of nations emerging from the Great Depression,
to agree on a plan to aid
supressing democracy. Yet two-thirds of Germans were never members of the Nazi Party. So how did Germans who were opposed to the Nazi Party protect themselves and their families? Through the stories
of six ordinary Germans, Clay sets out to shed light on the lives of people who lived in daily fear of being denounced. They feared losing their jobs or their homes. Worse still, they feared for their lives if they denounced Hitler and the Nazi Party or even engaged in mild criticism. Sometimes mere suspicion
was enough. In their daily lives, those who refused to embrace the Nazi ideals endured bullying and intimidation at every turn from those who had fully embraced Nazi propaganda.
It’s chilling to read how easily people turn on each other when evil prevails.
European Jews caught up
in Nazi atrocities resulted in
a disastrous outcome for a persecuted minority who faced entrenched anti-Semitism
at every turn. Australia, represented at the conference by Britain and by delegate Thomas White, later Australia’s High Commissioner to Britain, followed the line of US and British delegates who raised concerns of an influx of Jewish immigration arousing anti- Semitic feeling. In Australia’s case, the preference for British migrants remained entrenched. This timely book serves as an important reminder of what happens when world leaders fail to act. When self-interest and political cowardice triumphs over decency and respect
for human life. In the end, it
was individuals and private organisations who did the most to help a relatively small number of Jewish people escape the scourge of Nazi Germany.