Hiroshima
by John Hersey
published
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Paperback
isbn
0590257625
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Read in October, 1998
recommends it for:
Everyone
What I love about this book is that the author manages to paint a very vivid picture of what it was like in Hiroshima the day the atomic bomb was dropped (and the days following as well), without really giving his opinion of whether or not the bomb should or shouldn't have been dropped at all!
This is a true account of survivors of the Hiroshima atomic bomb. It is riveting, terrifying and at times sickening.
After reading this one can't help but ponder how mankind manages to inflict suc...more
What I love about this book is that the author manages to paint a very vivid picture of what it was like in Hiroshima the day the atomic bomb was dropped (and the days following as well), without really giving his opinion of whether or not the bomb should or shouldn't have been dropped at all!
This is a true account of survivors of the Hiroshima atomic bomb. It is riveting, terrifying and at times sickening.
After reading this one can't help but ponder how mankind manages to inflict such pain and suffering upon itself and yet still keep surviving.....
Everybody should read this especially those who tend to not think twice about wanting to answer violence with violence....less
bookshelves:
asian,
history-politics
Read in December, 2004
I can't imagine what New Yorker readers thought reading this just a year after WWII ended. For me, it was harrowing, gripping and fascinating. I read it all in a single afternoon. Hersey personalizes the nuclear attack by recounting the experiences of some everyday civilians in Hiroshima the day the bomb was dropped.
I actually read this in the The Complete New Yorker. One advantage to reading it there is that it also in...more
I can't imagine what New Yorker readers thought reading this just a year after WWII ended. For me, it was harrowing, gripping and fascinating. I read it all in a single afternoon. Hersey personalizes the nuclear attack by recounting the experiences of some everyday civilians in Hiroshima the day the bomb was dropped.
I actually read this in the The Complete New Yorker. One advantage to reading it there is that it also includes the follow-up article 40 years later revisiting the remaining survivors....less
Read in February, 2008
Meh. I sort of wish I had read a different book about the bombing of Hiroshima. This book is a dramatized account of the experience of six survivors of the first use of an atom bomb.
The fact that it was dramatized really annoyed me. The author supplied dramatic details such as the specific way in which a person walked down a street in japan a decade earlier, or dialog between the survivors and the people that were around them. I would much prefer a book that just told me what happened,...more
Meh. I sort of wish I had read a different book about the bombing of Hiroshima. This book is a dramatized account of the experience of six survivors of the first use of an atom bomb.
The fact that it was dramatized really annoyed me. The author supplied dramatic details such as the specific way in which a person walked down a street in japan a decade earlier, or dialog between the survivors and the people that were around them. I would much prefer a book that just told me what happened, rather than venture to guess precisely what had been said at certain moments or exactly how the survivors felt.
A lot of questions are left unanswered in regard to how the author even found this set of survivors that happened to all know and effect each other's lives from time to time.
On the positive tip, It did get the job done. I wanted to know exactly what it was like on the day that the bomb was dropped, and this book did that.
I just have no idea how the author of this book ever became a professor at Yale. It was awkwardly written, sometimes had seemingly made up words in it, and at one point was just plain inappropriate in my opinion.
at one point in the book, it reads something like this:
Soandso took a breath, closed his eyes, and died.
[line break and new paragraph:]
Or so Soandoso thought, but he woke up the following morning still in the hospital.
First of all, that is a really cheap dramatic trick, like a joke from a bad sitcom. Second, this is a real person we are talking about, and a person who had suffered for decades from ailments resulting one of the most murderous atrocities ever recorded. If it were fiction, then I can see the need to drum up some intensity, or have some comic relief, whichever way you want to look at it. But I just thought that was a childish thing to write.
Overall, it was an alright book, but as I said above, if I hadn't gotten this book for free, I would have done a little research and found some non-dramatized firsthand accounts of the bombing.
