Mesmerizing Alison Fell's 'Little Boy'

On the 6th of August 1945 an American B-29 Bomber plane launched a dangerous atomic bomb called “Little Boy”, in the centre of the city of Hiroshima. The Bombs left 140,000 people dead and another ten thousand died later from the toxic radiation exposure.

In the essay “The Scar,” the author Kildare Dobbs reports the parallel stories of Emiko; a young Japanese girl and Captain Robert Lewis; a U.S. army Captain harrowing events of Aug 6/1945 in Hiroshima, a day that forever changed their lives. Emiko, a 15 year old “fragile and vivacious” Japanese girl lived an hour’s train ride away from Hiroshima, in a town called Otake with her parents, her two sisters and brother. At that time, her youngest sister was extremely sick with heart troubles, her 13 year old brother was with the Imperial Army and her father was an antique dealer. Emiko and her 13 year old sister Hideko traveled by train daily to Hiroshima to their women’s college. Captain Robert Lewis was the co-pilot of the Enola Gay, a U.S.

John Hersey’s Hiroshima is written in logical and chronological order. It begins in the past, and then it smoothly moves farther in time and ends with statements and questions that are inspiring to further thought. Hersey arranged the sequence throughout forty years after the explosion, so that the reader can follow the characters’ lives as well as their history and surroundings. The title itself announces the subject and prepares the reader for the approach to take. It refers to the whole concept of the book, it tells the reader that it revolves around the city where the first atomic bomb was dropped. The book content is five chapters, however, the first edition originally appeared with four.

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.

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

It is important that we read stories like Hiroshima because it gives the reader a detailed explanation from first-hand survivors what happened during the Hiroshima attack. Although this book is a secondary source it is filled with valuable heart and mind changing primary sources and information. The book shows the hardships, pain, suffering innocent women, men and children went through. What decision one made and was untouched how one slight movement, staying in bed, and hiding in a different place could have saved your life. Reading historical books in all gives you more knowledge on what happened in history from all around the world. Hiroshima states the events that happened before during and after the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

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

The book Hiroshima by John Hersey is, to me, one of the most captivating literary works to date. This nonfictional book centers around the lives of six survivors— two women, two doctors, a Reverend, and a Father— of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan. Throughout the book, the author traces their lives before, during, and after the massive bombing that killed nearly three-fourths of Hiroshima’s entire population. The book’s setting, Hiroshima bombing in 1945, is a significant element in the story as it shapes the tone, mood, and vividness of the book, altogether making it a fascinating story.

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.

The dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of 1945 had caused substantial damage and countless of lives lost. People had continued to suffer, whether if it was from radiation injuries or rebuilding their lives, even years after the tragic events. In Kenzaburo Oe’s anthology The Crazy Iris and Other Stories of the Atomic Aftermath, is comprised of short stories written by people who experienced and witnessed the events. They retell of their actual experience or re-create the emotions and events of the unforgettable day. In the story “Fireflies” written by Yoko Ota, she illuminates the lives of the people in Hiroshima seven years after the exploding of the atomic bombs. She tells of the struggles her family is facing, as well as many others, and looks how the horrific injuries caused by the radiation affected the lives of A-bomb survivors. Through the use of imagery, simile, and personification, Ota depicts people trying to rebuild their lives, the lasting memory of the event, and long lasting effects of the bomb.

By using the stories of the survivors, it allows readers to gain insight into the destruction of the once thriving Hiroshima. Hersey’s purpose in publishing the stories of these six people is to convey the tremendous courage and strength of the survivors, as well as to use the book to inform Americans of the complete annihilation of Hiroshima.

Within minutes, the entire city of Hiroshima is completely obliterated just because of a single bomb on the 6th of August, 1945. “Hiroshima does not look like a bombed city. It looks as if a monster steamroller had passed over it and squashed it out of existence” said Australian journalist, Wilfred Burchett. That alone is devastating enough but this bombing affected more than just that particular city-- it shook the entire globe. This bomb is the most influential bombing in history because of just the fact alone that it had the ability to make individual people “vanish” into thin air, it was the first shot in the Cold War and it changed an entire country’s society.

“Hiroshima”, written by author John Hersey is based on the real life events that occurred on August 6, 1945, in Hiroshima, Japan. During these final stages of World War II, the U.S. dropped the first atomic bombs on the cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Hersey captures the experience of six survivors, and the events of that day. Nearly four decades later he travels back to the city in search of the survivors and tells of their present lives, post-war. The purpose of the novel was to connect others with their humanity and to recognize the devastation faced by ordinary people.

Fell uses allusion and simile to make people and objects represent a bigger picture or a larger population. For example in the 4th stanza the author alludes to the greater population of

Those who experienced the effects of the nuclear explosions in Japan recall horrifying memories related to the event: “Everybody who got burned, burned all over the outside of their bodies. Small maggots, white maggots, were all over them. It wasn’t a pleasant sight” (Irby, 2014). Rebecca could remember and tell the interviewers about one of the disturbing effects the bomb had on people, nearly seventy years after the event. Survivors mourn the deaths of loved ones. The only thing Irby’s son knew was that his mother’s beloved father passed away due to the bomb. He never knew the details of his death, because she rarely talked about it (Irby, 2014). Rebecca demonstrated that she mourned the death of her father, and discussing the details of the subject was uncomfortable for her to talk about, decades after the event had occurred. Therefore, the sheer power of a nuclear bomb is capable of permanently altering the lives of those who were affected by the blast.