Hiroshima

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Summary: Hiroshima: The Civilian Testing Grounds
Review: Hiroshima is a book with six accounts of survivors of the Hiroshima bombing. The City of Hiroshima, Japan was bombed in World War II by the Americans. The bomb dropped, dropped on August 6, 1945, was one never seen before. It was called an atomic bomb. Besides the obvious damage of the bombings of war, it left long lasting effects like radiation, disease and other direct problems like horrible burns, which turned into Keloids, which are tough, pink pieces of skin on many of the area's residents.

The perspective of this book makes the Americans the evil antagonists because they made so many people suffer for so long. The Americans had almost no feedback as far as suffering goes after they dropped this bomb. The Japanese are shown as the protagonists. It makes it look like they didn't do anything and the Americans were just bombing them, then for no reason they were forced to suffer even until today. I feel before the accounts start to be told, the author, John Hersey, should have given some background on the reasons for the bombings and World War 2.

The six accounts in this book are of two doctors, Dr. Fujii and Dr. Sasaki, two religious leaders, Father Kliensorge and Reverend Tanimoto, and two women. The first woman is a personnel clerk in the East Asia tin works named Miss Toshinki Sasaki and the second, a widow named Mrs. Nakamura. The majority of the story takes place in Hiroshima but there is quite a lot of reference to Tokyo and the United States.

This book goes very in depth with what the people were doing before, during and after the bomb was dropped. You really learn a lot about the character personalities through how they handled the problems after the explosion. I also learned a lot about Japanese culture through reading this book. Hiroshima shows how every aspect of life is affected when something like this happens. Almost every single building was knocked down or damaged beyond repair. Every single person in this book has to overcome many changes. The way these people handle the changes is what the book is mostly about.

Towards the close of the book, the most important thing is relationships. This book is amazing because it recounts things that actually happened. People had to overcome the problems and restart their entire lives including a home, a job, a family and friends along with dealing with their state of grief and loss of family. The most amazing thing I read was when Mr. Tanimoto offered forgiveness and asked the same god to bless every member while taking part in the United States Senate.

The only thing I didn't really like about this book is the way it was put together. It was a little hard to understand because what happened to all the people were put in sections. The book is set up with what all six people were doing before the bomb. The it is what all six people did immediately after the bomb and then what all six people did for the rest of their lives. It would have been much easier to read and understand if it was set up with the entire account of the first person from before the bomb until death. Then it would go to the entire account of the next person from before the bomb until death and so on, perhaps like separate short stories.

This book reminds me a lot of a book titled Hatchet written by Gary Paulsen. It is about survival in the wilderness instead of society like in Hiroshima. What happens is the character in Hatchet is in a plane crash, which is an accident and he is forced to survive in whatever way possible. This is similar to Hiroshima because there is an incident, which is the bomb, and then every survivor is forced to survive any way possible. Then, finally in Hatchet there is a plane that flies overhead and rescues him just like society raised money in Hiroshima and rescued the economy and the survivors.

Rating:
Summary: Hiroshima
Review: John Hersey¡¦s ¡§Hiroshima¡¨ is a tale of survival for the book depicts how and what the witnesses and survivors of the atomic bomb overcame. An outsider might consider someone who had escaped the life-threatening situation of the bombing lucky, but each survivor had to endure the aftermath. The effects, ranging from the guilt of living, lost of friends or family members, physical disabilities caused by the bombing, made the lives of survivors extremely difficult. Throughout the narratives of six different characters, they each went through diverse ways of surviving the bomb and many other side effects both physically and emotionally.

