To see the fates of all these strangers who scarely knew about the other suddenly tied together by a single catastrophic event is certainly interesting.
My Question: What kind of atmosphere does John Hersey wish to convey to his readers prior to and after the explosion?
Weifan: I think the author wants to convey the mood "surprised" or "sudden". Before all the characters were leading what seemed to be normal lives, doing their everyday activity. But then the next second, their beloved country and most of those they loved died or vanished from the earth. So I think this is showing surprise or sudden terror.
I thought it was interesting how this book was a mix between fiction and nonfiction. The fact that he goes so detailed into these events makes it seem realistic. But at the same time, this also makes it seem unrealistic. The book clearly states the position of every person, which means the author couldn't have been to all those places at the exact same time. Also the fact that these six characters just happened to survive by chance was, for me, unrealistic. My question is that why does the author do this? And also, which parts are fiction and which parts are not?
Weifan: I think Jon wanted to give us a taste of what the normal life was like during the time of war and how it all of a sudden changed with one single bomb. It's destructive power was so powerful and he wanted to capture the essence of it's surprise on the people. Hiroshima Chapter 1 response
After reading Hiroshima, I got an insight on how great the impact of the Atomic bomb set loose on Hiroshima was. I never really got the picture of how deadly it was. I had heard that 10,000 people were killed but I thought that was just on impact and by explosions. I didn’t realize all the other casualties happening and how lethal they were. The bomb also only hit one spot yet it seemed to affect those within even 40000 feet away. From this range, houses were toppled, glass was shattered, and many people were killed in one quick flash. It was shocking to see pictures in my head where people are toppling over and cuts appearing all over their flesh. I never expected to see that much damage from such a far radius where the explosions are absent and there is only force. This Bombing was incredibly destructive and it surprised me at how badly the people were affected.
“There, in the tin factory, in the first moment of the atomic age, a human being was crushed by books.” (pg. 16)
I think Hersey is trying to get a message across to the reader with his use of irony. He writes that a book, a source of knowledge, can even be dangerous to humans. This suggests that technology and knowledge can be extremely dangerous as it progresses to higher levels of intelligence. With this simple sentence, the author leaves the reader with a feeling of horror questioning how things as simple and important to humans as books can contribute so much damage. What is your opinion of the quote? :)
In this chapter, time is slowed down by how John Hersey describes it. He portrays what each main character—Mrs. Hatsuyo Nakamura, Dr. Terufumi Sasaki, Father Wilhelm Kleinsorge, Toshiko Sasaki, Dr. Masakazu Fujii, and Reverend Mr. Kiyoshi Tanimoto—is doing before the atomic bomb hits Hiroshima. Because John Hersey slowed the time down, it made the chapter seem more melodramatic. However, every single character’s doings are not depicted clearly with many details. Even though we do not know what each character did before, we learn what they were doing before the bomb blasted, which is most relevant to the plot of the story. This makes it seem more staged. The contrast between what the characters were doing before the atomic bomb bombed Hiroshima and what the characters were doing after the atomic bomb blasted in Hiroshima differs greatly. Everything seems different after the atomic bomb bombed—everyone is frightened, worried, and confused. The fact that Mrs. Nakamura didn’t believe the first warning shocked me. I was thinking You’re in a WAR! Every warning counts! What are you thinking? You’re going to die! However, afterwards I found out that she is tired of bring her three children to a safe place whenever there is a warning. It may seem very bizarre to us, but I can imagine how tiring it is to take care of three children in a war (because I have seen movies). The last paragraph of chapter one is the most significant paragraph of the whole chapter, because it shows that even books—the stuff we gain knowledge from—can be dangerous and harmful. What does this show? It shows how severe the war is at the point of time in the novel.
