Robert Guillain was a French

French people

The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...

 journalist

Journalist

A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...

 and author of several books on Japan.
He was assigned by Agence Havas (current Agence France-Presse

Agence France-Presse

Agence France-Presse is a French news agency, the oldest one in the world, and one of the three largest with Associated Press and Reuters. It is also the largest French news agency. Currently, its CEO is Emmanuel Hoog and its news director Philippe Massonnet...

) to Japan in 1938, and, following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, could not return to France until 1946.
Guillain witnessed the atom bomb explosion at Hiroshima

Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

During the final stages of World War II in 1945, the United States conducted two atomic bombings against the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, the first on August 6, 1945, and the second on August 9, 1945. These two events are the only use of nuclear weapons in war to date.For six months...

. As recounted in his book I Saw Tokyo Burning: An Eyewitness Narrative from Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima, he was reporting from Tokyo

Tokyo

, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

 during the Pacific War

Pacific War

The Pacific War, also sometimes called the Asia-Pacific War refers broadly to the parts of World War II that took place in the Pacific Ocean, its islands, and in East Asia, then called the Far East...

 and saw firsthand the effects of the Gyokuon-hōsō

Gyokuon-hoso

The , lit. "Jewel Voice Broadcast", was the radio broadcast in which Japanese emperor Hirohito read out the , announcing to the Japanese people that the Japanese Government had accepted the Potsdam Declaration demanding the unconditional surrender of the Japanese military at the end of World War II...

, in which the Japanese emperor Hirohito

Hirohito

, posthumously in Japan officially called Emperor Shōwa or , was the 124th Emperor of Japan according to the traditional order, reigning from December 25, 1926, until his death in 1989. Although better known outside of Japan by his personal name Hirohito, in Japan he is now referred to...

 announced the surrender of Japan

Surrender of Japan

The surrender of Japan in 1945 brought hostilities of World War II to a close. By the end of July 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy was incapable of conducting operations and an Allied invasion of Japan was imminent...

.

Works

• I Saw Tokyo Burning: An Eyewitness Narrative from Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima, Jove Publications, 1982
• Résumé d'expérience Aventure Japon, Arlea, réédition 2003, ISBN 2-86959-617-0
• Six cent millions de Chinois, Julliard, 1956
• Dans trente ans la Chine, Seuil, 1965
• Japon, troisième grand, Seuil, 1969
• La Guerre au Japon, Stock, 1979
• L’espion qui sauva Moscou, Seuil, 1981
• Les Geishas, Arléa, 1988
• Autobiographie Orient extrême, une vie en Asie, Le Seuil, 1989, ISBN 2-02-010528-4

External links

Le blog de Association Robert Guillain Loi 1901