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bookshelves:
advisory-books-07-08
Read in July, 2007
recommends it for:
Everyone
SUMMER BOOK:
During the 1940s, an atomic bomb was dropped on the grounds of Japan in main cities, Hiroshima&Nagasaki. The description of what happened during this time& period was so realistic and clear. The Americans dropped a massive atomic bomb on December 7, 1941 unexpectedly on the Japanese. It was justlike any other day that the Japanese did not expect anything bad, however it soon became the most tramatizing event in Japan history. Millions of people died when the first bomb was ...more
SUMMER BOOK:
During the 1940s, an atomic bomb was dropped on the grounds of Japan in main cities, Hiroshima&Nagasaki. The description of what happened during this time& period was so realistic and clear. The Americans dropped a massive atomic bomb on December 7, 1941 unexpectedly on the Japanese. It was justlike any other day that the Japanese did not expect anything bad, however it soon became the most tramatizing event in Japan history. Millions of people died when the first bomb was dropped and thousands of others suffered severed burns on their faces and bodies. Everyone needed to drink water but there was no fresh water for everyone to drink. It was sad because some people who were close to the bombings had skin that drooped off their bones from the massive radiation. Japan experienced having to deal with the fear of passing on genetically mutated DNA genes to future genereations. The book described the thoughts and stories of the Japanese people who actually survived the atomic bombing. This gives us an perspective of how the Japanese felt in ruins during the bombings. And not just by how the Americans want us to believe happened in Japan. Although it was really far worst in Japan where millions of people perished.....less
May we never ever unleash such great violence again, even when provoked. Although so many argue that the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the least violent methods of stopping Militaristic Axis Japan, the ensuing chaos, horrific violence, and complete incineration of Japan; proves to me that there should have been another path. The book provides brutal accounts of the bloody aftermath afterwhich the bombs were dropped over Japan, and countless men, women, and children were left dead,...more
May we never ever unleash such great violence again, even when provoked. Although so many argue that the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the least violent methods of stopping Militaristic Axis Japan, the ensuing chaos, horrific violence, and complete incineration of Japan; proves to me that there should have been another path. The book provides brutal accounts of the bloody aftermath afterwhich the bombs were dropped over Japan, and countless men, women, and children were left dead, near-dead, or refugeed in their land. Although at times it feels so desensitised and too consumed by it's own retelling of the awful events, it is a definite anti-war(redundant) novel that should be taken seriously....less
Read in January, 1980
I've taught this book at every school I worked it. I have never forgotten some of the images/memories that survivors shared.
Read it. There's nothing else to say.
If you HAVE read it, I HIGHLY recommend a new documentary playing on HBO this month (aug 07) called WHITE LIGHT/BLACK RAIN: the destruction of Hiroshima & Nagasaki. It is really well done and for those of us who have read Heresy's HIROSHIMA, the documentary includes the footage described in the book of that god-awful THIS ...more
I've taught this book at every school I worked it. I have never forgotten some of the images/memories that survivors shared.
Read it. There's nothing else to say.
If you HAVE read it, I HIGHLY recommend a new documentary playing on HBO this month (aug 07) called WHITE LIGHT/BLACK RAIN: the destruction of Hiroshima & Nagasaki. It is really well done and for those of us who have read Heresy's HIROSHIMA, the documentary includes the footage described in the book of that god-awful THIS IS YOUR LIFE episode with Rev. Tanimoto and the pilot of Enola Gay. It was bad enough to read about it and then horrifying to see. ...less
bookshelves:
history,
war
recommended to Ginnie by:
Happyreader
I read this in its original form in The New Yorker where for the first time an entire issue was turned over to a single article. As I commented to Happyreader concerning her review of this book, "I was one of those reading Hiroshima just a year after the war ended and was completely blown away. In one of life's many ironies, the man I later married had been assigned as an Navy x-ray technician to a combination troop carrier/hospital ship scheduled for the U.S. invasion of Jap...more
I read this in its original form in The New Yorker where for the first time an entire issue was turned over to a single article. As I commented to Happyreader concerning her review of this book, "I was one of those reading Hiroshima just a year after the war ended and was completely blown away. In one of life's many ironies, the man I later married had been assigned as an Navy x-ray technician to a combination troop carrier/hospital ship scheduled for the U.S. invasion of Japan. It doesn't take too much imagination to see how dropping the bomb might have completely changed the way my life turned out. "...less
Read in August, 2007
i read this on August 6 - Hiroshima day each year.
it is a first edition (1946) given to me by a friend whose war-and violence loving father was stationed in Asia during my friend's childhood. he didn't want Asia / war / or his father around - so i inherited this unbelievably touching, human portrait of average, and not so average Japanese on the morning of August 6th 1945 - and what they went through for the next weeks. i think it is so important for me to remember that the USA is the only cou...more
i read this on August 6 - Hiroshima day each year.
