A Doctor's Sword : How an Irish Doctor Survived War, Captivity and the Atomic Bomb

"There followed a blue flash accompanied by a ver y bright magnesium-type flare … Then came a frighteningly loud but rather flat explosion, which was followed by a blast of hot air … All this was followed by eerie silence."

This was doctor Aidan MacCarthy's description of the atomic bomb explosion above Nagasaki in August 1945, just over a mile from where he was trembling in a makeshift bomb shelter in the Mitsubishi POW camp.

This is the story of the incredible life of Dr. Aidan MacCarthy (1913-95) the only person to have survived the two events that mark the beginning and end of the Second World War. He was evacuated from the beaches of Dunkirk after three days of relentless attacks in May 1940, and he was trembling in a makeshift bomb shelter in the center of Nagasaki when the atomic bomb destroyed the city in August 1945. In the intervening years, he survived burning planes, sinking ships, jungle warfare, starvation, disease, captivity, and slave labor. In the devastation of the atomic bomb, he was the first non-Japanese doctor to assist civilians. The book also follows the search by MacCarthy's daughter to find the family of the Japanese officer who surrendered his samurai sword to him, a treasured relic she owns to this day. It is a story of survival, forgiveness, and humanity at its most admirable.