HIroshima hersey chapter summary

Final Seminar

Chapter 2: The Fire, closely follows the story of the 6 survivors or hibakusha, immediately after the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Each individual struggles to find a place of refuge amongst the chaos as spot fires cover the entire city. There is an emphasis on the wounded and suffering as many of the survivors themselves suffer cuts, burns or radiation sickness along with those around them. There is speculation over what may have caused such destruction to the city which had so far been untouched during World War 2.
Dominant values and attitudes in the period included the notion of “The Other” and “The Yellow Peril” towards the Japanese people as a whole. This was based upon a number of differences between the American and the Japanese people including physical and cultural disparities. The American people also saw the bombing of the Japanese as justified and a type of revenge after they had bombed Pearl Harbour. The majority of the media influenced American’s to view Japanese as cruel, aggressive and mindless drones. And they also viewed themselves as the more superior and powerful race especially after the immediate dropping of the bomb which is evident in President Truman’s speech along with a sense of triumphalism.
The publication of Hiroshima impacted readers in a number of different ways. Immediately after the bombing, the world was basically sheltered from the truth of what had actually occurred to the Japanese people and the long term effects which it would cause. Hersey’s account brought this to reality for his readers as he humanises the Japanese people to a point where his readers were able to see past the stereotypes of “The Yellow Peril”. The readers soon realise that the Japanese people are actually quite similar to themselves as Hersey presented them in their natural element as they went about their everyday lives for example, a mother caring for her children, a young woman working in her office and men reading books and living their lives at a leisurely pace. Hersey then vividly and graphically displays the pain and suffering which they are subjected to which makes the readers re-evaluate whether what they had done was justified and morally right even though the dropping of the atomic bomb had brought about a sense of relief that the war was finally over. He then describes the huge suffering these people experience and challenges the dominant way of thinking by describing in detail the suffering of the Japanese people that the majority of American’s cannot even imagine.
Hersey actively chooses to challenge his audience through a number of techniques, which also displays the impact upon his readers. For example as shown on the screen, a scientist who worked on the Manhattan project was shocked and ashamed about what his country had done to the Japanese people as Hersey was able to provide an accurate but also confronting account of the effects of the atomic bomb on everyday civilians.
The chapter develops as an account of a holocaust that is large-scale destruction by fire and nuclear war but without use of the word and with ambiguity about the causes and without direct comment about American and Japanese responsibility for the catastrophe. It is completely objective.
Characterisation of the 6 everyday Japanese people, portrays the Japanese, not as mindless drones but rather as people not unlike the American audience. Coupled with Hersey’s deliberate choice to document the lives of two doctors, two religious men, a loving mother and a young woman, evokes empathy from the American people as they are able to relate to the everyday lives of these atomic bomb victims.
The use of confronting images “houses nearby were burning”;” “she heard two small voices crying, Tasukete! Tasukete ! Help ! Help!”; “her baby was badly cut”; forced Americans to view the reality of the effects of the bomb. Hersey challenges the notion of the other by representing the Japanese as people; something the Americans forced themselves to forget and constructs the characters as people that everybody can relate too.
Hersey’s journalistic style allows its readers to witness history; fiction gives its readers an opportunity to live it. Hersey’s objective views challenges the dominant way of thinking by allowing the audience to gain an eye witness account of people suffering who are more or less like themselves.
Hersey’s use of statistics in his journalistic style of writing is dispassionate and matter-of-fact, but provides an emotive effect out of the reader. He chooses them specifically to show the effect on the people rather than damage to inanimate objects such as buildings. Increases the readers understanding of the large scale tragedy. Eg. “in a city of two hundred and forty-five thousand, nearly a hundred thousand had been killed or doomed at one blow; a hundred thousand more were hurt” pg.35
Includes factual evidence of the effects of the bomb which the survivors we unaware of at the time eg. “huge drops of water the size of marbles began to fall (they were actually drops of condensed moisture falling from the turbulent tower of dust, heat, and fission fragments that had already risen miles into the sky above Hiroshima)” Pg. 25 This rose questions of morality and ethics as Hersey highlights the result of the dropping of the bomb on both the people of Hiroshima and their environment
Hersey represents the confusion and helplessness which the Japanese 'hibakusha' experienced through use of rhetorical questions. Also has an emotive effect as they are asked by children. eg. "Why is it night already? Why did our house fall down?What happened?"
In the second half of the chapter the view is more clearly that the events are so horrific people cannot see beyond themselves and their immediate circle. Taking action according to traditional codes of compassion and charity is ignored. “ they could not comprehend or tolerate a wider circle of misery” Mr Tanimoto first hurries past the screams for help despite his religious belief telling him to stay and help the suffering. Here as in the remainder of the chapter, while hersey evokes biblical echoes he does not make the biblical parallels explicit. The challenge to belief and traditional views of humanity and religion are extreme at this point. The atomic bomb might seem to undermine traditional faith. However, Hersey continues his lack of direct comment and readers are free to interpret the events in different ways.
In the remainder of the chapter Mr tanimoto becomes an unlikely hero and begins to perform acts of charity “ he ferries people across the river from Asano Park”; “he organises fire fighting; he returns into town for food for the victims”; in these ways he becomes a true Christian who imitates Christ’s miraculous acts of charity. A larger than life identity. His larger than life identity is set in a context of increasingly extreme catastrophe and horror – juxtaposition. This allows the audience to view the true strength that these people are capable of because of the extreme situation they are placed in.