In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Charlotte DeCroes Jacobs chats with Dr Gabriella Kelly-Davies about her choices while crafting 90 Seconds to Midnight: A Hiroshima Survivor’s Nuclear Odyssey.
Humanity and nuclear weapons cannot coexist.
S. Thurlow
University of Nebraska Press (Potomac Books)
Melbourne University Publishing
90 Seconds to Midnight
When critically acclaimed biographer Charlotte Jacobs first encountered a speech by Setsuko Nakamura Thurlow, she was struck by the quiet ferocity of a woman who had witnessed the worst of humanity and transformed it into a lifelong call for peace. Setsuko was just 13 when an atomic bomb obliterated Hiroshima in 1945. From the rubble, she emerged with a vow ‘Never again’, which would propel her into more than 70 years of activism to rid the world of nuclear weapons.
A Young Setsuko Thurlow
In 90 Seconds to Midnight: A Hiroshima Survivor’s Nuclear Odyssey, Jacobs transports readers from the inferno of Hiroshima to the halls of the United Nations, where Thurlow’s advocacy helped secure the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
How did Setsuko Not Yield To Despair
The biography’s title refers to the setting of the Doomsday Clock, a chilling symbol of humanity’s proximity to catastrophe. The Doomsday Clock stood at 90 seconds to midnight at the book’s end, though shortly afterwards, it dropped to 89 seconds.
The mushroom cloud above Hiroshima at 9.15am on 6 August 1945 after the atomic bomb exploded
Library of Congress
90 Seconds to Midnight took Charlotte Jacobs far beyond her earlier biographies of medical pioneers Jonas Salk and Henry Kaplan. She immersed herself in Japanese history and culture, the technical and political complexities of nuclear arms and the international disarmament movement. Setsuko Thurlow’s openness and remarkable memory enriched the book, while her insistence on modesty sometimes meant persuading her to allow praise to remain.
Setsuko (front, second from left) with her family in Hiroshima before the war.
Courtesy of the Thurlow family
Charlotte Jacobs employed the literary technique in medias res to begin the biography, plunging readers directly into the aftermath of the bombing. She wanted to draw readers into the scene from the first page, much as Thurlow’s speeches did from the first sentence. This opening sets the tone for a story in which immediacy and intimacy coexist with rigorous historical context.
Hiroshima after the atomic bomb exploded
Research took Jacobs to Hiroshima, where she retraced Thurlow’s escape route and stood in the very places described in her testimony. She drew on a broad array of sources: official records and websites, contemporary journalism, speeches and interviews with activists and diplomats.
Maintaining Objectivity in the Face of an Urgent Moral Message
One of the biography’s most powerful moments is Thurlow’s Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, in which she recalls her four-year-old nephew, transformed into ‘an unrecognisable melted chunk of flesh’. Her voice rises in righteous anger: ‘These weapons are not a necessary evil; they are the ultimate evil.’ Jacobs frames such scenes with a novelist’s attention to pacing and sensory detail, ensuring the reader not only hears Thurlow’s words but experiences their immense power.
Setsuko Thurlow Presenting Her Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech, on behalf of ICAN
Throughout 90 Seconds to Midnight, Jacobs balances public achievement with private resilience, weaving together the strands of Thurlow’s activism, professional life and personal relationships. She resists the temptation to glorify her subject, instead portraying her as a complex, determined, sometimes forceful woman whose unwavering focus stemmed from a singular moral clarity.
For Jacobs, sharing Thurlow’s story is both a personal and political act, a way to awaken readers to a danger too easily ignored. As Thurlow insists: ‘I’m not interested in your sympathy. I want your action.’ 90 Seconds to Midnight answers that demand with a biography that is as urgent as it is inspiring, reminding us that one voice, raised with conviction, can echo across decades and borders.
Praise for 90 Seconds to Midnight
Charlotte Jacobs has a most compelling story to tell, the biography of Setsuko Nakamura Thurlow, a survivor of Hiroshima. Only biography has the power to convey what happened at the dawn of the nuclear age.
Kai Bird, co-author of American Prometheus: The Triumph and
Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer
Setsuko Nakamura Thurlow’s life story captures the horror of nuclear weapons. That a survivor could transcend her experience into a lifetime of activism that has made the world safer is so inspiring. I’ve loved Jacobs’s previous biographical works; in 90 Seconds to Midnight her skill reaches new heights.
Abraham Verghese, author of The Covenant of Water
Setsuko Nakamura Thurlow’s story is inspiring, heroic, and profoundly important. This is a remarkable book about a truly remarkable woman.
Eric Schlosser, author of Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident and the Illusion of Safety
This eminently readable book is riveting, timely, and much needed. It offers a unique and deeply affecting first-person account of the unimaginable horrors of Hiroshima through the eyes of… Thurlow… She is a messenger we must hear, and we must heed.
Diana Chapman Walsh, author of The Claims of Life: A Memoir
Courage and humanity shine forth on every page.
Tilman Ruff, founding international and Australian chair, International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
One of the most important voices of our time. Setsuko’s extraordinary journey from the smouldering ruins of Hiroshima to the world stage must be read by all.
Tim Wright, treaty coordinator, International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
90 Seconds to Midnight Media and Podcasts
‘Remembering Hiroshima’
‘Eighty-nine seconds and counting…’
‘90 Seconds to Midnight’
Charlotte Decroes Jacobs is the author of three biographies and a script. 90 Seconds to Midnight is her third story of a passionate individual whose lifelong endeavours helped safeguard mankind.
Jonas Salk: A Life is the first full account of one of America’s most beloved and decorated scientific heroes. Salk’s polio vaccine all but eradicated a crippling disease, and the scientific community never forgave him. Released by Oxford University Press in 2015, Jacobs’ book reveals the complex man behind the controversial legend. It received widespread recognition, including being named a New York Times’s ‘Notable Book of the Year’ and a finalist for the ‘Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography’.
Henry Kaplan and the Story of Hodgkin’s Disease was published by Stanford General Press in 2010. Kaplan was an esteemed and controversial physician-scientist whose remarkable discoveries and vehement drive to cure cancer changed the course of cancer therapy. The Wall Street Journal ranked it one of the ‘Best Five Books’ on doctors’ lives.
Engaged in musical theatre for years, Jacobs co-wrote the script for Just My Type, with songs by Emmy winner Rita Abrams. A finalist for the 2018 Theatre Bay Area Award for Outstanding World Premiere Musical, Just My Type portrays how personality types, based on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator ®, affect one’s loves and lives.
Jacobs is the Ben and A. Jess Shenson Professor of Medicine (Emerita) at Stanford University where she engaged in cancer research, patient care and teaching. Mid-career, she began studying creative writing at Stanford. She has been awarded residencies at MacDowell Colony, Djerassi Resident Artists Program, Ragdale Foundation, and Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.