The atomic bombing of Hiroshima was an unexpected event for the residents of the city. Surviving the initial blast proved to be only the first step in the emerging nuclear age. When the bomb struck, in knee-jerking reactions each victim reacted differently towards ¡§the tremendous flash of light that cut across the sky.¡¨ (p.5) Other than the nimbleness of the Hiroshima citizens, their escapes from death were a matter of luck. Some of the survivors were shielded by barriers and some by simply turning away. For example, Mr. Tanimoto, the pastor of the Hiroshima Methodist Church, ¡§threw himself between two big rocks in the garden¡¨ (p.5) in order to avoid the flash. As for Mr. Sasaki, a surgeon working at the Red Cross Hospital, ¡§he was one step beyond an open window when the light of the bomb was reflected¡¨ (p.14). He ducked in order to avoid the ¡§gigantic photographic flash.¡¨ (p.14) During this flash of light, thousands of people perished, yet Hersey¡¦s focus follows the trail of those who were spared.

After the bombing, the survivors not only have to face injuries and emotional pain, but also faced the challenge of rebuilding their lives. Hiroshima was left without the necessary requirements of life such as water and food. These needs were met by in the short-term by the outside aid agencies, but the long-term challenge of recreating a life was left to the determination of the hibakushas. Life was easier for the survivors twelve years later when the Hibakusha Medical Law was put into effect. The law provided a wider range for assisting the health, medical treatment and the welfare of the survivors. Yet, in each case, the six survivors have somehow constructed a meaningful life.

In the medium and long-term aftermath of the bombing, the struggle for survival continued. Researchers noticed unusual diseases and symptoms appearing in the hibakushas. Survivors were developing ¡§A-bomb cataracts¡¨ p.104, including stunted growth of children and mutated babies with heads smaller than normal. It was found that some of the pregnant women exposed to radiation had given birth to children with severe mental retardation. This condition is known as, microcephaly. These problems exacerbated the suffering of the survivors, especially given the traditional Japanese attitudes toward handicapped children. Other strange symptoms appeared also, some unexpected and some problems kept re-occurring, problems such as leukemia and cancers. A-bomb victims have to live through the fear of undetected diseases emerging without prior warning. The psychological effects also influenced the hibakushas, the deaths of family members or friends and the aftereffect of exposure to radiation can heighten survivor¡¦s anxiety and fears.

Aside from the physical wounds, emotional wounds were even harder to mend. The hard-gained properties of the survivors might be destroyed, leaving the hibakushas penniless and homeless. Not just the lost of material goods but the lives of family members might also be gone or endangered by severe injuries. More distressing, people also suffer from ¡§survivor guilt¡¨. For example, men lived while women died, parents outlived their children, and wives or husbands widowed. Even worse, some hibakushas might suffer because they ran away, ignoring people¡¦s ¡§Give me water¡¨ (p.31) and ¡§Help me.¡¨ (p.18) For instance, in the book, Mr. Tanimoto ¡§realized he was taking to much time¡¨ (p.31) to ¡§carry water to the suffering strangers¡¨ (p.31), he decided to ¡§run away¡¨ (p.31) from those who were ¡§crying their thirst.¡¨ (p.31)

The memories still linger and haunt the survivors¡¦ lives. Like in the story, Dr. Sasaki was bothered by not having to identify the corpses dragged out to the mass cremations, where ¡§with the nameless souls might still, all these years later, be hovering there, unattended and dissatisfied.¡¨ (p.109)