it is a first edition (1946) given to me by a friend whose war-and violence loving father was stationed in Asia during my friend's childhood. he didn't want Asia / war / or his father around - so i inherited this unbelievably touching, human portrait of average, and not so average Japanese on the morning of August 6th 1945 - and what they went through for the next weeks. i think it is so important for me to remember that the USA is the only country ever to use Weapons of Mass Destruction on another....less
Li em um dia com medo que toda aquela escuridão se instalasse em mim. Não é à toa que é considerada a melhor grande reportagem: mesmo frente à toda a miséria, Hersey não faz uma ópera a ela, mas deixe que fale por si mesma. Descrições precisas, concisas, narrações enxutas. Nenhum floreio seria preciso ou justo a uma realidade tão terrível.
bookshelves:
nonfiction
This was an impulse buy while perusing the Asian section of my local big box book store (Joseph-Beth is a local chain, so at least there's that) – the Asian section has become a typical stop for me on trips to the bookstore since I came back from China in 2005.
Anyway, Hiroshima is a pretty amazing, if somewhat emotionally wrenching read: it follows a handful of survivors of the Hiroshima bombing, from what they were doing at the moment the bomb dropped through the following month...more
This was an impulse buy while perusing the Asian section of my local big box book store (Joseph-Beth is a local chain, so at least there's that) – the Asian section has become a typical stop for me on trips to the bookstore since I came back from China in 2005.
Anyway, Hiroshima is a pretty amazing, if somewhat emotionally wrenching read: it follows a handful of survivors of the Hiroshima bombing, from what they were doing at the moment the bomb dropped through the following months afterward; the edition I read also contains added material looking at what became of these people over the intervening years between the book's original publishing of late 1946 and the 1980s when the updated edition first came out. Written by a journalist, the book tends to make an almost dispassionate account of its subject matter. This actually works to the book's benefit; the author lets his subjects tell their own stories; the horrendous facts speak for themselves and need no embellishment. Hersey only steps in when some cultural aspect of his subject's stories requires an explanation for the Western reader.
As someone who came of age in the Reagan era, who remembers the Cold War and the threat of mutually assured destruction, this is a book I wish everyone would read. Aside from one's ideology and philosophy, regardless if one thinks its necessary and justified or not, I think we can all agree that the prospect of any war is awful, much less one that involves nuclear strikes.
Hersey also avoids the moral question that Hiroshima and Nagasaki begs; he does discuss the Japanese victims' thoughts on the morality of bombing, what little they apparently had. This is perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of the book, from a historical and cultural perspective, outside of the bombing itself and its immediate aftermath. It's a question that has weighed on my own thoughts from time to time; my father served on a light cruiser in the U.S. Navy at the end of World War II, and was on his way to the invasion of Japan when the bombs were dropped. He worked in the powder room, deploying bags of gunpowder to the ship's guns; his ship was part of the fleet admiral's guard. Casualties were expected to be very heavy; everyone had been warned to make sure their affairs were in order before they left port. It's very probable that if Truman hadn't dropped the bomb, and the Allies had embarked on an invasion, I would never would have been born.
If one delves into the history of World War II, particularly that of imperial Japan, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the sudden surrender of Japan undoubtedly saved lives on both sides, in the long run; historians agree that an Allied invasion of Japan would have run up casualties in the hundreds of thousands on each side, with some suggesting as many as a million people or more would have died in total before Japan surrendered. On the other hand, when one reads Hiroshima and realizes the toll it cost on the city's civilians, it makes the bombings no less horrific. We tend to hear the words collateral damage a lot in the news these days; in this book, the collateral damage of the bombing of Hiroshima have names. Their lives and dreams are violently interrupted and profoundly changed for the remainder of their days, as are their children, in some cases. It serves as a stark and sobering reminder of how the world changed forever on August 6, 1945, as well as a warning for the future.
