I went into this book knowing that I would find it interesting, but did not expect to love it as much as I did. Salverson has taken the topic of the ‘atomic highway’ and used it to write an intimate and moving memoir about guilt and innocence, trauma and recovery.
Julie Salverson has an interesting background in working with people who have suffered trauma. She is “drawn to tragedy and the fault lines in the psyche of a culture”, and she writes plays and operas about it. As a child, Julie Salverson had always had a fascination with (and a fear of) nuclear war. So when she found out that the uranium used in the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima came from a place in Canada called Great Bear Lake, and that representatives of the Dene Nation had recently made a trip to Hiroshima to apologize for their part in it (having only just had this information confirmed in the 1990s), she felt drawn to follow the story. As she journeys to each place on the ‘highway’, she seeks answers to questions, such as “What kind of responsibility are they taking, these Dene from northern Canada, who surely are victims in this situation and not perpetrators?” and “What kind of debt do any of us have to the past?”
The perception that restitution will never fully occur, most of all the interminable process of not being listened to, has had a devastating impact in Déline.
“We are suffering intense guilt and grief in our community that the materials we carried to the barges and to the aircraft went to make an atomic bomb that killed many tens of thousands of human beings in Japan. Our people feel that if they had been told what they were helping to do, they would not have done it.” — from the Canada-Déline Uranium Table Final Report (2005)
But she also asks some questions of her own, such as “I have been obsessed with nuclear war and atomic bombs all my life; maybe it’s time I ask why”.
As Salverson tells us about her travels and research, over the course of the ten years that she worked on this project, she also recounts her own life and the things she has experienced that have gotten her this far, as well as the things that have gotten her stuck. One of the reasons I love this memoir is her honesty about the personal journey this project has inspired her to take, and the bits of wisdom she has figured out along the way.
It isn’t only passing on a story that matters; I have to let the story change me.
As I make sense of my own life, I am better prepared to witness the lives of others.
Stories are power, and the choice of what is or is not shared is deliberate.
Family secrets hide within us, sometimes for generations…
The willingness to feel deeply comes with a price. Perhaps this is why we resist feeling at all.
I wanted to save the world but I failed to see its beauty. This strikes me now as odd. What was it I wanted to save?
Salverson takes us to all the stops on the “atomic highway” where we learn about the people she has met or heard stories about; The Dene who were unknowingly a part of the devastation in Japan, the atomic bomb scientists in Los Alamos and the pilot of the plane that dropped it, the residents of Port Hope who later discovered that “hundreds of buildings in town were constructed with contaminate material”, and the Japanese who were the victims of the bomb but also perpetrators of other means of violence during the war. All of these communities suffer from intergenerational trauma for being a part of the atomic bomb puzzle in some way.
As Salverson nears the end of her ‘atomic journey’ she becomes “determined to find what is life-giving in the stories and communities” she encounters. She wants to look “beyond the trauma” to the goodness and hope she has found at every turn of her journey. On her final trip to Déline in 2013, she is able to bring these stories of hope and life back with her to the place where it all started.
In the modern world, we find our way home through the work of mourning – we grieve, we face ghosts, we learn to surrender what is lost and embrace new life… The losses that mourning makes us work through are not only personal; they are tragedies that belong to our communities, our cultures. We are shaped by everything that touches us. Grief and joy bind us with the same thread. The act of mourning is a double act, intimate and public, private and political. The personal and political stories in this book are not parallel; they are inseparable.
Further Reading and Watching:
Village of Widows – Peter Blow’s 1999 Documentary
The Highway of the Atom by Peter van Wyck, who began this journey with Salverson before going their separate ways
The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II by Iris Chang
Radiance by Shaena Lambert – mentioned in the memoir as a novel Julie Salverson loved, about a survivor of the Hiroshima bombing
The Dark Weaver and Confessions of an Immigrant’s Daughter by Laura Salverson, who is Julie Salverson’s grandmother and the first woman to win the Governor General’s Award for both fiction (1937) and nonfiction 1939)
Julie Salverson’s publications and recognition
*Thank you to Wolsak & Wynn for providing me with a review copy of this book!