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Summary: Something never to happen again in our humanity..'Hiroshima'
Review: Hiroshima is a book I read when I was in 9th grade. I decided to reread this book after learning that my grandfather's brother died during the deadly atomic bomb massacre in Hiroshima on August 1945, when there was nothing but sounds of death everywhere.
Until this day, my country Korea fights with Japan for various reasons starting from entertainment to history. Reading a book with full of sympathy of my country's rival Japan may not sound appropriate, since the majority dislike Japanese people and several think they deserved the sufferings from the atomic bomb attack. After all, they were the ones who invaded Korea and did unforgivable war crimes during the Second World War. However, after finishing this book...I learned that I was wrong, very wrong indeed.
This book explains fully about the suffrages of the bomb from death, pain, anguish and sadness. After reading Hiroshima and my Grandfathers story of his dead brother I learned something special, Japan's pain from war was not any different to Korea's suffrage and the sadness and pain is what we all shared during war. Furthermore, I felt guilty to think that Japan deserved it, and that it is not right to blame Japan for everything.
This book is a collection of interviews by John Hersey, all interviewed straight after the bomb attack. Hersey managed to interview six survivors who managed to live and was able to escape from the edge of death. The six survivors include Miss Toshinki Sasaki, a clerk, Dr. Masakazu Fuji, a physician, Mrs. Nakamura, widow, Father Kleinsorge, priest, Dr. Sasaki, and Mr. Tanimoto. All six interviews were unbelievable, and sounded almost like a miracle that they managed to survive through the devastating bomb. Hersey writes his interviews very emotionally and this helped me understand the survivors feelings more closely, making me emotional as well.
Miss Sasaki's (Toshinki) interview was most interesting to me. Her experience during the attack was unique compared to the other survivors. What made her unique was her story of being a cripple, a hibakusha some say. Japanese called the survivors from the bomb, 'hibakusha?and this definitely was not a pleasant word to say. Miss Sasaki lost her fianc?due to this dishonorable name Hibakusha. Reading her sorrow of losing her waiting love, the letter of guilt from her fianc? and herself to live on as a Hibakusha, lead me to the peak of sadness. To get rid of her pain she decides to become a nun. She said 'More notice should be given to the causes than to the instruments of total war?and yes I fully agree with her, war is meaningless. Most of the time I felt sympathy in this interview and it was hard to stop reading.
My favorite quote and a quote that I would never forget come from Miss Sasaki's interview. 'I shall not dwell on the past, I prefer not to look back and I shall keep moving forward? Many of us dwell on the past and some take it hard to accept change. I experienced it, but I too learned that it is meaningless to dwell hopelessly on the past. The only solution is to have a dream, make an aim, move forward, and end your life without regret.
I really enjoyed reading this book, it helped me understand what war is like and like the New York Times said 'Everyone able to read should read it? I recommend this book to everyone studying WW2 or Japan's history. In addition, to read one's experience becoming successful under difficult conditions, which is rare to see in nowadays society.

Lastly I would like to conclude that Hiroshima doesn't aim only on the suffering and consequences of the bomb brought to Japanese people, but to show what terror we have done to those innocent people and to show our emotions as a human. It is an unforgettable disaster for our humanity, and the book wants to shout that this should never happen again, in future.

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Summary: Hard to follow, but good
Review: On August 6, 1945 a noiseless flash spread out across the early morning sky of Hiroshima. One of the greatest diasters of World War II had just occurred. This is the story of six people of all different social classes surviving the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. With an explosive force of 12,500 tons of dynamite it completely annihilated the city of Hiroshima. This book is the stories of six survivors excatcly as they remember it with no detail left out. Although they endured the same horror they all have very different points of view about what happened on that fateful day. This book tells the stories of Miss Toshinki Sasaki, Dr. Masakzu Fujii, Mrs. Hatsuyo Nakamura, Father Wilhelm Kleinsorge, Dr. Terufumi Sasaki, and The Reverend Mr. Kiyoshi Tanimoto. It conveys the message, that through the horrors of war, some good can come out of it. For instance, people joining together to help others in a time of need or distress. A book that has the ability shed light on the horrors the Japanese people faced is truly a work of art. John Hersey has written a masterpiece of literature that should and MUST be read by everyone.

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Summary: Stunning
Review: On August 6th, 1945, a bomb with the explosive force of 12,500 tons of dynamite was shot into the heart of the Japanese metropolis of Hiroshima. Not only did the initial blast virtually topple the city, maiming and killing tens of thousands, but the radiation unleashed by the atomic bomb inflicted countless more with radiation poisoning that caused chronic sickness and even more gruesome deaths. Less than a year after the attack, journalist, John Hersey, interviewed six survivors for a special edition of the New Yorker. The issue sparked a sensation, selling out within hours and gathering extensive acclaim from Hersey's peers. The article was sent to members of the Book-of-the-Month club as a selection and was read aloud on special radio broadcasts all across the world.