Now, having said that, I have to mention the one drawback – the one criticism of this book I can make. Having been written by a journalist, it reads like one. As I mentioned above, on the whole, that serves the story well. There are times, however, when the writing is rather stilted and labored; pathos doesn't render well in the peculiar language of news writing. This is a common problem when reporters and journalists write books. But it should by no means keep anyone from reading it; as a piece of documentary history, it can't help but be compelling, if sobering and at times horrifying....less
Journalist John Hersey’s non-fiction account of the atomic bomb blast on Hiroshima, Japan, was originally published in the August 31, 1946 edition of <i>The New Yorker<i> magazine, before becoming a best-selling book. In four chapters, Hersey covers a year in the life of six people—five natural-born Japanese and one German national—who survived the American attack on their beloved city. Chapter One, <i>A Noiseless Flash<i>, begins with the detonation of the bomb, ...more
Journalist John Hersey’s non-fiction account of the atomic bomb blast on Hiroshima, Japan, was originally published in the August 31, 1946 edition of <i>The New Yorker<i> magazine, before becoming a best-selling book. In four chapters, Hersey covers a year in the life of six people—five natural-born Japanese and one German national—who survived the American attack on their beloved city. Chapter One, <i>A Noiseless Flash<i>, begins with the detonation of the bomb, “At exactly fifteen minutes past eight in the morning, on August 6, 1945, Japanese time” and ends moments later, shortly before the city catches on fire. The principal witnesses to the destruction are introduced: Miss Toshiko Susaki, “a clerk”; Masakazu Fujii, a doctor who works in a private hospital; Mrs. Hatsuyo Nakamura, a widow with three children; Dr. Terufumi Susaki (unrelated to the clerk), who is on the staff of the Red Cross Hospital; Reverend Kiyoshi Tanimoto, a Methodist; and Father Wilhelm Kleinsorge, a Jesuit priest of Germany, which was an ally to Japan in World War II.
The book begins without any setup other than the time, place, and central—real-life—characters. The background to the conflict is conspicuously absent, as are facts regarding political, military or geographical concerns surrounding WWII. Hersey assumes the reader has lived through the war, is current on all the pertinent details of the air- and ground-battle, so he wastes no printed space on the world leaders, generals, or military brigades in favor of devoting all of his energy to the civilians. In particular, the innocent victims of the end-game move by American president Harry Truman are who most concern the writer, and the book gathers their personal, eyes-on-the-ground experiences into a compelling narrative that encompasses not only six people, but an entire city.
Each eyewitness has a distinct personality, a specific lifestyle before the blast, and a horrific story to tell of its aftermath. In the three chapters following the introductory chapter, their six individual odysseys for survival and understanding converge and overlap. The interlacing narrative structure gives the reader a full perspective of the days and months after the atomic attack on Hiroshima, with six varying viewpoints organized into one fluid tale.
Hersey takes the reader through the city’s “clouded air…giving off a thick, dreadful miasma” primarily through the subjective lens of those who saw it first-hand, but he doesn’t limit his reporting to that narrow scope. He also offers many objectively reported facts and provides a larger perspective on the situation throughout the book, revealing details that the denizens of the devastated city were never privvy to, but which expand the reader’s understanding of their closed narrative. When the reader learns that, directly following the atomic blast, sixty-five of a hundred and fifty doctors died instantly, and that the majority of the remaining M.D.s were wounded, the story takes on a heightened sense of dread that would be missing without that information. The plight of the survivors becomes even more grim for the reader at this point, and the drama of their personal journeys becomes more immediate and emotionally wrenching.
The narrative voice of the author is extremely matter-of-fact, without any “commenting” on the actions or thoughts of the six people, nor any subjective commentary on those responsible for the dropping of a bomb that killed over a hundred thousand Japanese and injured thirty-seven thousand more. He lets the experiences of those who were there speak for themselves, and despite the occasional contextual bit of information, Hersey depends solely on their testimonies to tell the story.
The details are often graphic, with physical descriptions of burned and bloody corpses, vomiting children, maimed and ravaged survivors, as well as drowned and bloated dead. The tone has a somberness throughout, with a sense of compassion for those who suffered this ordeal felt within the narrative. The gruesome facts are given in an unflinching manner, yet there is temperance shown by Hersey, with the focus not so much on the devastation, but on the selflessness and hope the people of Hiroshima display in the face of chaos and confusion. They suffer physical pain, emotional hardships, yet all emerge somehow more closely attached to their community and to their fellow human beings. As Hersey writes near the end of the book, “One thing that they (the six people) did seem to share…was a kind of elated community spirit…a pride in the way they and their fellow-survivors had stood up to a dreadful ordeal.” When the reader reaches the final page of this short yet powerful book, that dreadful ordeal has been illuminated, humanized, and masterfully realized by a writer whose personal agenda seems only to be the reporting of the untold truth. ...less
Read in August, 2008
recommends it for:
everyone
This book was amazing. At times horrifying and difficult to read, yet still an amazing read.
The books follows 6 Hiroshima bombing survivors, as they experience the bombing, the immediate aftermath, and the long-term aftermath. Obviously this book can be a very uncomfortable read, yet for me I just couldn't put it down. Despite the unimaginable horror of the bombing, there are so many incredible stories of human perseverance and spirit.
