Compassion In The Novel Hiroshima By John Hersey

     The book, Hiroshima, is the story of six individuals who experienced the true effects of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, August 6, 1945. Miss Toshinki Sasaki, a clerk in the East Asia Tin Works factory, just sat down in the plant office and was turning to converse with the girl at the next desk when the bomb exploded. Dr. Masakazu Fujii, a physician, was relaxing on his porch, which overlooked the Kyo River, where he was reading the morning periodical when the shell detonated. Before the eruption, Mrs. Hatsuyo Nakamura was observing her neighbor destruct his house as part of a fire lane in preparation of an American attack. Previous to the attack, Father

While looking for a boat to carry the severely injured across the river, Mr Tanimoto “… Found a good-sized pleasure punt drawn up on the bank… five dead men, nearly naked, badly burned…” (Hersey, 37) near it, he “… lifted the men away from the boat… he experienced such horror at disturbing the dead…” (Hersey, 37). On August 6, 1945 the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to end the war between them. Hiroshima, by John Hersey is a book about six survivors of the first atomic bomb ever dropped on a city. The six survivors tell their stories of where they were before the bomb was dropped, what they did after the bomb was dropped, and what their life was like years after the bomb. The book also

Of those in the book distraught by the massive explosion, the Reverend Kiyoshi Tanimoto seemed to be the one person most effected mentally and emotionally by the horrific sights and sounds of the turmoil. Mr. Tanimoto seemed, to himself, to be the one person not physically harmed by the blast, causing a great deal remorse, self-loathing, and shame for having been unharmed. During the aftermath of

Human life is precious in the sense that it is all about survival. There are qualities found in humans that make survival possible. In the book Hiroshima, by John Hersey, readers experience the core of humanity found in the six survivors during the days, months, and years following the atomic bomb. Through inspiration, perseverance, and a sense of community, the Japanese people demonstrated the strength of the human spirit.

History has shown how Japanese people are stoic people. During the time of terror and grief they showed no emotions but put one foot forward and continue to strive to build their communities. The six characters each experience the bombing but feel as if it only happened to them at first.

The non-fiction book Hiroshima by John Hersey is an engaging text with a powerful message in it. The book is a biographical text about lives of six people Miss Sasaki, Dr. Fujii, Mrs. Nakamura, Father Kleinsorge, Dr. Sasaki and Rev. Tanimoto in Hiroshima, Japan and how their lives completely changed at 8:15 on the 6th of August 1945 by the dropping of the first atomic bomb. The author, John Hersey, through his use of descriptive language the in book Hiroshima exposes the many horrors of a nuclear attack.

In John Hersey's Hiroshima, he based his book upon the one perspective that, the bombing of Hiroshima was an act of inhumanity. What Hersey failed to do was to give the perspective of the Americans. Hersey did not account for the Pearl Harbor bombing of 1941 or the death march in the Japanese Bataan Camps in 1942. Without giving both perspectives, Hersey does not give the reader a fair chance to form their own opinion; instead, the reader is swayed into Hersey's bias beliefs of the event.

People can learn from their past by looking at the community around them and using the talents for their own personal greed.

During the bombing of Hiroshima, casualty rates among medical personnel were in the range between 80 to 93 percent. Injuries resulting from the bombing often went untreated, and the survivors did not receive health care for some time. The book Hiroshima discusses this issue in great length, specifically why they were not given the necessary aid. The government of Hiroshima played a major role in this.

Toshiko Saeki who, at the time of the bombing, was with her children at her

Miss Toshiko Sasaki turned her head to speak to a girl beside her desk. Frightened and fearful, she stayed fixed in position, until she lost consciousness when everything collapsed. (p.16) Walls and ceilings toppled over her and the bookcase pounced on her, leaving her with a “horribly twisted” left leg. Simultaneously, Dr. Masakazu Fujii sat down to read on his porch of the hospital. As he was reading the Osaka Asahi , he detected a “brilliant yellow flash” as his hospital collapsed into the river.

What if I told you truma could be inherited; meaning you were not the one who initially experienced the traumatic event, however, you still suffer great stress from it. Sarah Stillman in “Hiroshima and the Inheritance of Trauma” suggests that trauma may be a ‘contagious disease’ that can spread amongst both families as well as generations. She uses an example of a woman named Tomiko Shoji who was only nineteen when she survived the bombing of Hiroshima. Shoji suffered post traumatic stress disorder as well has radiation poisoning, which consisted of her losing her hearing, sight, and teeth in her forties. She also had psychological symptoms which consisted of losing control during thunder storms and collapsing with fear when she tried to speak of the event. Some of these were inherited by her granddaughter Keni Sabath who first became aware of her grandmother’s experience in a disturbing way at the young age of six. According to an article in Scientific American by Tori Rodriguez, there is a study being done that researches mass trauma survivors and their offspring. The study looks at holocaust survivors and their descendents as well as their levels of cortisol, a hormone that helps the body return to normal after trauma. Sabath was affected by the trauma because she has close contact with Shoji who experienced the trauma. This goes to show that trauma after all may be a ‘contagious disease’, one that haunts not only the traumatized individual but those they are close to.

he dual bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki forced Japan to surrender to the Allies on August 15, 1945, unwillingly. After the war, Japan would undergo a democratic transformation under Allied Occupation led by the United States. One of the key characteristics of the Occupation was the censorship of Japanese and American media specifically in regards to the nuclear bombings and prohibited criticism of the United States. The U.S. military suppressed American and Japanese reporting on the aftermath of the bomb immediately after the war, which influenced America’s attitudes toward the “hibakusha.” In Japan, "hibakusha" means "the people affected by the explosion." As a result, the American public was unaware that the nuclear bombs altered the

Although WW II ended over 50 years ago there is still much discussion as to the events which ended the War in the Pacific. The primary event which historians attribute to this end are the use of atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Although the bombing of these cities did force the Japanese to surrender, many people today ask "Was the use of the atomic bomb necessary to end the war?" and more importantly "Why was the decision to use the bomb made?" Ronald Takaki examines these questions in his book Hiroshima.

In August of 1945, both of the only two nuclear bombs ever used in warfare were dropped on the Japanese cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. These two bombs shaped much of the world today.