Reading the paperback edition of Mr. Hersey's extensive article, I had little difficulty seeing why it gathered such acclaim. He does not just take readers to the scene of the bombing; he takes them behind the eyes of those affected. Mr. Hersey temporarily disregarded the sociopolitical and moral debate concerning the atomic attack and told a straightforward, compelling and vivid story of human beings coming face to face with mammoth, almost surreal, tragedy. This new addition, featuring an additional chapter that reveals the fates of the six survivors forty years later and describes the social stigma, medical difficulties and psychological and philosophical adjustments involved in being a "hibakusha" or "explosion-effected person" only makes this journalistic triumph even better. I highly recommend Hiroshima to anyone interested in atomic warfare, World War II, Japanese culture or those who simply wish to read about the human experience at its most grave and epic.

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Summary: Two minutes to midnight on a beautiful August morning...
Review: ... in a silent, blinding flash of white light, one hundred thousand lives were blown off the face of the earth by the first atomic bomb ever used as a weapon of war. "Hiroshima" is the story of what happened when the bomb went off on August 6, 1945 at 8:15 a.m. Six ordinary citizens were going about their day: the Reverend Kiyoshi Tanimoto was about to unload a cart, Miss Toshiko Sasaki was beginning her work as a secretary; Dr. Masakazu Fujii was opening his newspaper, Father Wilhelm Kleinsorge was perusing a Jesuit magazine, Dr. Terufumi Sasaki (no relatio to Toshiko Sasaki) was walking down the hall toward the hospital laboratory; and Mrs. Hatsuyo Nakamura was looking out the window, when "everything flashed whiter than anything she had ever seen" and the world turned into hell. From there we follow the course of these six people's lives, hour by hour, as the darkness descended while the mushroom cloud rose, and all around them was nothing but death and destruction. One reads this slender book at a single sitting, unable to put it down, and emerges shell-shocked, with a single question going around and around in one's head: "Why?"

John Hersey's account of the explosion of the atomic bomb over Hiroshima stands as a classic of wartime reporting. He doesn't editorialize or sensationalize; he lets the six people mentioned above tell their own stories; and through them, the horror of what was unleashed on August 6. The apocalyptic destruction of lives and property was mind-blowing. And after living through the nightmare of the blast, the survivors of the bombing had to cope with the long-term effects of radiation sickness.

The question of "Why?" still haunts us almost 60 years later. Was the bombing necessary? What better options did Truman have? The answer may be, none. A full-scale invasion of Japan, which would almost certainly have occurred if the bombing had not taken place, or if it had not been as devastatingly effective as it was, was estimated to cost a million American casualties, and probably many more Japanese casualties as well. Was it a question of committing a horrendous act in order to avoid a worse one? Probably. We've learned from history that all too often, the choice is not between good and bad, but between bad, worse, and unspeakable.

The original version of "Hiroshima", published the year after the war ended, left the profiles of six lives in suspension. The updated edition includes Hersey's 1985 article on the lives of the six survivors forty years later. We learn that, after suffering through so much in the immediate aftermath of the bombing, the "hibakusha" (the Japanese term for the Hiroshima survivors) had to put up with prejudice and discrimination from non-hibakusha who shunned them because they were subject to so many illnesses. Even so, these six, along with thousands of others, managed to get on with what was left of their lives. One finishes this book with a sense almost of awe at the resilience of these six very ordinary people who could be any six people in our own country. And even as we get a sick feeling that somewhere out there, some madman would love to push the nuclear button and unleash a holocaust that would make Hiroshima look like a walk in the park, we feel a deep sense of resolve never to let anything like this happen again, anywhere, at any time.