I also learned quite a bit from this book. Altho ...more
This book was amazing. At times horrifying and difficult to read, yet still an amazing read.
The books follows 6 Hiroshima bombing survivors, as they experience the bombing, the immediate aftermath, and the long-term aftermath. Obviously this book can be a very uncomfortable read, yet for me I just couldn't put it down. Despite the unimaginable horror of the bombing, there are so many incredible stories of human perseverance and spirit.
I also learned quite a bit from this book. Altho it is not difficult to imagine the horror of the bombing, I never realized the incredible psychological horror as well - the people of Hiroshima were expecting something "special" from the Americans but had no idea what. No one knew anything about atomic bombs and in the immediate aftermath, and for several months, the people of Hiroshima were not really sure what had happened to them.
I had also never realized the discrimination that the Hiroshima survivors experienced within their own country in the years following the bombing. Due to the wide variety of non-specific illnesses and fatigue that many survivors suffered, employers would often not hire them, and people would ostracize them socially as well, since they were considered "damaged goods".
Also surprising was the lack of significant hatred or resentment of the Americans as a result of the bombing.
For me, the book raised many issues about the nature of war, and our decision to use the bomb. I am still not sure it was the right decision.
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Read in May, 2008
recommended to Irene by:
Erika
This story was published in 1946, just one year after the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. With exquisitely captured yet mundane details, Hersey tells how six ordinary folks who ultimately survived the catastrophe were going about their business when the bomb dropped. “The frequency of the warnings and the continued abstinence of Mr. B [B-29 bombers:] with respect to Hiroshima had made its citizens jittery; a rumor was going around that the Americans were saving something special ...more
This story was published in 1946, just one year after the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. With exquisitely captured yet mundane details, Hersey tells how six ordinary folks who ultimately survived the catastrophe were going about their business when the bomb dropped. “The frequency of the warnings and the continued abstinence of Mr. B [B-29 bombers:] with respect to Hiroshima had made its citizens jittery; a rumor was going around that the Americans were saving something special for the city.”
Several pages later, “Everything fell, and Miss Sasaki lost consciousness. The ceiling dropped suddenly and the wooden floor above collapsed in splinters and the people up there came down and the roof above them gave way; but principally and first of all, the bookcases right behind her swooped forward and the contents threw her down, with her left leg horribly twisted and breaking beneath her. There in the tin factory, in the first moment of the atomic age, a human being was crushed by books.”
I first read this book in high school, in the early 1960’s, and decided to read it again when I read Erika’s comments about it. The Wilmette Public Library has two copies, one shelved in the adult non-fiction section, and the other in the youth section. Is it still assigned reading in English classes? Or perhaps history classes?
What did I remember when I read the book again? Certainly this image: “...there were about twenty men, and they were all in exactly the same nightmarish state: their faces were wholly burned, their eyesockets were hollow, the fluid from their melted eyes had run down their cheeks...Their mouths were mere swollen, pus-covered wounds, which they could not bear to stretch enough to admit the spout of the teapot. So Father Kleinsorge got a large piece of grass and drew out the stem so as to make a straw, and gave them all water to drink that way. One of them said, ‘I can’t see anything.’ Father Kleinsorge answered, as cheerfully as he could, “There’s a doctor at the entrance to the park. He’s busy now, but he’ll come soon and fix your eyes, I hope.’”
Now as I read the book, I kept thinking about how there must be thousands of similar stories about the people caught in two present disasters, the aftermaths of the cyclone in Burma and the earthquake in Szechuan. Similar, because each has been caught in the midst of sudden devastation that was totally beyond their control. Different, of course, in that the bomb was dropped as a result of a conscious decision by humans, whereas cyclones and hurricanes are “natural”. Similar, in the incredible humanity of so many of those who survive, each bringing the strength of their individual quirks to the task, some heroic, some not so much. Some, of course, give up. I wonder what I would do.
Different also in the resources that are brought in for “rescue” and reconstruction. The Americans occupied Japan, bringing a huge influx of dollars and expertise to rebuild, partly to avoid the repercussions of economic collapse, but certainly also to assuage the guilt of inflicting such unprecedented destruction. The Chinese seem to be pulling out all stops to help the earthquake victims, with unprecedented access being given to the press. Are the motives humanitarian or taking advantage of a public relations opportunity? Does it matter? And then there are the Burmese dictators, fending off all credible efforts to help the devastated flood victims as the stunned world helplessly watches.
