Hiroshima, by John Hersey

While looking for a boat to carry the severely injured across the river, Mr Tanimoto “… Found a good-sized pleasure punt drawn up on the bank… five dead men, nearly naked, badly burned…” (Hersey, 37) near it, he “… lifted the men away from the boat… he experienced such horror at disturbing the dead…” (Hersey, 37). On August 6, 1945 the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to end the war between them. Hiroshima, by John Hersey is a book about six survivors of the first atomic bomb ever dropped on a city. The six survivors tell their stories of where they were before the bomb was dropped, what they did after the bomb was dropped, and what their life was like years after the bomb. The book also talks about the economic problems that people had after the bomb. It was wrong for the U.S. to drop the atom bomb on Hiroshima because it separated families and it gave innocent civilians serious health issues.

After the bomb was dropped infants died and parents were separated from their children. While Mr. Tanimoto, the pastor of the Hiroshima Methodist Church, was helping to get another priest, who was badly hurt, go upstream, to get medical attention, Mr. Tanimoto came across two girls who needed help. “…Mr. Tanimoto came back and excitedly asked the remaining priest to help him rescue two children he had seen standing up to their shoulders in the river. …two young girls who had lost their family and were both badly burned.” (Hersey, 44). Due to the bomb that was Hiroshima many children were separated from their families with no where to go. Mrs. Kamai, Mr. Tanimoto’s neighbor, was in Asano Park with the body of her infant daughter in her arms. “She kept the corpse in her arms for four da...

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...y crippled.

On August 6, 1945 America dropped the first atomic bomb ever used on a city in an attempt to end the war between them and Japan. The United States should not have dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima due to many health issues that it gave the survivors and the many families that it separated. Since the bomb was dropped many of the survivors developed serious health issues a few years after the bomb was dropped, many not knowing they had any, it separated families and it gave innocent civilians serious health issues, and left many fathers not knowing where their wife and kids were and left many physically and mentally crippled. One thing that I would like to know is, if you were the president of the United States, would you have dropped the bomb or would you looked for another solution?

Works Cited

Hersey, J. (1946). Hiroshima. New York: New Yorker.