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Summary: DRAMA AND EXCITEMENT
Review: A stunning and compelling (MUSTREAD) story of 6 different people (Toshinki Sasaki, Masakzu Fujii, Hatsuyo Nakamura, Wilhelm Kleinsorge, Terufumi Sasaki, and Kiyoshi Tanimoto) who's lives are heavily affected by the atomic bomb USA dropped on the city of Hiroshima on August 6 1945. World War II was a war not to be forgotten and niether will this book when you read it. A little hard to follow however, when you get it, a wonderfully written story. John Hershy gives very factual details of the war, and handles the characters point of view well. He is a genious.

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Summary: "What a Fortunate That We Are Japanese!"
Review: First of all, I would like to dedicate this little writing to all hibakusha, victims of the atomic bombings on both Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The most important thing I would like to say here is not making a protest like an anti-war campaigner but urging people to understand how the people of Hiroshima died manly in extraordinary serenity.
How was it possible when they were dying after experiencing such a hell on earth that is beyond description?

A survivor, Mr. Tanimoto wrote to his American friend just before the anniversary: gI never heard any one cried in disorder, even though they suffered in great agony. They died in silence, with no grudge, setting their teeth to bear it. All for the country!h

One of those who died after Mr. Tanimoto gave water in the first night told him: gLook, I lost my home, my family, and at last my-self bitterly injured. But, now I have gotted (sic) my mind to dedicate what I have and to complete the war for our country's sake.h gThus,h Mr. Tanimoto continues, gthey pledged to me, even women and children did the same.h
Mr. Tanimoto tells in his letter of a school girl and her friends who were buried under heavy fence of a temple after the explosion of the bomb. gThey could not move a bit under such a heavy fence and then smoke entered into even a crack and choked their breath.
One of the girls begun to sing `Kimi ga yo', national anthem, and others followed in chorus and died. Meanwhile one of them found a crack and struggled hard to get out.... They were just 13 years old.h

Mr. Tanimoto also mentioned Dr. Hiraiwa, professor of Hiroshima University of Literature and Science, who was buried by the bomb under the two storied house with his son, a student of Tokyo University.
gBoth of them could not move an inch under tremendously heavy pressure. And the house already caught fire. His son said, `Father, we can do nothing except make our mind up to consecrate our lives for the country. Let us give Banzai to our Emperor.'
Then the father followed after his son, `Tenno-heika (His Imperial Majesty the Tenno), Banzai, Banzai, Banzai!'
In the result, Dr. Hiraiwa said, `Strange to say, I felt calm and bright and peaceful spirit in my heart, when I chanted Banzai to Tenno.' Afterward his son got out and digged (sic) down and pulled out his father and thus they were saved. In thinking of their experience of that time Dr. Hiraiwa repeated;
gWhat a fortunate that we are Japanese! It was my first time I ever tasted such a beautiful spirit when I decided to die for our Emperor.h

gYes,h Mr. Tanimoto says, gpeople of Hiroshima died manly in the atomic bombing, believing that it was for Emperor's sake.h

As Hersey says, many hibakusha have repelled by the growing political coloration of these anti-nuclear movements such as the Japan Council against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs and have stayed away from the mass meeting s in Peace Park on the subsequent anniversaries.
Why? I think it is clear when you see that those anti-nuclea‚' weapon/ anti-war campaigners are often also of left-wing thoughts such as, particularly, as many comintern sympathisers that still survived in Japan put as their slogan, gAbolish the Tenno system!h, or even gKill the Tenno for the war responsibility!h

If you are a Japanese, you may instinctively know that this greligioush feelings of the Japanese towards Tenno is much more native than foreign communists have thought and has its roots in the depth of the Japanese spiritual culture itself that has been formulated for thousands of years in Japan's history. In Japanese mythology, the Japanese islands and other gods were gbornh from a couple of gods, and those first gods were the ancestor of whole Japanese.
So, in other words, the Tenno household is the head family of every household of the Japanese.
To prevent misunderstanding, I must say that this is not "elitism" or emphasis of the uniqueness of the Japanese like the left wingers criticise.
On the contrary, it is rather "universality" of the whole world that the father of all Tenno, or, more adequately, of all Japanese, said: "Hakko-Ichiu"___ "Let us make the whole world one family."

