Beyond the Mushroom Cloud - (Bordering Religions: Concepts, Conflicts, and Conversations) by Yuki Miyamoto (Paperback)

This book offers a unique perspective on the atomic bombings of Japan in 1945, focusing on the ethics and religious sensibilities of the survivors (hibakusha).

The author explores how these survivors have developed an ethic of "not retaliation, but reconciliation" and how their philosophy can offer resources to reconcile contested issues of public memories in our contemporary world.

Through a thoughtful and scholarly examination of testimonies, public speeches, and films, the author provides a step towards reconciliation and challenges the foundation of ethics by obscuring the dichotomies of right and wrong, forgiver and forgiven, victim and victimizer.

This book is an extremely important exploration of modern Japan and the role of postwar Japanese thought and religiosity seen in a global setting.

It promises to generate substantive conversations about how to formulate genuinely self-critical ethical dispositions that remember Japan's horrific past as a means of moving beyond conflicts in the present, and its expansive reach across regional and disciplinary boundaries serves as a model for imaginative research.