Hiroshima by John Hersey (IRB TOW#1)

       Life was never the same again for the people who experienced the flash known as the atomic bomb in Hiroshima in 1945. Millions lost their lives, families were torn apart, and cities destroyed. John Hersey reflected all of these tragedies in his chronicle Hiroshima and examined the fate of two doctors, a clerk, a widow, a Japanese pastor, and a German Jesuit whose lives were changed forever. However, beyond drawing the public’s attention to the impact of weapons, Hersey also put much emphasis on how the six main characters coped with the disastrous change in the latter of his book, and he spent over fifteen years researching and interviewing the Hiroshima survivors in order to do so.

       The final version of Hiroshima, included with the complete follow up of the six main characters, was translated into many languages and published in1979, a time period characterized by change and uncertainty through events such as the Cold War. Many people were overwhelmed and uncertain of the future. Yet, Hersey thought otherwise. He looked at change from another angle and his chronicle of the aftermath of Hiroshima bombing presented a universal theme of the continuation of life.

       An important device Hersey used to comfort his readers of changes was anecdotes, and he did so through the detailing of how the six main characters lived after the Hiroshima atrocity in a third-person perspective and an objective tone. While describing the life of Dr. Sasaki, one of the survivors, he wrote “Dr. Sasaki decided quit working for the hospital and to set himself up…”(Hersey 103); when describing Jesuit Takakura, he wrote “he felt enterprising, and, had builders add two rooms in the chapel.”(Hersey 113). Though bombarded with changes, none of the characters Hersey detailed gave up, which fits the theme of life’s continuity and appeals especially to readers who were in times of change themselves. In addition, not much imaginations can be associated with these descriptions, which gives the author a sense of authenticity and authority and makes events seem believable from a historical perspective.

       As readers began to be drawn into the anecdotes of survivors and their strong hold on life, Hersey then successfully sent out his message to society: life moves on.