That is, I think, one reason why the memorial of the Peace Park in Hiroshima engraved: gPlease rest in peace, for we will never make the same mistakeh, not aggressive and vengeful gRemember Hiroshima!!h

To justify these horrible gcrimes against the humanityh, two experimental and exhibitionistic atomic bombings and 60 other indiscriminate incendiary bombings on civilian population, the U.S.A. needed to brand Japan as the evil criminal country as the Nazi Germany might be.
They fabricated numerous horrible crimes that never verified in the Tokyo Trial as the Dutch judge B.V.A. Roling criticized in the book gTokyo Trial and Beyondh so that the Allied Powers, especially the U.S.A. and the Soviet Russia and China, can avert their own war crimes get attention.
The 7 year occupation of Japan by the Allied (the U.S.A., mainly) with a brain-washing scheme called gWar Guilt Information Programmeh effectively gdisarmedh the Japanese fighting spirit and by that Japan was so effectively and openly labeled as gFascist/Militarist/Imperialisth country that every Japanese who try to refute those accusations are branded by the whole world as a gultra-right-wing revisionisth.

But, Herseyfs book made me realise that, fortunately, the Japanese spirits were never destroyed after all these persecution for half a century. It might have been expelled to a small corner of the bottom of hearts of the Japanese, but surely it has survived.
I felt it in my heart. And I believe many Japanese would feel the same when they read this great book of human spirits that never be destroyed even by the most powerful weapons on Earth.

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Summary: Collateral Damage
Review: I picked this tattered, yellowing paperback up at a yard sale, years and years ago for $0.25. It disappeared and re-surfaced over the years, still unread, until I grabbed it as a quick read on a business flight a couple years ago.

If there is one book that describes - powerfully, the horror, this is it. Simply put, it's a must read.

Our nation is once again, engaged in a war. We are exposed to dehumanizing military-speak designed to make clinical the atrocities we perpetrate on our nation. Everytime I hear a phrase like, "collateral damage" I think of Hershy's Hiroshima.

Effecting and surreal, reading Hiroshima is equivalent to Shindler's List for its imact. Unforgetable.

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Summary: Hiroshima
Review: Hiroshima, John Hersey's retelling of the events surrounding the United States' August 6, 1945 bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, gives an historical account different from those that are usually given to Americans. Hersey tells the story of Hiroshima through third person narratives of the lives of several survivors of the bombing. This is different from most Americanized stories, in which the bombing is usually viewed through the eyes of one or more Americans involved in the bombing. This is one of the positive qualities of the book, as it forces Western readers to view the bombing from the receiving end, allowing them to gain a different perspective. Before reading Hiroshima, I was like many Americans in my beliefs about the use of nuclear weapons. While I have always known that such weapons are destructive, horrible things, Hiroshima has caused me to rethink my own view on the possible future use of these weapons. I used to jokingly say, "Let's just nuke 'em!" whenever a foreign power came to arms with the United States. After reading Hiroshima and taking in the graphic depictions of victims, I would never think of seriously favoring the use of nuclear weapons. While I cannot say that I enjoyed reading about carnage and the after-effects of radiation, as a history fan and as an American, I enjoyed being given a new point of view of an event which I thought I knew a lot about.

Hiroshima, while interesting and thought provoking, is not a book to be enjoyed by all people. The graphic scenes following the bombing can be physically sickening at times, even for those who think they are prepared for such violence. These scenes only help to convey the message that nuclear weapons and war in general are terrible things. Most history fans, especially those interested in World War II, might like this book for its historical importance. As a novel, the book does not serve much of an entertainment purpose. Anyone researching weapons of mass destruction, Japanese history, or World War II would definitely find this a useful book.