In The Ruins Of The Future Analysis

The two days in August 1945 should been engraved in the minds of every single American individual. The bombs that were dropped on the approximant 200,000 innocent Japanese citizens is indeed a war crime, and many people tend to overlook that fact. Nobody was even held accountable for the horrible bombings even though it’s clearly a crime against humanity. A survivor by the name of Akiko Takakura was only twenty years old when she experienced the horrific Hiroshima bombing in 1945. In an interview, she recounted what she saw that day saying, “Many people on the street were killed almost instantly. The fingertips of those dead bodies caught fire and the fire gradually spread over their entire bodies from their fingers. A light gray liquid dripped down their hands, scorching their fingers.

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“My clothes were burnt and so was my skin. I was in rags. I had braided my hair, but now it was like a lion’s mane. There were people, barely breathing, trying to push their intestines back in. People with their legs wrenched off. Without heads. Or with faces burned and swollen out of shape. The scene I saw was a living hell.” (Michiko 385). A civilian who was exposed to the atomic bomb, Yamamoka Michiko, reflects on the scene she so devastatingly was a part of the day the bomb was dropped. Her description of the cities ruins gives us an idea of just how brutal and horrific the nuclear weapon turned to be. Not only did the United States privately construct such a ruthless weapon, but also used the Atomic Bomb as an unfortunate way to instantaneously end WWII. The United States’ decision to bomb Japan was seen as directed against the Soviet Union because during this time, Stalin had moved troops to the far East in order to enter war with Japan to secure and strengthen a soviet strategic position for combat. The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is seen as an unnecessary war crime because allied nations were making moves to prepare to defeat Japan. Though nations such as the Soviet Union worked vigorously to defeat Japan, the United States wanted to end the war quickly while letting other nations know the they were in charge due to their possession of the world’s first nuclear weapon.

In John Hersey’s historical monograph, Hiroshima, Hersey tells the graphic and horrifying accounts of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima by the United States. In desperation for World War II to end, the United States began working on a plan to invade the Japanese islands. The United States spent three years developing the atomic bomb, a weapon that would have the power to completely obliterate a city. Hersey retells the atrocities of that day through the eyes of a few “lucky” survivors. Through his use of eyewitness accounts and meaningful characterizations, Hersey provides the reader with the sense of chaos and shock felt by the survivors of this great tragedy.

On August 6, 1945, Hiroshima was unfortunate to be the first city of an atomic attack by the United States. Thousands of people were not so lucky to survive and tell their story of the aftermath of the Hiroshima bombing. In the book Hiroshima, by John Hersey, he writes about the tragic experience of six lucky survivors, on the day of the bombing in Hiroshima. Hersey wrote Hiroshima to give an insight about the experience of pain, hopelessness, and difficult time for many people of what used to be a nice city.

After the bomb had been dropped on Hiroshima, Japan on August 6th, 1945 (Hersey 1), a very drastic and truly horrible change had engulfed the entire city. Many lives were lost, and most of those who lived had to endure pain and suffering, yet the city, and its people, stood its ground, and endured. The city had, all in all, survived and grown back even stronger. Towards the ends of the book, Hiroshima is said to be “…in its

“Hiroshima” was published in late 1946 and written by John Hersey. Hersey was employed by The New Yorker to Japan to explore the aftermath of the first atomic bombing done by the US. On August 6, 1945, the American bomber B-29 dropped the atomic bomb “Little Boy” over Hiroshima, Japan during WWII. He was able to examine nuclear warfare, the short-term and long-term effects, and the testing of humanity. Hersey’s intent in writing this book was to expose the lives of several survivors of the atomic bomb. Hersey interviews and relays the survivors’ story, exploring their lives before the bomb, the initial reaction, and their lives following the bomb. By examining their lives Hersey offers a different perspective to Americans of that fateful

The United States dropped the very first atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. This first bomb killed over 80,000 – 100,000 people and destroyed over five square miles of Hiroshima. However, that wasn’t all that the United States had in store for Japan; just three days later they dropped another atomic bomb in the city of Nagasaki and it killed 40,000 people. However, there were some people that survived the explosion but they would eventually die from their injuries and from radiation exposure. A Japanese Doctor named Michihiko Hachiya survived the Hiroshima bombing. He also kept a journal that documented his experiences after the bombing. In his journal Hachiya writes that “the right side of [his] body was bleeding…no one spoke…Hiroshima was no longer a city but a burned-down over

n August 6, 1945, America destroyed the city of Hiroshima with a massive bomb. The bomb kills nearly 100,000 people and injures 100,000 more. The book traces the lives of six survivors (Reverend Mr. Kiyoshi Tanimoto, Father Wilhelm Kleinsorge, Toshiko Sasak, Dr. Masakazu Fujii, Dr. Terufumi Sasaki, Mrs. Hatsuyo Nakamura, )from the when the bomb drops and then a few months after. In 1985, the Author added a fifth chapter, In it He revisits these six people’s lives forty years after the bomb. In conclusion Hersey finds that the effects of nuclear war never faded away. The citizens of Hiroshima still suffered years after, and nuclear war continues to threaten the entire world.

