Hiroshima

by John Hersey

How to make your feature attractive? Journalistic or Fictional, Simple or Literary?

John Hersey 1914-1993

Hiroshima

• A year after Atomic bombing on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

• The New Yorker issue on August 31, 1946

• Graphically describes the horrors of the world's first atomic bomb attack in detail, focusing on how six survivors

Six Survivors

Reverend Mr. Kiyoshi Tanimoto Mrs. Hatsuyo Nakamura Dr. Masakazu Fujii

Father Wilhelm Kleinsorge Dr. Terufumi Sasaki Miss Toshiko Sasaki

‘A Noiseless Flash’

• Describes in detail what the six survivors had done in the early morning on that day and was doing at 8:15am when American dropped the atomic bomb on their city

• Peaceful and normal though during the war

“The Fire”

• In the following hours, they freed themselves, tried to find their families or friends, and helped others if possible and the horror in the city.

• Hopelessness, full of hope, confusion, and sympathy

Hopeless

• Murata-san, the housekeeper, was nearby, crying over and over, “Shu Jesusu, awaremi tamai! Our Lord Jesus, have pity on us!”

• Mr. Fukai said,”Leave me here to die.”

• As Mrs. Nakamura started frantically to claw her way toward the bay, she could see or hear nothing of her other children.

Seeing dawn In the darkness

• Then, from what seemed to be caverns far below, she heard two small voices crying, “Tasukete! Tasukete! Help! Help!”

Confusion

• The Doctor wondered: Could a Molotov Flower Basket have done all this?

• Dr. Sasaki lost all sense of profession and stopped working as a skillful surgeon and a sympathetic man; he became an automaton, mechanically wiping, daubing, winding, wiping, daubing, winding.

The techniques

• Describing the scenario from each survivor’s angle - “Montage”

• Intersection

• Jigsaw puzzle