New WWII book has local tie

More books have been written about World War II than perhaps any event in history. I thought you might like to know that one of the newest additions to the WWII library has a distinct local connection.

Macon native Anthony Weller has a new book called “First Into Nagasaki.’’ It is actually the work of his father, the late George Weller, a legendary Pulitzer-Prize winning reporter who was the first American journalist to go into Nagasaki after the atomic bomb was dropped in August 1945.

My friend, Betty Sweet Simmons, has been telling me about this book since December. I finally have my own copy. She is friends with Anthony Weller, who edited the book and wrote an essay in it. The foreword is by Walter Cronkite.

At the end of the war, Gen. Douglas McArthur imposed a media “blackout” in the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

But George Weller defied the blackout and snuck into the country, posing as a U.S. colonel to the Japanese military. His eyewitness, which were censored, are the basis for this book. Weller died in 2002 at age 95. His son discovered his father’s unpublished account and made it happen.

Anthony Weller was born in Macon on Sept. 18, 1957. His mother was Gladys Lasky, a well-known ballet instructor who was the founder of the Nutcracker in Macon.

Weller attended Stratford Academy in Macon but graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire in 1975. He attended Yale, graduating in 1980 with a degree in music. He is the author of three novels and is a noted jazz and classical guitarist. You can learn more about him at his website.