John Hersey's Hiroshima

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John Hersey's Hiroshima

In John Hersey's Hiroshima, he based his book upon the one perspective that, the bombing of Hiroshima was an act of inhumanity. What Hersey failed to do was to give the perspective of the Americans. Hersey did not account for the Pearl Harbor bombing of 1941 or the death march in the Japanese Bataan Camps in 1942. Without giving both perspectives, Hersey does not give the reader a fair chance to form their own opinion; instead, the reader is swayed into Hersey's bias beliefs of the event.

Hersey's Hiroshima was originally an article written for The New Yorker Magazine in order to help a "reader identity with deceased and survivors of the Hiroshima's bombing" (The New Yorker). He accomplished this by recapping the suffering of the victims of the atomic bomb. He wrote of the burn victims, "their faces were wholly burned, their eye sockets were hollow, the fluid from their melted eyes had run down their checks" (Hersey 51). "On some undressed bodies, the burns had made patterns of undershirt straps and suspenders…" (Hersey 29). He also wrote of the sicknesses that the radiation brought upon the Hiroshima victims, such as vomiting, abnormal growths on their skin and the list goes on. Mrs. Nakamura, "after one stroke, her comb carried with it a whole handful of hair" (Hersey 68). Mr. Tanimoto, "fell suddenly ill with a general malaise weariness, and feverishness" (Hersey 68). Father Kleinsorge, his wounds, "had suddenly opened wider and were swollen and inflamed" (Hersey 68). These are only a few of the many effects that the Japanese experienced due to the radiation of the atomic bomb.

Just hearing something like this is enough to persuade any reader to believe that America is a he...

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...ima. War is a terrible thing that has to take place from time to time. To see innocent people being killed is truly an in humane act. However, as Hersey noted in his book, some of the survivors of the Hiroshima bombing understand as well. Mrs. Nakamura stated "it was war and we had to expect it" (Hersey 89). Even Father Siemes, supporter of "total war," believes that in war, "there was no difference between civilians and soldiers, and that the bomb itself was an effective force tending to end the bloodshed…" (Hersey 89). These are people who experienced the bomb firsthand, but they are maintaining the mindset of both perspectives.

Now that I have gained the knowledge of both perspectives, I am now able to come to my own conclusions when reading Hersey's Hiroshima. After reading both, I am now able to justify the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

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