John hersey "hiroshima" book review essays examples

Hiroshima

Section One:
Hiroshima was an ideal target for the American bombing because the city holds great military importance, “ Hiroshima was a city of considerable military importance (HERSEY, P. 66). It comprises of the headquarters of the 5th division and the Field Marshal Hata’s second General Army Headquarters that has commanded the defense of entire southern Japan. Furthermore, the city was also known for communication, “ The city was a communications center, a storage point, and an assembly area for troops (HERSEY, P. 66). Furthermore, the city was chosen for bombing as it has not suffered any damage from the previous attacks of bombing, provided an ideal environment in order to measure the damage that is caused by the atomic bomb. Furthermore, there are many concrete buildings in the centre of the city as well as lighter structures that presented feasible conditions and environment for the bombing arrangements.

Section Two:

One of the central characters of book Hiroshima is Miss Sasaki, who was the personnel clerk at factory named as East Asian Tin Works. She was in her early twenties, a hard worker, and lived with her siblings and parents. She turned her head in order to talk to the girl sitting at her right, and the whole room filled with a blinding light. “ 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 Underneath her” (HERSEY, P. 9). Miss Sasaki is, however, left crippled. The purpose of the author in telling so many individuals, pre-bomb anecdotes is to show the experiences of different people belonging to different sector, the change in their life, how they were spending their life before the attacks and their life after attacks so that the reader can have a good idea about the effects of attacks of bombing.

Section Three:

Some of the side effects from the radiation sickness are epliation i. e., los of hair, oropharygeal lesions i. e., inflammation of throat and mouth, petechiae i. e., bleeding in the skin, diarrhea, vomiting, fever, necrosis i. e., breakdown of the tissues, leucopenia, ulceration in larynx etc. such wounds were developed that can never be healed. Further, “ The drop in the number of white blood corpuscles reduced the patient’s capacity to resist infection, so open wounds were unusually slow in healing and many of the sick developed sore throats and mouths” (HERSEY, P. 41). Miss Sasaki has wounds that could not heal, she also became a victim of depression that was not letting healing of her wounds, Doctor Sasaki, however, suffer from the weakness as well as from the loss of energy. Mrs. Nakamura together with her children has lost hair and also suffered from diarrhea.

Section Four:

The medical and the rescue efforts had little impact on the survivors’ behalf immediately following the blast, this is because, proper equipments were not available, the physicians and the surgeons were also not sufficient in numbers to provide immediate help. Most of the hospitals destroyed because of the attacks that pave the way to dead of majority of the citizens. Further, “ Of a hundred and fifty doctors in the city, sixty-five were already dead and most of the rest were wounded. Of 1, 780 nurses, 1, 654 were dead or too badly hurt to work (HERSEY, P. 13). So, it became difficult to provide immediate aid to the victims of blast, as the wounded individuals were large in number, and the hospital staff was not enough.

Reference

John, Hersey. Hiroshima. Canada: The Ryerson Press, 2010. Print.