Books that help explore this Peace Museum display can be found across the Collection, but in particular you might like to read:
Nagasaki: Voices of the A-Bomb Survivors. The Nagasaki Testimonial Society Century (2009)
A collection of testimonials by people who lived through the atomic bombing of Nagasaki on 9th August 1945, three days after the bombing of Hiroshima. The experiences recorded are not just those of Japanese people, but also of Korean and Dutch prisoners who were in Nagasaki when the bomb fell.
Library classification: Xj NAG (Hiroshima & Nagasaki) – check it’s available here.
The Great Partition: The Making of India and Pakistan by Yasmin Khan (2008)
In this book Yasmin Khan examines the context, execution, and aftermath of Partition, weaving together local politics and ordinary lives with the larger political forces at play. She exposes the widespread obliviousness to what Partition would entail in practice and how it would affect the populace.
Drawing together fresh information from an array of sources, Khan underscores the catastrophic human cost and shows why the repercussions of Partition resound even now, some sixty years later. The book is an intelligent and timely analysis of Partition, the haste and recklessness with which it was completed, and the damaging legacy left in its wake.
Library classification: Tb KHA (British Imperialism) – check it’s available here.
Forced Out: The Agony of the Refugee in Our Time. By Carole Kismaric and William Shawcross (1989)
A powerful weaving of words and photographs, Forced Out provides a vivid understanding of the experience of refugees.
Library classification: Cz FOR (Refugees & Asylum Seekers) – check it’s available here.
Mending Hurts by John Lampen (1987)
The Swarthmore Lecture 1987 is based on John’s experiences of helping those carrying feelings of pain and anger.
Wonderfully rich in description and references, it speaks of hope, healing, forgiveness and love in action.
Library classification: Jn LAM (Conflict Resolution) – check it’s available here.
Visions of War, Dreams of Peace: Writings of Women in the Vietnam War (1991). Edited by Lynda Van Devanter.
A book of poetry by the women impacted by the Vietnam War. Their poems paint a palpable portrait of ordinary women facing extraordinary catastrophe; of valour and anguish, of sacrifice and loss, of compassion and grief.They speak eloquently of survival, of recollection, of wounded hearts and unfailing hope.
Library classification: Ca DEV (Poetry) – check it’s available here.
Download this reading list here.
The Commonweal Collection is an independent specialist library based at the University of Bradford concerned with issues relating to nonviolent movements for social change. It contains over 14,000 books, pamphlets and journals on social change and activism, peace and disarmament, climate crisis & the green movement, nonviolent philosophy and practice, human rights, anti-racism and identity. Read more about the history of the Commonweal Collection here.
The Civil Resistance Info website also provides a guide to the range of literature and resources available, and enables users to look in more depth at particular movements, key figures and organisations in the practice of nonviolent action, as well as the theory of civil resistance and important debates about nonviolence.