I found the information Hersey gathered from the interviews with the six survivors, which is a primary source, fairly adequate since the author actually spent three weeks in Japan to conduct these interviews. Having the victims’ words allowed Hersey to illustrate the historical event of the atomic bomb being dropped in the most vivid way as possible and narrating it from multiple perspectives because these words came from someone who actually witnessed and participated in the event. One of the six survivors that the author interviewed, the Reverend Mr. Kiyoshi Tanimoto, spent the rest of his life after the Second World War to fight against the usage of nuclear weapons. He went on extensive speaking tours in the United States to raise funds for his project of a Hiroshima peace center and for the Hiroshima Maidens, who were severely burned by the fires after the bomb and in need of plastic surgery. In 1955, the Reverend Mr. Kiyoshi Tanimoto appeared for an interview about the fateful event on a television program named “This is Your Life,” where he met Captain Robert Lewis, co-pilot of the Enola Gay on the Hiroshima mission. The annual award Kiyoshi Tanimoto Peace Prize, a prize awarded to individuals and groups that are trying to promote a peaceful world, is named after him. However, since this information came from the victims, its adequacy can also be questioned since the six survivors may have distorted their reports to enhance their own image or importance. In addition, it is also worth to mention the compelling statistics Hersey presented in the monograph that cited the number of doctors and nurses, who were either killed or injured by the bomb in Hiroshima.

Romantic revisionist histories surrounding the bombing of Hiroshima have become exceedingly commonplace in the story told about the War in the Pacific. Most of these idealized visions come from Americans who, in place of intense barbarism, want to infuse the event with a sort of heroism on their part. In their minds, they saved thousands upon thousands of lives, Japanese and American alike, with that bomb. The deaths brought on by both the blast and the fallout were the means to the end of stopping the war once and for all. Dr. Michihiko Hachiya complicates this warped view by providing an eyewitness account of the suffering caused by the A-Bomb in Hiroshima. His diary elaborates, in great detail, the human cost

The citizens of Hiroshima, Japan awoke on August 6, 1945 to a seemingly normal, bustling day within the city. However, sirens blasted throughout the streets at seven in the morning, provoking citizens to take shelter within their safe spots. The world was at war and the threat of the enemy could have closed in at any minute. A wave of relief washed over their souls when the all-clear signal rang over the intercoms. However, they knew little about what was in store for their futures. An hour and fifteen minutes later, a tremendous flash of lightning covered the city and instantaneously blinded people. The flame of light shone brighter than the sun, leaving the city covered in white ash with shadows of figures painting the grounds. The United States had just attacked the city of Hiroshima with the deadliest weapon known in warfare and one that had never been used in combat throughout all of history: the atomic bomb. The use of the atomic bomb not only changed warfare for the rest of time, but also changed the lives of both Japanese and American citizens for decades to come.

Through his book Hiroshima, author John Hersey tells the story of six people who survive the dropping of the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. He expresses the crippling amounts of pain and suffering that the victims must face as a result of the explosion. Using vivid imagery and descriptions, Hersey helps readers to understand how truly devastating the bomb’s effects are. Although it is full of devastation, Hiroshima also shares stories of recovery and healing.

To keep a lasting, permanent peace, I want to convey the heart of ‘Hiroshima’…” (Mapping the Modern Mind: Readings for World Cultures III 140). While her retelling is laden with hauntingly grotesque depictions of both the atrocities seen within the first few hours of the explosion and those seen decades later, her goal was balanced. Watanabe firmly states that her purpose it not to victimize herself or to spread hate toward the United States. In fact, her account does not place the blame on any particular country, nor does it limit the consequences of her suffering to the Japanese. Rather, Watanabe and many of the hibakusha like her, were concerned with warning against the evils of nuclear war for all of the world’s future generations.

In conclusion, “Hiroshima” uses good text and a good tone to get the attention of the readers so that the readers don’t lose focus or interest in the story. He says things that are interesting to start the essay off, and he keeps the story intense and sad, so that the readers get the feeling that he wants them to have. He gives very detailed stories about the