The Nuclear Family

Author Ari M. Beser knows that in war, there is no such thing as “the truth”—each side has a version of their own to which they cling. Yet with one grandfather bearing the distinction as the only man to fly on both planes that carried the atomic bombs, and another grandfather with close ties to a survivor of these bombings, Beser decided to see if he could find a version of the truth somewhere in the middle.

His investigation culminates in The Nuclear Family. Part personal memoir, part history text, it weaves multiple story lines into a rich, multifaceted look at the price we’ve paid—and will continue to pay—to live with nuclear technology.

Forty years after the war, one of Ari’s grandfathers went back to Japan to meet with survivors of the nuclear devastation. Ari’s own plans to meet with hibakusha, Japanese survivors affected by bombs and radiation, began to form during the aftermath of the tsunami that left Fukushima’s nuclear power plant in meltdown—exposing more Japanese to another sort of nuclear horror.

This is their story…and the story of many others affected by nuclear technology.