The first chapter talked about the six main characters of the story. It was the introduction of what activities they were doing before the bomb struck. I think it’s interesting how the author decided to tell us what the characters were doing minutes or hours before the bomb completely changed their lives. It showed a contrast between how they lived before the bomb fell, and after. I think the author was trying to allow us to compare how ordinary their lives were. Dr. Masakazu Fuji was still reading the newspaper in his underwear, and the tailor’s widow was letting her children nap. She ignored the warning sirens because she was tired of having to take her kids to the shelter and back. There was this one character, Dr. Terufumi that was extremely lucky. He survived the attack without a scratch. If he had gotten on the train before the one he went on, he would have been dead. Also it was because he was standing away from the window, or he wouldn’t have survived the blast. The most unfortunate of the main characters would be the Miss Toshiko, who got crushed by a bookshelf. It was dry humor when the author said, “There, in the first moment of the atomic age, a human being was crushed by books.”
The first chapter was kind of confusing, as I head to keep referring back to the character guide to make sure who the characters were. I know that the story is self-explanatory, but I like to make sure when the person is introduced. The way the atom bomb fell was described as though the apocalypse had just occurred. The day is going along smoothly, when all of a sudden, and with NO SOUND, the buildings start collapsing like this massive earthquake of unimaginable proportions had just taken place. It’d be like the lake exploding in the middle of lunchtime.
"The air raid siren went off" "The all clear sounded" These two quotes were repeated a lot of times during the chapter. After these two quotes the atomic bomb went off. Many of the people died because they were confident that nothing would happen because the all clear sound sounded. This caused many people to become careless. According to Mr.Tanimoto, the siren would go off every day and the all clear sound would also ring every day. So why was it that the people who rang the sirens were unaware of the situation? Was it because it felt like a routine and they felt that there was no need to check? Or was it because they were careless?
I like how Hershey wrote the story in many different point of views, so that readers can have an insight of what goes on with different people, and compare how the events affect them. It’s amazing how one atomic bomb can drastically change the lives of thousands, maybe millions, of people. It makes me wonder, did the US army and government think of how millions of innocent people would die or get injured? I also thought about how lucky the 6 main characters are. Did the author make up their escapes, or did they really happen to people during the time? The main characters are fortunate to have escaped, but will they reconcile with their family members? Will they spend the rest of their lives looking for them, or will they give up?
“A step taken in time, a decision to go indoors, catching one streetcar instead of the next---that spared him.” (Hersey 2) I thought this quote showed the deadliness of the atomic bomb. How you can only escape death by chance and if you did, you might have been affected by the radiation. An example could be seen with doctor Sasaki where people who were in the same room as him were killed while he survived because he had been at the right place. The author gave us an image of how Japanese families lived their everyday life. Kindness could be seen among the Japanese people through Hersey’s descriptions. These descriptions made me feel how immoral it was dropping a bomb on these people when they were not the people fighting in the war. Hersey also wrote how the Japanese had no knowledge of the atomic bomb when they had thought the destruction had been caused by a single bomb landing right on top of them. That innocence of the people made it seem inhuman that the atomic bomb was dropped on them.
In chapter one, the author is basically introducing every characters and what they are doing one hour before the explosion. Everyone’s life seemed normal, but I think the author wants to show one’s life can change immediately in a split second.
The last sentence of chapter one seems important to me: “There, in the tin factory, in the first moment of the atomic age, a human being was crushed by books.” Books are full of knowledge, a symbol of education, but it can also be dangerous.
In this chapter, I found it extremely interesting how Hersey gave us a look about the peoples past lives before the bomb hit. He gave us a before picture and an after picture. He showed us how much the bomb affected their lives.
On page 11, Father Wilhelm Kleinsorge “felt the strain of being a foreigner in an increasingly xenophobic Japan; even a German, since the defeat of the Fatherland, was unpopular. “ It’s really interesting to see how Japan is starting to hate foreigners, even their own allies, the Germans. However, the tone hints that Germans were once popular and welcome in Japan. The change might have been brought about by the defeat of Germany in the European Theater. Perhaps the Japanese were afraid that they were going to meet the same fate. It is perhaps already imminent at this stage that Japan was going to lose the war.
It would only be reasonable to understand the Japanese denial towards the possibility of losing. This may be explained by the surge of Japanese nationalism during WWII. This xenophobic behavior may have been caused by the denial to face the fact that their strongest ally has lost and that they are facing imminent defeat.
