Miss Toshiko Sasaki's Closing The First Chapter Of Hiroshima

“There, in the tin factory, in the first moment of the atomic age, a human being was crushed by books.” (Hersey 16)

In this influential excerpt closing the first chapter of Hiroshima, Miss Toshiko Sasaki, stunned by the sudden flash of blinding light that entered into her building, is crushed by a case of books while going about her everyday work. This quotation is influential in that books are perceived to be harmless and sort of non-important to the average person like Miss Sasaki, while ending up nearly killing and putting her through a tremendous amount of pain. In the “atomic age” where this novels time period is based, books are only appreciated by certain people; otherwise they are portrayed as very miniscule parts of a person’s life.

Not being able to see the damage that the bomb has done, because she has been locked up in various different locations away from the wreckage, she is only told of the horrifying details. Though as she walks out for the first time among the demoralizing wreckage she is astonished by how everything she once knew was completely destroyed. Although, among the wreckage there laid a sign of hope; patches of grass and flowers that had since grown into fuller images. The significance of this quotation is that, even though Hiroshima was devastated, there was hope, and there was going to be a point when everything went back to normal. To Miss Sasaki it was a welcomed sight, and if all the people who were still alive in Hiroshima could have been able to see it, they too would have also been filled with hope that there is a bright future on the way. This makes everyone feel more confident and possibly provides a second wind where they could say to themselves, if I can get through this I can do anything and after all the things Miss Sasaki has endured; this patch of grass, no matter how small, is worth the world.

Father Siemes was not involved in the bombing, but the letter to the Holy See suggests that the outside world knew what might be coming to Hiroshima and did nothing to warn the innocent foreigners who lived there. The effect it had on the civilians not only who lived there, but are sons, daughters, etc. of the people who had radiation sickness still exists in the twenty-first century. Those innocent people now have dreadful things like birth defects and terminal sicknesses just because of an aftermath of a bomb dropped forty years ago. This aftermath will also be felt for years to come until there is a cure found for it and all of the terrible things that have come along with it. This quote made me feel as if there were people around who didn’t necessarily want to drop the bomb on Hiroshima and wanted to wait to see how things played out. Although ultimately it did not happen that way; many people believe it was the right decision even though there were terrible consequences.