The present book differs from the one I first read, because in 1985, Hersey wrote a final chapter. In it we learn about the ne
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bookshelves:
nonfiction
Read in March, 2008
In order to stave off the monotony of watching my students conduct library research, I picked this book up off the workroom shelves last week (I had finished grading my most recent set of essays two days earlier). I've wanted to read the book for quite some time, as it had been recommended by a friend and former colleague and it provides a different perspective on my recent obsession with the Pacific War. The organization of the book itself reminded me of another work I teach, Thorton Wilder's f...more
In order to stave off the monotony of watching my students conduct library research, I picked this book up off the workroom shelves last week (I had finished grading my most recent set of essays two days earlier). I've wanted to read the book for quite some time, as it had been recommended by a friend and former colleague and it provides a different perspective on my recent obsession with the Pacific War. The organization of the book itself reminded me of another work I teach, Thorton Wilder's fictional story THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY. HIROSHIMA, like Wilder's novel, follows the lives of 6 people impacted by a significant moment of crisis. I really enjoyed getting to know the hibakusha (explosion-affected persons) who's lives were detailed in the book. I found their understanding of themselves and their circumstances fascinating, and the book spoke to me of humanity's unlimited capacity to forgive. In all...though I still know the dropping of the atomic bomb is much more gray than many would like to believe, I appreciated the opportunity to see and experience someone "on the other side" who's life was made available to me for a moment. In that, more than anything else, lies the greatness of this book. ...less
Read in March, 2008
about a month ago during (i suppose) a particularly stressful night i had a dream that my father and i had survived the dropping of an atomic bomb on some unnamed city. i remember very clear ducking behind a large rock as the shockwave went past, and the eery silence that accompanied the flash that radiated out from the bomb. in the dream it wasn't clear that surviving was the better option.
it made me realize that i hadn't thought about the fact the united states still is the only country t...more
about a month ago during (i suppose) a particularly stressful night i had a dream that my father and i had survived the dropping of an atomic bomb on some unnamed city. i remember very clear ducking behind a large rock as the shockwave went past, and the eery silence that accompanied the flash that radiated out from the bomb. in the dream it wasn't clear that surviving was the better option.
it made me realize that i hadn't thought about the fact the united states still is the only country to have done that to a city. its not something that makes it into my consciousness on a regular basis, and i can see why. i don't like the idea, and it makes me feel agitated to think about it.
nonetheless when i was staying over at my parent's house last night and i found this book on the shelf of the guest room i cracked it open and stayed up until i had finished it. so much for getting to sleep early for once. this book uses the technique of following six different people's experience from the moments of ignorance before the bomb (the all-clear siren had rung as no flock of b-29's was spotted in the area), through the week of waiting for help amidst the rotting of dead and living alike, and onto the popularization of a new disease called 'radiation sickness'. it is a quite readable, narrative-based document, not any more grotesque than it needs to be, that also deals with the different ways these various people dealt with the situation of not being the most seriously wounded, from apathy to cliquishness to christian zeal.
there are moments where i begin to question the validity of the accounts, at least of the motives of the people involved as explained to mr. hersey. i also wondered why there seemed to be a lop-sided lean towards recounting the travails of japanese christians, german jesuits, and their employees and churches, but i suppose that it could have helped illicit sympathy in a still not-totally-sympathetic american audience. journalism will always be manipulative, but this account was plenty balanced and comprehensive to make it a really worthwhile read, and makes me much more curious now to trace the developments that have ensued in the aftermath of this tragedy....less
bookshelves:
non-fiction-megalist
Read in October, 2005
Hiroshima by John Hersey has become a required reading book for many high schools. I think part of that is due to its brevity, which makes it more likely that teenagers will read it. However, its subject matter - the stories of several survivors of the US bombing of Hiroshima is not light. Hersey depicts the moments before and after the bombing as well as following up on the later lives of each person depicted.
The book is not as poignant as The Diary of Anne Frank. It almost seems as though ...more
Hiroshima by John Hersey has become a required reading book for many high schools. I think part of that is due to its brevity, which makes it more likely that teenagers will read it. However, its subject matter - the stories of several survivors of the US bombing of Hiroshima is not light. Hersey depicts the moments before and after the bombing as well as following up on the later lives of each person depicted.
