This book is very gruesome, but vivid and accurate. Author John Hersey investigates Japan during and the months after the atomic bomb explosion on Hiroshima. A part that really shocked me was the part, after the explosion, a survivor was helping a woman move away from a flooding river. He was pulling her arms when suddenly her skin fell right off. I had an image of exposed muscles and blood vessels. I never expected this. So not only are the initial flash burns from the bomb severe, but all the health issues after the explosion are just as horrible.
Thinking as positively as I could about this situation, I was cheering all the survivors’ valor. For example, as weak as Dr. Sasaki was, he managed to treat thousands of patients at the Red Cross Hospital, until he was forced to sleep minimal hours. I have no idea how it feels to work continuously for 3 days straight WITHOUT sleeping. Praise him!
In American History courses, much more time should be devoted to the explosion of the atomic bomb and the after effects. We skim over how the Japanese were affected; instead, we should look at more case studies of specific people or of specific ways the people were affected in DETAIL! Since we dropped the bomb, we should fully understand the repercussions and what we caused by dropping the bomb; families were instantly torn apart. A traditional, bustling economy was instantly transformed to ashes when the bomb detonated at 8:15 am (local time) August 6, 1945. In short, by dropping the bomb, we saved thousands of American soldiers’ lives which otherwise may have died in an extension of the war, but we must remember that by saving our lives, we killed thousands of possibly innocent Japanese civilians.
