Hiroshima, by John Hersey, deals with the human impact of the atomic bomb used on Hiroshima in 1945. Chapter 1 begins on the morning of the dropping of the atomic bomb (August 6 1945), resulting in the deaths of over one-hundred-thousand people. Throughout the chapter, the reader is introduced to 6 individuals: Reverend Mr. Kiyoshi Tanimoto (an intelligent pastor at Hiroshima Methodist Church, fluent in English, situated over 3000 yards from point of explosion); Mrs. Hatsuyo Nakamura (a widow raising her children, living only 1350 yards from point of explosion); Father Wilhelm Kleinsorge (a German priest struggling with life in Japan, situated only 1400 yards from point of explosion); Dr. Masakazu Fujii (cheerful owner of a private hospital known for his use of modern technology, situated 1,550 yards from the point of explosion); Miss Toshiko Sasaki (a 20-year-old fiancé of a soldier, working as a clerk only 1600 yards from the point of explosion); Dr. Terufumi Sasaki (shares the same surname as Toshiko but unrelated, a 25 year old surgeon and risked practicing medicine in poor areas without permission due to frustrations with the Japanese health service, situated 1,650 yards from point of explosion).
The lives of the characters become intertwined as the novel progresses. The initial chapter entitled, “A Noiseless Flash,” specifically deals with the accounts of each individual and their experience of the explosion of the bomb. We first hear of Miss Toshiko, who was blinded by a flashing light, knocking her unconscious and causing a bookshelf to fall onto her leg—the building collapsed around her. Mrs. Nakamura also saw the white light, catapulting her from the room she was in and burying her children in piles of rubble, while Dr. Masakuza Fujii fell into the nearby river. Dr. Sasaki was lucky, remaining unscathed from the explosion, while every other doctor was harmed and the hospital had collapsed around him. Father Wilhelm only experienced small cuts, while Rev. Tanimoto pushed himself against the wall feeling his house push back into his body in the form of debris and splinters. While some of the individuals were more severely harmed than others, all were affected in some way by the devastating, “noiseless flash."
Chapter 2, "The Fire," continues directly after the explosion. It deals with the rapid spread of fires around Hiroshima and the plight of the 6 individuals as they attempt to find safety and help fellow victims. For example, Rev. Tanimoto had to temporarily halt the search for family in order to look after the many lost, confused and injured people in his midst. Mrs Nakamura had to dig out her children from the rubble and find them shelter in the Jesuit Missionary house; however, both she and her children experience unbearable sickness. Miss Sasaki is carried away, unconscious, by two injured people, while Dr. Fujii remains caught in the wreckage, unable to move. The relatively unscathed Dr. Sasaki frantically tries to help an overflowing number of patients. After attempting to help those in his immediate vicinity, Father Kleinsorge sets off for Asano Park, while Mr Tanimoto briefly reunites with his wife and child before splitting up so he can tend to the church. The individuals are divided into a dichotomy of those who are in utter agony, and those who feel unbearably guilty for not being as injured as those around them; Hiroshima is engulfed in misery.
The next chapter is entitled “Details Are Being Investigated," and has a small time-jump of a couple of days (August 12th 1945) to chronicle the rationalizations of the individuals as to the cause of the explosion, and their perpetual nightmare. The chapter ends on August 15th when the Japanese surrender; the war is over, but the human impact persists. Mr. Tanimoto is working to prevent deaths by fire by carrying people from one side of the river to the other via boat, and the Nakamuras suffer from enduring sickness while coming to terms with the fact that all their family is dead. After his help during the explosion, Father Kleinsorge is accepted among the Japanese in solidarity. Miss Sasaki has been lying helpless outside the factory until a passerby spots her, calls for help, and a group helps take her to hospital. The city is littered with corpses, while Dr. Sasaki, overworked and with severe sleep deprivation, attends to an overload of patients. Meanwhile, Dr. Fujii must sleep inside his family’s collapsing house, and is gravely injured.
The next chapter is called “Panic Grass and Feverfew.” It begins 12 days after the atomic bomb, and then continues rapidly to how the city deals with the event in the following months and year. The secondary impacts are now coming to the forefront, with radiation sickness experienced by large swaths of the population and a good proportion of the city is now complete toxic wreckage. Father Kleinsorge appears only to be getting worse and worse throughout the month, until his wounds reach critical condition and has to be transported to hospital. Mrs. Nakamura’s exterior has been eaten away by radiation—all of her hair has fallen out.
Once Hiroshima’s radiation levels return to safe levels, anti-American sentiment is reduced, and many return to retrieve lost items. This includes Mrs. Nakamura, who seeks her sewing machine, only to find that it is now a rusted relic of its former self. Mr. Tanimoto also struggles with radiation sickness, and Mrs. Sasaki remains in hospital, in agony. Luckily, she survives the very worst of her illness and is discharged in April, crippled. Dr. Fujii now lives in a friend’s summer house and is getting much better, buying a new clinic in a Hiroshima suburb to treat the injured: he observes the peculiar illness many are developing as a result of the radiation. Likewise, Dr. Sasaki has noticed that there appears to be 3 stages to the radiation disease. Dr. Sasaki remains overworked as the only surgeon on demand; however, in March, he finally gets married.
While this may seem like things are looking optimistic, the tragedy of Hiroshima is highlighted when exploring the lives of the 6 characters a year later. By this time, Dr Fujii's hospital has been lost, with no hope of repair. Mrs. Nakamura is poverty-stricken and ill, her children living hand-to-mouth. Mrs. Sasaki is now badly disabled, requiring constant care. Dr. Sasaki has reached a state of being unable to work; likewise, Father Kleinsorge’s condition worsens, and he has to be admitted to hospital again. Finally, Mr. Tanimoto’s livelihood has been ruined: his church is now rubble, and he lacks the strength he used to have. The lives of these individuals are tragic and relentless; the book originally ended here on a note of sheer devastation.
However, an additional chapter, named “The Aftermath,” came 40 years after the publication of the article (which later became the book) in The New Yorker. The chapter highlights how it was not until 1954, after the Lucky Dragon No. 5 case, that the survivors, now labelled “Hibakusha” (victims of explosion), were treated with less prejudice. For years, they were denied employment opportunities and basic civil rights. Moreover, many suffered from defects due to the radiation, conditions that would torment them throughout their entire lives.
Mrs. Nakamura lived a hand-to-mouth existence for many years, and eventually returned to the factory to do work. Later on in life, she was invited to recount her experiences to audiences across the world, and was given the opportunity of global travel. Dr. Sasaki had no side effects, but was plagued with guilt. Eventually, he quit the Red Cross Hospital and established his own practice. Father Wilhelm Kleinsorge finally assimilated into Japanese society, even taking on a Japanese name. However, he suffered greatly from radiation sickness, and died about a decade before the new chapter was published, but was beloved by many and lived out his days as a priest in a large church.
Dr. Fujii died about a decade earlier; however, he had experienced few side effects from radiation, and established a new practice in Hiroshima in 1948, living out a fulfilling existence until his death. Miss Sasaki ended up being abandoned by her fiancé due to her disability; after working with orphaned children, she eventually became a nun and climbed up the ranks to become Mother Superior. Mr. Tanimoto continued to preach in church, eventually publishing a memorandum in the United States, which gave him a mild degree of fame. He even toured around the USA with victims of the bombing, meeting many famous people along the way.
The lives of the individuals were certainly mixed, and while they all eventually achieved a degree of happiness, all their lives were negatively affected by the travesty that was the explosion. Thus, the book concludes as a powerful human reminder as to the horrors of weapons of mass destruction.
