Hiroshima

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Summary: A STORY THAT SHOULD NEVER BE FORGOTTEN
Review: I found this book to be very interesting and insightful. I had never read any books on the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan but had been curious about it for some time. This book answers some of the questions that I had and revealed things that I had no knowledge of. The book follows the lives of five people who were in Hiroshima at the time of the bomb dropping. It chronicles the people, places and horrors that they were witness to after the bomb had devasted there homes and lives in Hiroshima. The book was written shortly after these events took place so the stories and feelings that are related in the book are fresh and vivid. Not since Hiroshima and Nagasaki has mankind been subjected to such devastating destruction. This story should never be forgotten for fear of repeating this sad time in history.

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Summary: Eye-Opener
Review: John Hersey's Hiroshima is a very informative and eye-opening account of the dropping of first atomic bomb. It shows how six peoples lives are affected by the bomb. Hersey doesnt give his own opinions on whether or not the decision to drop the bomb was the right one; but clearly illustrates the atrocities caused by that decision. It gives insight as to what struggles the victims had to go through and the losses they faced. I liked the realism of the novel but was, at some points, too graphic. I also liked how the author gave an update at the end to follow up with each character. The book was sort of difficult to follow at the beginning because there are so many different names. Just take your time and refer to the back cover to refresh your memory of who's who. I hope you enjoy this book!

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Summary: A book everyone should read atleast once
Review: Hiroshima was John Hersey's brain child about his feelings on World War 2. Even though this book is not the best source if you are interested in statistics and the United State's side of the story about the Atomic Bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima, instead Hersey turns the tables and shows how the Japanese dealt with the disaster they were tossed. Hersey investigated and interviewed six people who lived through the bomb and retells there survival tales. Just like in many of his other books Hersey is able to show the problems he finds in the world, and lets people know about these problems through his work. His ability to turn around and show a situation from another point of view is the reason that Hiroshima is such a great work.

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Summary: First-hand and first-rate account of Hiroshima
Review: When "Hiroshima" was published in "The... ..... " magazine in 1946 this caused a great stire. The BBC read the whole book out loud on it's broadcast. You can read about this and other events that transpired in Ben Yagoda's "About Town: The New Yorker and the World it Made".

This book must have been the ultimate journalistic scoop of all times. It's story idea is so obvious that I wondered why no else had the idea first. Hersey traveled to Japan just one year after the end of the war and after the atomic bomb has blasted over Hiroshima. The ground must have been still radioactive. (In the book Hersey said that the ground was only 4 times normal radiation levels a few days after the explosion. So Japanese scienists allowed the citizens to remain there.)

This book, like Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood", is part of The New Yorker genre called "non-fiction novel". They didn't really invent the technique but popularized it's style. This is journalism written in the style of a novel that relates a true tale. Well done, as in the case with both of these books, it holds your attention.

I find this book well-written and obviously interesting. (No could make such a tale boring.) But I think "In Cold Blood" and "The Massacre of El Mozote", published as a long fact piece in The New Yorker are better written. This is in spite of the heavy editing by William Shawn and many rewrites by John Hersey.

In the book we get to see what it was like for the people of Hiroshima to have lived under an atomic bomb blast. The scenes are quite horrible. A firestorm burns people in it's path. The bomb's flash of light etches the frozen picture of a painter on a ladder on a marble wall. A women cling to her dead baby for days on end. Men and women cry out for help buried beneath piles of concrete and timbers. 100,000 people are killed outright and 80% of the building in the city are destroyed.

As Ben Yagoda says, this book put a human face on the atomic bomb. It probably did a lot to rally anti-bomb people. I for one am glad for this portrait because it makes clear and vivid what would happen to us if someone dropped such a weapon here.

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Summary: Hiroshima is a journalistic masterpiece.
Review: Hiroshima isn't meant to be great entertainment. The point of journalist John Hersey's account of six survivors of the Hiroshima bombing (Miss Sasaki, Rev. Tanimoto, Father Kleinsorge, Dr. Sasaki, Dr. Fuji, and Mrs. Nakamura) is meant to be an unbiased view of the actual horrors of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima that killed over 100,000 residents of that city.

John Hersey carries the book right along, never holding up for a minute. All the details of the accounts of the six survivors are written in great deal, and create a series of emotions unsurpassed by many works of both fiction and non-fiction on the subject.

For all of you readers who found it boring, I guess you didn't understand what you were getting into. This book must be read with the knowledge that it is a journalist's account of the bombing of Hiroshima, not a straight-forward work of non-fiction.

