Essay on Hiroshima, by John Hersey

On August 6th, 1945, the United States changed the image of war forever from what they had done to Japan. The day that Japanese troops attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii was the day that the United States had entered the war. Also, it was the beginning of a new war that had been named World War II, the war that had devastating effects on countries around the world. Along with many deaths, the author explains that there is four people who lived to tell the story and had lived throughout the drop of the bomb. The author says that the people that survived were extremely lucky to be able to live throughout such an event “A hundred thousand people were killed by the atomic bomb, and these [four] were among the survivors. They still wonder why they lived when so many others died.”

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.

     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

In the book Hiroshima the author not only exposes the physical impacts right after the bomb but also weeks and years after the nuclear attack. The effect of radiation caused by the atomic bomb on people for most lasted for the rest of there live and often was the cause of the death and for those who had children affected some of there children. One of the six people interviewed, Father Kleinsorge who had only suffered minor cuts when the bomb had been dropped, a month later they still hadn’t healed and was suffering from high fever and abdominal pain and low white cell count. But his character couldn’t receive the one thing which would have probably helped, a blood transfusion because with atomic bomb patients they weren’t sure that if you stick needles in them they’ll stop bleeding. By telling the reader about Father Kleinsorge Hersey shows the reader that the nuclear attack caused many people to suffer from radiation sick months after the actual bombing and the irony is that one of thing that could save them could also kill them. The author also tells us that by 1950 the incidence of leukemia in hibakusha (survivors of the atomic bomb) was between ten and fifteen time above the normal, this was five years after the bomb had hit Hiroshima. Hersey does this to show the reader that even for those that are lucky enough to escape death and the terrible burns from the bomb they still are affected physically by the effect of

“We have to protect our Earth, so our children and grandchildren will never suffer like that,’ she said. And she looked ahead. ‘Maybe nuclear weapons won’t be abolished while I’m alive,’ she said. ‘But I will never give up.” (Hanley, NBC News). August 6, 1945 at 8:16 in the morning, the United States dropped the world's first atomic bomb on thousands of unsuspecting people in Hiroshima, Japan. Not only did this catastrophic event kill thousands of civilians, but it also resulted in other nations obtaining and learning how to create these deadly weapons, weapons that we still have today. In the book Hiroshima by John Hersey he gives readers a new look at that day, through the eyes of six victims who survived the horrific attack on Hiroshima, he shows how the entire city of Hiroshima suffered, and were left alone to fend for themselves.The book Hiroshima by John Hersey, sheds light on the immense dangers of nuclear warfare, and the government's responsibility for its people, affected by a war they aren’t fighting in.

On August 6th 1945, the first atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Hiroshima by the American army. Author John Hersey document the lives of six survivors before, during, and after the detonation of the bomb. These six survivors were Mr. Kiyoshi Tanimoto, Mrs. Hatsune Nakamura, Dr. Masakazu Fujii, Dr. Terufumi Sasaki, Miss Toshiko Sasaki and Father Wilhelm Kleinsorge. Mr. Tanimoto, a

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 Hiroshima, John Hersey focuses on the survivors of the atomic bomb that is dropped on the city of Hiroshima at the end of World War II. Instead of focusing on one individual, Hersey decides to report on six that survive the blast. The survivors came from many different walks of life and were all affected by the coming of the nuclear age. Mrs. Hatsayo Nakamura was a widow raising three young children. Dr. Terufumi Sasaki was a young surgeon unhurt during the explosion, leaving him to care for thousands of Hiroshima’s wounded. Father Wilhelm Kleinsorge was a German priest that comforts many of the wounded and dying. Toshiko Sasaki was a young woman working in a factory to make ends meet for her family and her parents. Dr.

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.

Angelina Jolie said, “Without pain, there would be no suffering, without suffering we would never learn from our mistakes. To make it right, pain and suffering is the key to windows, without it, there is no way of life.” On August 6, 1945 the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, a small city whose death toll rises to 90,000-166,000. On August 9th, a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, 60,000–80,000 . In total, 15 million people lost their lives during the duration of the Second World War. In John Hersey's book, Hiroshima, he provides a detailed account of six people and how the bombing of Hiroshima affected their lives. John Heresy felt it was important to focus his story on six individuals to create a remembrance that war affects more

Hiroshima is an outstanding recreation of the complete annihilation and devastation of during the aftermath and the year following the United States’ dropping of the atomic bomb. As the war in the east carried on, many thought this desolated war might last a lifetime, all the while hoping for an end and praying it not mean their own end. To end the war, Americans had to pick a target that would leave the Japanese government with nowhere to retreat, allowing for a crippling effect that would essentially cause their collapse and surrender. In his writings, John Hersey proclaims that Hiroshima was a “… inviting target - mainly because it had been one of the most important military command and communications centres in Japan …” (HERSEY, P. 107). In the minds of American strategists, this must have seemed a flawless method to force the Japanese military into a corner, not allowing withdrawal without laying down of arms. There was surely no doubt that dropping this bomb of god-like destructive power would, at a minimum, tear into the souls of Japanese, causing catastrophic devastation.

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.

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

John Hersey, the author of the book “Hiroshima”, recounts the tragic events surrounding six survivors living in Hiroshima at a time the atomic bomb was being dropped. “The characters in his account are living individuals, not composite types. The story is their own story, told as far as possible in their own words” (Hersey VI). Part of Hersey’s goal was to emphasize how catastrophic events can foster a need for survival and bring communities together as they lean on each other for support. Although cultural behaviors differ around the globe, the basic needs in which to satisfy for survival are surprisingly similar. For this analysis, we will take a brief look at what is inherent in each of us, the need for survival.

On August 6, 1945, a B-29 bomber named Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb, "little boy" on Hiroshima, Japan. Hiroshima had been almost eradicated with an estimated 70-80,000 people killed. Three days later, a second, more powerful bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Nagasaki, killing over 100,000 people. Since Japan was economically and militarily devastated by the late summer of 1945, the use of the atomic bombs on an already overcome Japan was unnecessary and unwarranted in bringing about a conclusion to the war in the Pacific.