The book is not as poignant as The Diary of Anne Frank. It almost seems as though the author is waving a wild finger, pointing, saying, "look what you did!" The book really has many of the same qualities as an in-depth newspaper articles where the author remains objective. It relays the facts of what happened and the pain, but not really the horror of it. Maybe it was just me - Hersey's writings just didn't engage me emotionally. That, and I am irritated with his scolding tone in describing the lives of those survivors who didn't completely devote themselves to others and enjoyed as much of a regular life as they were able to. Of course those particular stories ended less happily than that of the woman who became a nun and the priest's story. It was if he went out of his way to say "that's not how you should grieve. See these people? They did it the right way." I found that annoying.
All that editorializing aside, I can see why the book is on many reading lists. It is one of the few books that describes the bombing of Hiroshima from the point of view of the Japanese civilians living there. Recommended, but if interested in this part of history, I'd also pick up another book that's illustrated - funny that we don't see too many pictures of the destruction wrought by the US here and so many illustrations, History Channel programs, etc... about the Nazi concentration camps. Sigh......less
bookshelves:
advisory
Read in September, 2007
recommends it for:
history fans
This is one of my favortie books because it deals with a very devastating event that occured in the world's history. This book talks about the tragic events that occured in Hiroshima through perspectives of several different people. One of the characters was Ms. Sasaki. She worked in a tin factory and in the moment of the droping of the bomb she was working there when she was crushed by a shelve full of books and metals. She had no chance of surviving and so did many of the Japanese. I l...more
This is one of my favortie books because it deals with a very devastating event that occured in the world's history. This book talks about the tragic events that occured in Hiroshima through perspectives of several different people. One of the characters was Ms. Sasaki. She worked in a tin factory and in the moment of the droping of the bomb she was working there when she was crushed by a shelve full of books and metals. She had no chance of surviving and so did many of the Japanese. I learned from this book that during wars and conflict people will do catastraphic and tragic things, no matter the type of person you are. Hiroshima and Nagasaki are examples of this. This book brings out the bad of the world and what we are capable of doing even the worst things. A question that lingers over my head is Will or can this happen again? You never know what can occur in the future. THis book really changed the way I think of conflict and tennsion. I have become a great analyst of conflict and this is one of the big academic themes in Baruch....less
bookshelves:
narrative-journalism
Read in May, 2007
Membaca Hiroshima, membuat aku lupa aku sedang membaca sebuah laporan. Serasa baca novel. Fiksi. Apa ya istilahnya, page turner. Aku sulit berhenti membacanya. Padahal, aku mulai membaca jam 11 malam, dan sampai jam 12 malam, aku masih bersemangat menyelesaikan Hiroshima.
Oya, aku musti bilang, aku tidak suka cerita perang. Aku tidak suka film perang. Kalau aku menonton film perang, syarat utama adalah film itu harus memiliki gambar yang bagus. Bukan gambar indah, tapi gambar yang bagus, gamb...more
Membaca Hiroshima, membuat aku lupa aku sedang membaca sebuah laporan. Serasa baca novel. Fiksi. Apa ya istilahnya, page turner. Aku sulit berhenti membacanya. Padahal, aku mulai membaca jam 11 malam, dan sampai jam 12 malam, aku masih bersemangat menyelesaikan Hiroshima.
Oya, aku musti bilang, aku tidak suka cerita perang. Aku tidak suka film perang. Kalau aku menonton film perang, syarat utama adalah film itu harus memiliki gambar yang bagus. Bukan gambar indah, tapi gambar yang bagus, gambar yang kuat, warna yang kuat. Tapi, tanpa darah bercucuran. Aduh, kalau pakai darah, mendingan aku tutup mata saja, deh. Aku juga tidak suka membaca cerita perang. Capek. Kesal. Marah. Ingin menangis. Sesak. Napasku betul betul sesak.
Untuk Hiroshima, semua perkataan di atas harus aku tarik. Hiroshima, bercerita tentang perang, tanpa harus mengumbar kekerasan perang dengan kata-kata yang keras dan menyakitkan. Justru dengan kata-kata yang terlihat lembut, kekejaman dan kekerasan peristiwa itu begitu kuat. Memukau.
Membaca Hiroshima, seperti menonton Hiroshima. Tapi, aku tidak sedang berbicara tentang Film Hiroshima yang disutradai Koreyoshi Kurahara dan Roger Spottiswoode, aku sedang membaca Hiroshima yang ditulis oleh John Hersey.