P.S. In all the new publications of the book, a detailed account of the lives of the six survivors the years following the Hiroshima bombing is included as a kind of epilogue written still by John Hersey.

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Summary: Hiroshima Is A Great True Story
Review: I thought this book was great. It tells about a bombing of a civilian city in Japan, called Hiroshima. When the atom bomb lands, thousands of innocent civilians are killed, and thousands of others go through pain and suffering, and many of those eventually die. The book tells about six individuals living in Japan, and each of them go through radiation sickness, depression, and the sight of watching others die around them. This book is a true story, and it lets the world know about the true devestating consequences of bombing. Although this book may seem too depressing, it is important to read about others who suffer, and it may make someone think twice before using an atom bomb.

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Summary: Read This Book!
Review: This book is NOT fiction - unfortunately the events and the people in this book are very real. "Hiroshima" follows the lives of six survivors of the atomic bomb from the hours preceeding the explosion on August 6, 1945, to the decades afterwards. The survivors detailed in this book include a housewife, a German priest, two doctors, a young working woman, and a reverend. The details were superb, and I learned a lot of facts of which I was previously unaware. The story tells of the physical intensity of the bomb, the horrible, crippling symptoms experienced by the victims both at the time of the bomb and afterwards, and of the treatment experienced by the victims of the bomb. One of the things that most shocked me was the treatment of the "hibakusha" by their own country based on the Japanese government's reluctance to take responsibility for these victims. Everyone should read this book and educate themselves about this historical event (especially those of us who were not alive during that time period). It is sobering and frightening to think that it could certainly happen again anywhere in the world due to increased nuclear capabilites by many countries on this planet.

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Summary: A stern warning from history
Review: John Hersey's account of the aftermath of the first atomic bomb stands as a warning for all time. The vivid and sickening first person accounts should cause any reader to question whether resorting to nuclear force is ever justified. In my mind, the bombs dropped on Japan WERE justified because of Japanese war atrocities, the tremendous casualties the allies would have suffered from an invasion of the Japanese home islands and because before the Hiroshima bomb was dropped, no one knew for sure what it would do. The horror of Hiroshima and Nakasaki is partly responsible, I think, for the fact that no atomic weapons have been used in warfare since then. The images in this book will stay with you long after you've put it down.

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Summary: Stories of hope from the ashes of atomic warfare
Review: John Hersey has written a powerful novel of the Hiroshima bombing and its aftermath. To show the horror of nuclear holocaust through the eyes of the survivors is the best way to convey it. The 6 survivors documented in this book where extraordinary people who went on to do something with their lives instead of being bitter. The story that was the most inspiring was Dr.Fujii and how he helped others. Then after the war, he enjoyed life to the fullest and helped many foreigners as well. The sad thing was that even though they had nothing to do with what happened to them , the survivors were shunned even by their own people for being "hibakusha". To know what that is, you have to read the book. So I encourage whoever sees this review to read the book.

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Summary: The Harsh Realities of Mankind Against Mankind, Get Mad
Review: I read this book in high school. Yea sure, I got a B+ on the report, and forgot about it. Now, 30-blank years later I read it again, to see what I missed. WOW!

I am not a big fan of nuclear warfare, been to the 50's, know "duck-and-cover", and I wish it would all go away. So, I thought that politics would be involved in this book, somehow. Well, let me tell you, the stories in this book, all 6 of them, are remarkable and without equal. When you think you've read or heard it all, there's more. The pure harsh cruelity of man against man is hard to imagine, be it from strangers, friends, family, authority, wherever it comes from. The carelessness of suffering, friends & family, and the casual attitude of the situation is stunning, absolutely stunning. Never can the high school student in me actually understand this book.

The Japanse culture is wonderfully represented in the suffering they bore after the bomb. I received a great lesson in the people of Japan and the way they look at life and death. Having missed the war, I can't feel the hate for them that some may, but to have lived through what they did, I feel now only sadness and sympathy. God must have a special place for all these survivors.

This book is an emotional ride that I was surprised by. 2 nights, and it was over, but what a 2 nights. Mr. Hersey will bore into your guts and give your real emotion. You will be appalled by the pain, calousness, matter-of-factness, media hype, and even greed. I was stunned by the last of these. The book takes no position of right or wrong, just relates the story in a cold fashion that gets your attention. No drama, no excitement, just the story, the facts.

Prepare yourself, then read this book. The emotional roller coster awaits. Thank you Mr. Hersey.