Consumed by Ink 
This sounds fascinating, Naomi. Hard to imagine how any of those who played a part in bringing about Hiroshima – how ever small – might feel but to suddenly be faced with that revelation so long after must have been deeply shocking. Have you read Kamila Shamsie’s Burnt Shadows? A fictional exploration of the far reaching effects of that day.
I haven’t read that one, but I just looked it up and it sounds good! Thanks for the suggestion!
Wow. What an interesting idea to follow and write about. It sounds like Salverson has actually done the work that most of us shy away from!
It seemed as though she was putting herself through the ringer at times during the whole process, but in the end I think she found it deeply rewarding.
(And nonfiction!) 🙂
Nonfiction indeed! I’m so impressed!
How interesting–I had no idea about the Canadian connection to the atomic bomb. It sounds like this book would be great for people teaching trauma theory.
I didn’t either! And I don’t think many people knew until the 1990s.
The book was even better than I thought it would be!
Yeah my husband & I talked to Salverson & picked up her book in Oct. at the book festival. I do plan to read it. Thx for the review & the additional links as well. She seems to be continuing her journey as she was interested in more information that my husband knew about it.
That’s cool that you got to speak with her. She seems like she would be an interesting person to get to know. I hope you end up enjoying it as much as I did!
Intergenerational trauma is such a fascinating subject! I find that last quote about how grief and joy are tied together very powerful, too. And of course now I want to know what Salverson has to say about her meeting with Iris Chang, one of my favorite writers.
After re-reading the section about Iris Chang, it says that Salverson *read* about her life and her work – and she took this information to Japan with her, where she spoke with others about it. Her visit to Japan is one of the most interesting parts of the book!
what an unusual idea. seems she was on a personal journey of discovery as much as the journey of the atomic journey
I think she was – although I didn’t realize that until reading the book!
That’ a subject I didn’t know anything about. Sounds interesting.
I didn’t know much about it either, and didn’t even know how interested I would be, but it turned out great!
Wow: I’m so keen to read this. Thanks, Naomi! There is mention, too, of the Canadian connection in Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer’s All the Broken Things (but not, IIRC, the connection to indigenous land and peoples). Radiance is beautifully done. And Dennis Bock’s The Ash Garden might fit with your list too. Now it seems like a good time for Susan Perly’s Death Valley too (but no overt Canadian link there – just subject matter). And, oh, Nancy Lee’s The Age (for tone and overarching concerns, not details). Going to stop now… *scurries away*
Haha! The list goes on… Maybe a natural extension of my Halifax Explosion project?
I did think of The Age when I read of her childhood obsession. And All the Broken Things has been on my list a while – I don’t even remember why at this point, so good to know! And I just might make it to Death Valley eventually after all!
I would also recommend Hiroshima by James Hershey. It’s taken from his New Yorker articles. He spent a great deal of time in Hiroshima in late 1945 and early 1946, talking with the survivors. It should be on every high school student’s reading list.
Also Richard Rhodes’ two books, The Making of the Atomic Bomb and Dark Star: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb are great reads as well.
They were sources for the nonfiction blog post I did called “The Thing They Carried”.
All this has made me realize how stupid we are to believe that nuclear weapons can make us safer.
Great recommendations, Don – Thanks!
This book poses many interesting and complicated questions! “What kind of debt do any of us have to the past.” That’s a tough one.
What a journey this must have been for her. Glad she got a chance to write about her experiences and what she learned. This review alone taught me a few things I didn’t know, so I can only imagine the wealth of knowledge to be found within the book itself.
I’m glad you got something out of the review. I love it when I can learn new things just by reading book reviews!
Had no idea about this book or the history behind it. As a former student of WWII Canadian history, I find this fascinating. I am definitely going to pick this one up.
Great review.
As a former student of WWII Canadian history?! Wow! I’d love to hear your thoughts on this one!
I did my MA in Canadian WWII social history – and never read a word of these events! Apparently my education is somewhat lacking… 😦 I’ve ordered the book, can’t wait to read it.
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!