Scan barcode
thaurisil's review against another edition
4.0
John Hersey tells the story of six survivors of the atomic bomb explosion in Hiroshima. They comprise Toshimi Sasaki, a clerk who was buried in the rubble, broke her leg, developed a severe near-fatal infection and became a cripple, Masakazu Fujii, a semi-retired hedonistic doctor whose house fell into the river, Hatsuyo Nakamura, a tailor's widow with three children who developed radiation sickness and had lifelong recurring fatigue, Father Wilhelm Kleinsorge, a German Jesuit priest who, despite being ill, did his best to help those around him, Dr Terufumi Sasaki, a young surgeon who was uninjured and spent sleepless days and nights after the bomb dressing a never-ending slew of injuries, and Reverend Kiyoshi Tanimoto, a Methodist pastor who tirelessly and energetically helped other survivors.
These accounts were published as an editorial in the New Yorker in 1946, and are joined by a final chapter written 40 years after the bomb in which Hersey follows up with the subsequent stories of these six survivors. The editorial format results in this being concise and readable.
The stories are raw, emotional, and heart-wrenching. The stories are told in a matter-of-fact way, with all gory detail, the struggles across the boundary of life and death, and the fears, worries, and plain courage of the survivors laid out plainly. To the world, the atomic bomb ended a war. To the people who lived through the bomb, the bomb was another incomprehensible part of war, an object they did not have the scientific minds to understand nor the emotional capacity to learn about. Their lives were turned upside down, and they did their best to keep moving forward, live through the initial terrible days, weeks, and months, and rebuild their lives.
The last chapter, written 40 years later, shows the differing fates of the characters. Nakamura lived a long life of poverty struggling with fatigue and pains due to radiation sickness, rarely able to see a doctor, and probably represented the majority of the poor who lived through the atomic bomb. The doctors, on the other hand, became prosperous, and Tanimoto even became semi-famous, conducting multiple speaking tours in the USA. They all tried to live their lives normally, avoiding reference to them being hibakusha, or atomic bomb survivors, and yet all of their lives were changed, irrevocably, by the bomb.
These accounts were published as an editorial in the New Yorker in 1946, and are joined by a final chapter written 40 years after the bomb in which Hersey follows up with the subsequent stories of these six survivors. The editorial format results in this being concise and readable.
The stories are raw, emotional, and heart-wrenching. The stories are told in a matter-of-fact way, with all gory detail, the struggles across the boundary of life and death, and the fears, worries, and plain courage of the survivors laid out plainly. To the world, the atomic bomb ended a war. To the people who lived through the bomb, the bomb was another incomprehensible part of war, an object they did not have the scientific minds to understand nor the emotional capacity to learn about. Their lives were turned upside down, and they did their best to keep moving forward, live through the initial terrible days, weeks, and months, and rebuild their lives.
The last chapter, written 40 years later, shows the differing fates of the characters. Nakamura lived a long life of poverty struggling with fatigue and pains due to radiation sickness, rarely able to see a doctor, and probably represented the majority of the poor who lived through the atomic bomb. The doctors, on the other hand, became prosperous, and Tanimoto even became semi-famous, conducting multiple speaking tours in the USA. They all tried to live their lives normally, avoiding reference to them being hibakusha, or atomic bomb survivors, and yet all of their lives were changed, irrevocably, by the bomb.
rh2riordan's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.25
acoops's review against another edition
4.0
An important and heartbreaking close look at the effects of the bombing of Hiroshima. I found this to be a quick and easy read, but it does grapple with some difficult imagery.
dullshimmer's review against another edition
4.0
The dropping of nuclear bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are often noted the reason for World War II finally coming to a close. There is often much discussion over whether the use of nuclear weapons were justified or not. Unfortunately most of the discussion can become rather abstract and theoretical removing the humanity of both the ones who dropped the bombs and who were victims of the bombs.
Hiroshima by John Hersey doesn't enter the debate about whether such attacks were justified, but he does give a chilling human portrayal of the destruction wrought by the bomb through the eyes of six different survivors. Hiroshima was initially an article for The New Yorker but was later published as a book. It simply follows the story of a set of survivors from before the bomb dropped, the direct aftermath of the bomb, and the months following.
In many ways this book is a hard book to say you enjoy. I've never really read anything that presented the lives of the survivors after the nuclear bomb dropped. It's a rather devastating account of overwhelming destruction and death. I feel it was a needed perspective to experience, even if it is from the detached reality of reading about it. At the same time it's not an enjoyable read by any means.
Hersey takes a rather straightforward approach in talking about the stories of the six people he follows in his story. He gives a factual, and almost detached, account of the events. His purpose is not presenting his own opinions or views upon the story, but rather tells the tales of these survivors and the destruction that they encountered.
This kind of detached writing may not be to everyone's taste, but I felt that it serves the account well. Some may also wonder about Hersey's choice of six rather ordinary individuals, but considering that most of us are rather ordinary individuals I think it only natural to focus on those people. It subtly makes the reader place yourself in the midst of such potential destruction. It makes you wonder how you would navigate such destruction, worrying about your family, how to get treatment for injuries and sickness, dealing with the death of family members and neighbors. At least it left me wondering that.
The book also made me wonder how it was received when it was first published. How did the American public react to it? Were they aghast? Indifferent? How did an up-close view of how the nuclear bomb caused such devastation influence people's views of nuclear weapons? It's one thing reading it today having not been alive during World War II, but another to have read this only a little over a year after the bombs were dropped.
While such a work may or may not change ones mind over the usage of nuclear weapons at the end of World War II, I do think that this is a book that everyone should read. It's not a particularly enjoyable read, but it opened my eyes to the destruction of nuclear weapons in ways that I hadn't known before.
Hiroshima by John Hersey doesn't enter the debate about whether such attacks were justified, but he does give a chilling human portrayal of the destruction wrought by the bomb through the eyes of six different survivors. Hiroshima was initially an article for The New Yorker but was later published as a book. It simply follows the story of a set of survivors from before the bomb dropped, the direct aftermath of the bomb, and the months following.
In many ways this book is a hard book to say you enjoy. I've never really read anything that presented the lives of the survivors after the nuclear bomb dropped. It's a rather devastating account of overwhelming destruction and death. I feel it was a needed perspective to experience, even if it is from the detached reality of reading about it. At the same time it's not an enjoyable read by any means.
Hersey takes a rather straightforward approach in talking about the stories of the six people he follows in his story. He gives a factual, and almost detached, account of the events. His purpose is not presenting his own opinions or views upon the story, but rather tells the tales of these survivors and the destruction that they encountered.
This kind of detached writing may not be to everyone's taste, but I felt that it serves the account well. Some may also wonder about Hersey's choice of six rather ordinary individuals, but considering that most of us are rather ordinary individuals I think it only natural to focus on those people. It subtly makes the reader place yourself in the midst of such potential destruction. It makes you wonder how you would navigate such destruction, worrying about your family, how to get treatment for injuries and sickness, dealing with the death of family members and neighbors. At least it left me wondering that.
The book also made me wonder how it was received when it was first published. How did the American public react to it? Were they aghast? Indifferent? How did an up-close view of how the nuclear bomb caused such devastation influence people's views of nuclear weapons? It's one thing reading it today having not been alive during World War II, but another to have read this only a little over a year after the bombs were dropped.
While such a work may or may not change ones mind over the usage of nuclear weapons at the end of World War II, I do think that this is a book that everyone should read. It's not a particularly enjoyable read, but it opened my eyes to the destruction of nuclear weapons in ways that I hadn't known before.