Ghosts of the Bomb: The Tragedy of the Hibakusha

The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were a turning point in WWII. They led to the surrender of the Japanese and the victory to the Allies. The day that the Japanese surrendered will forever be remembered. However, the destruction and casualties in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki cannot be forgotten. Hiroshima and Nagasaki experienced massive destruction, and it led to years of disease and misery for the Japanese people following the war. After WWII and the creation of the atomic bomb, the world lived in fear of a nuclear attack ("The Atomic Bombings"). George Orwell’s 1984 references to the atomic bomb and to the society and life after WWII. Nevertheless, one must fully know and understand the bombings and the destruction

Have you ever questioned why and how the US government decided to drop those two nuclear bombs in Japan in the World War II? It is still a universal concern while many disapproval have made toward its humanity. In a book that I’ve read recently, from the point of view of an eyewitness, Yamaoka Michiko, the author of story “Eight hundred meters from the Hypocenter”, shows how humanity was exchanged with the ambition of a nation by reviving a heartbroken experience when she witnessed her hometown was destroyed by such a terrific violence in the war.

The thundering sound of the bomb blast could be heard for miles. Men, women, and children run frantically in order to find shelter, being blinding by the massive amounts of dust that have caused the sky to turn yellow. Mothers are scavenging for their children, who were playing games outside, now stuck deep in the rubble of buildings that have collapsed on top of them. Houses have been destroyed, families have been obliterated and innocent lives have been lost. For many around the world, situations like these have become a part of everyday life. In A Pure, High Note of Anguish, author Barbara Kingsolver describes the confusion and questions that arose after the terrorist attacks in New York City on September 11th. 9/11 was the largest terrorist

In “A Perspective on the War Crimes,” Shigetoshi Iwamatsu argues that the tragedies at Hiroshima and Nagasaki were unparalleled war crimes and unnecessary acts of cruelty. He advocates the elimination of nuclear arms and opposes nuclear energy sources. The argument for defining the use of the atomic bombs as “without parallel in world history” is largely Iwamatsu’s belief that they were an unneeded extreme, likely motivated by racism.

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.

Mr. Tanimoto consciously repeated to himself “‘These are human beings’”(Hersey 1946), as he attempted to save paralyzed, dying men and women, in the book “Hiroshima” by John Hersey. This nonfiction book was published on August 31 1946, a year after the atomic bombing fell on Hiroshima, Japan. This publication was raw, uncensored, and truthful. John Hersey unapologetically revealed the gruesome damages done by the bombing, while also silencing those who believed that the atomic bomb was a justified attack. Hersey’s brilliant journalism and ability to write this story without bias, is why this book was selected. The author did not want those who died to be remembered as casualties, but as mothers, fathers and children. Hersey wrote this book about the the physical, and psychological impact this bomb had on both survivors and victims of the atomic bomb. There were many historical events that contributed to the cause and effect of the atomic attack; historical events such as industrialization, the trench wars, and militarism. This was not just a simple bomb, but a complex attack on humanity.

Before John Hersey’s novel, Hiroshima, Americans viewed Japanese as cruel and heartless people. This warped perspective caused the majority of American citizens to feel complacent about the use of the atomic bomb against civilians. Americans, in many ways, were blinded by their own ignorance to notice the severity of the destruction suffered by not only the city of Hiroshima but, more importantly, the people who lived there. The six testimonies in Hiroshima illustrate the strength and optimistic attitude of the Japanese people. In this essay, I will discuss the feelings towards the ethics surrounding the use of the atomic bomb, next I will look at two testimonies and how their lives

During the morning of 9/11, everyone thought it would just be a normal day, however, four airliners were hijacked and planes were under attack by terrorists. One plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania, another in Pentagon, and the last two planes hit the Twin Towers of New York City. In that moment more than two thousand lives were quickly taken, leaving families and friends devastated. This horrible incident touched so many lives around the world. New York times published the most popular article about 9/11. Serge Schumann the author of this well known piece, interrupted the tragic crisis through ethos, logos, and mainly pathos.

The crises to which this work responds was the total annihilation of Hiroshima and the aftershock experienced by those left

The most significant theme in John Hersey’s book “Hiroshima” are the long- term effects of war, confusion about what happened, long term mental and physical scars, short term mental and physical scars, and people being killed.

John Hersey’s Hiroshima takes place in Hiroshima Japan, surrounding areas included, from when the bomb went off on August 6th, 1945 to the middle of the 1880’s. This particular setting and time had a certain impact and influence on the way the people who survived this tragedy had dealt with it.

In the book Hiroshima the author illustrates this city’s most tragic point in history as well as its residence’s lives before, during, and after the horrific drop of the atomic bomb. The pain of over one hundred thousand lives were compressed and expressed through six different stories told by this reporter. The extreme range of direction their lives take can be seen by the contrasting examples between Miss Toshiko Sasaki and Dr. Masakazu Fuji. Toshiko Sasaki began as a clerk before the bombing happened; she was deeply into her family and even had a fiancé. On August 6th of 1945 the bomb

When the Atomic Bomb exploded over the city of Hiroshima, the people who experienced it were not expecting it to occur the way it did. We were given an insight of the lives of several characters on that fateful morning in August in 1945. Neighboring towns had all been bombarded by American B-29 raids, but so far Hiroshima had been spared and rumors spread that “something special” was in store for them. Every plane that flew overhead was a considered a threat and would set off the air raid warning, consequently that morning people even though the siren sounded earlier people were either going about their everyday routines or preparing for the worst. The people of Hiroshima were completely confused when the atomic bomb was dropped over their city because they were all expecting a warning of some kind, either from the U.S or the air-raid sirens but there was nothing heard before the bomb was dropped. Hersey describes it as a “noiseless flash,” which conjures the image of silence and a startlingly bright light as total buildings were decimated. With the dropping of the Atomic Bomb over Hiroshima, we ushered in a new age of

After the bomb was dropped many people had developed serious health issues, many not knowing they had any. Father Wilhelm Kleinsorge, a German priest, had to have repeated visits to the hospital, to be treated for medical symptoms commonly found in the A-bomb survivors. “Back in the hospital in Tokyo for the second time, Father Kleinsorge was suffering from fever, diarrhea, wounds that would not heal, wildly fluctuating blood counts, and utter exhaustion. For the rest of his life, he was to be a classic case history of… borderline form of A-bomb sickness… many of which turned up in hibakusha…” (Hersey, 110). A few years after the atom bomb was dropped many survivors, commonly called hibakusha, meaning explosion-affected persons, had to make many trips to the hospital because the United States dropped the atom bomb. Dr. Fujii, a physician who has a private hospital, planned to have a gathering on New Year’s Day with his family, but never showed up. “At half past eleven, Dr. Fujii had not appeared, and

From the Japanese standpoint, their destiny began with two planes (pika) and an extraordinary sound (don). This great massacre killed millions but for those who survived, it left a traumatizing memory.9 “The foremost characteristic of the physical damages caused by the Nagasaki atomic bombing was the tremendous, instantaneous destruction wreaked by the blast wind and the subsequent fires”.10 According to researchers, it is claimed to be that the Japanese suffer from historical amnesia. They find it ultimately impossible to confront their past that would in turn bring back their horrifying memories caused by the atomic bomb.11 The Japanese are trying to come to some kind of understanding as to why the Americans allowed this bombing to occur. Some think it is nothing less than a war crime. The truth of the matter is that the bomb