Bagian-bagian awal tulisan, Hersey bergantian bercerita tentang orang-orang yang berbeda di lokasi yang berbeda. Kalau ini film, aku suka sekali gaya seperti ini. Model Pulp Fiction atau Love Actually. Di awal bacaan belum kelihatan, apa sih kaitan satu tokoh dengan tokoh lain. Tidak lama, akan segera diketahui, bagaimana keseluruh tokoh adalah “hibakusha”, survivor, mereka yang lolos dari bom atom yang dijatuhkan di Hiroshima.
Semuanya begitu detail. Kegiatan para hibakusha itu sebelum, pada saat, dan setelah kejadian. Apa yang sedang mereka pakai, bahkan apa yang sedang mereka pikirkan. Bagaimana tiap cerita bergantian tertulis, tanpa terasa ada jeda atau pergantian orang dan tempat. Sungguh, sulit membayangkan ini adalah hasil wawancara. Sulit melihat ini bukan fiksi, bukan rekayasa. Bagaimana bisa John Hersey mengingat semuanya seperti ini?
Tunggu, aku rubah pertanyaaannya. Bagaimana bisa John Hersey bercerita seakan-akan dia ada di dalam hati dan jiwa tiap tiap tokohnya, dan seakan-akan dia mengalami semuanya. Aku tidak tahu. Bagaimana dia bisa melakukannya.
Sayang, aku tidak akan bisa hadir di kelas yang membahas Hiroshima. And I hate that so much. Aku ingin tahu, apa yang akan dibahas. Aku ingin tahu, bagaimana tulisan ini bisa dibuat sebegitu rupa. Aku berharap, bisa memperoleh cerita dari siapapun yang hadir saat itu, dan membuat aku merasa seakan-akan aku hadir di kelas (walaupun saat itu aku ada di seberang pulau), sebagaimana John Hersey membuat aku seakan-akan hadir di Hiroshima, di tahun 1945.
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In this deceptively skinny volume, Hersey collects eyewitness accounts of an infamous summer day in the lives of six Hiroshima residents, and of their gritty, often improvised responses to the personal and civic aftermath of nuclear attack.
The book painstakingly weaves together recollections of the blast itself, the chaotic flight of city-dwellers to wretched camps upstream on the Ota river, and the longer term ordeals of doctors and patients grappling with the unknowns of radiation sickne...more
In this deceptively skinny volume, Hersey collects eyewitness accounts of an infamous summer day in the lives of six Hiroshima residents, and of their gritty, often improvised responses to the personal and civic aftermath of nuclear attack.
The book painstakingly weaves together recollections of the blast itself, the chaotic flight of city-dwellers to wretched camps upstream on the Ota river, and the longer term ordeals of doctors and patients grappling with the unknowns of radiation sickness. These unfold at an ordered and unhurried pace, letting the reader absorb surprising details of the events, such as the evening tornado that the blast's convection tower spun out, and the pumpkins and tubers, cooked instantly in fields by the bomb's heat, that gave meager nourishment to survivors.
Hersey's missionary background prompts an exaggerated focus on the experiences of clerics and churchgoers, and lends the text a disturbing christian undercurrent. But 'Hiroshima' serves as a necessary document, readily accessible to a wide audience, of the nuclear horror that humankind has already experienced....less
Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in December, 2006
This book vividly paints a picture of what it was like to withness an atomic bomb explosion and survive its effects, through the personal story of six survivors of the Hiroshima attack. As with many disasters -- though somehow I did not expect it from this one -- more people died and suffered from the aftermath (fires, starvation and thirst, untreated injuries, not to mention radiation sickness) than from the explosion itself. The stories of the camps that formed spontaneously, the attempts of...more
This book vividly paints a picture of what it was like to withness an atomic bomb explosion and survive its effects, through the personal story of six survivors of the Hiroshima attack. As with many disasters -- though somehow I did not expect it from this one -- more people died and suffered from the aftermath (fires, starvation and thirst, untreated injuries, not to mention radiation sickness) than from the explosion itself. The stories of the camps that formed spontaneously, the attempts of ordinary citizens to scavenge for food and water and understand what had happened to them, and the absence of help from authorities are remarkable. I am stunned to hear how long it took for information to travel; it was days before the survivors even knew of the trajedy at Nagasaki, much less what it was exactly that they shared. This story is also enlightening for the six survivors' very different perspectives on the war, the US, and the bomb....less
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Hiroshima (Mass Market Paperback)
isbn: 0679721037