=.=.=.=.=.=.=.==.=.=.===.=.=.=.
In response to Tying Yi,
I think the siren sounded so often that they took no notice for it. After all, you can't just hide in bunkers all day right? It also mentions that normally the sirens are caused by American weather planes. The planes probably came so often that they no longer took surprise in it.
=.=.=.=.=.=.=.=.=.=.=.=.=
Question:
The illustrations on the front of the book is extremely interesting. What did it symbolize? Why do you think the author used it? Was the red ball the atomic bomb or was it the sun? Why?
Why does Hersey introduce six characters in the first chapter?
I think he introduced six characters because each of them had a different perspective of the bombing. They are all different, with different ages and personalities, so what they experience and how they go through it will also be different. The situation in how they met the bomb also varies. However, the war has changed them all equally.
Reverend Mr. Kiyoshi Tanimoto was educated in America; because of the war, he sought to prove his loyalty to Japan-to prove that just because he was American-educated didn’t mean that he was not Japanese. Mrs. Hatsuyo Nakamura had faithfully followed bomb-raid evacuation plans for the past three times. However, because the past three times had been false warnings, she became tired of moving, and decided to stay. Perhaps, if she hadn’t stayed at her house, and instead had fled, she would have been safer. Dr. Masakazu Fujii, whose sole responsibility as a doctor should have been to take care of as many patients as he could, is forced to only keep two patients for easier evacuation. Father Wilhelm Kleinsorge had been affected by war-time rations, and so is staying at the mission house. Maybe the diarrhea had saved his life, but it doesn’t change the fact that war was the main cause for his sickness. Dr. Terufumi Sasaki joined the Red Cross Hospital to save those who were hurt. Miss Toshiko Sasaki’s leg was crushed, and readers don’t really know what happens to her next.
I think the first chapter is just to expound the characters and emphasize the differences of their stories; but it’s also to show that wartime was harsh on all of them, and had affected them with equal devastation.
I expected as much from a novel that was based on the Hiroshima bombing because I’ve seen a documentary type TV show on Discovery Channel before. I don’t remember the exact details of which people they interviewed in the show, but I remember them interviewing an old woman that told us that she saw a soldier without a face. He had his head there but there was nothing on it. Another thing I remember from the TV show was the black rain that fell after the bombing. The rain was literally black, and it was highly toxic because it was filled with radiated chemicals (I think), but the people were dying of thirst so they drank it and died. A lot of the people survived the blast but died later of a mysterious illness that included symptoms like hair falling off and skin rotting away. It said in the show that the Americans didn’t know the full extent of the damage radiation could cause until after the bombing, which I think is pretty cruel. So basically, the bombing in Hiroshima was a test case for a new weapon – atomic bombs.
In the first chapter, it talks about six characters lives that have been altered by the bomb. I think his word choice before the bomb and after, really changes a lot. It’s also very interesting how he writes the first chapter; it seems like some of the story is true, and some he made up himself. I think Hersey was also trying to tell us that people’s lives could be changed just by one single thing. Another thing caught my attention, he talked only about six characters, and just those six characters made the story interesting to read about.
It was just one place and the bomb had affected Hiroshima a lot. I find it interesting that John Hersey focuses on Hiroshima and not other cities.
So my question is, why did Hersey wrote only about Hiroshima, but not other cites?
“There, in the tin factory, in the first moment of the atomic age, a human being was crushed by books.” (pg. 16)
I found this quote pretty ironic because we were the ones who discovered the knowledge but now it destroys us. Its very true in fact. For example, we create machines, but we are destroying earth--> global warming; soon it will destroy us.
If I were one of the survivors,I would be pretty freaked out! It’s really scary how you don’t even know when a bomb might have landed near you home or where you are; you have no time to escape, but just to hide behind a rock or something. Why do the American planes want to bomb Japan? I still don’t really understand why yet.
Why does the author chose the six people to survive in particular?
In this chapter, we learned about how the atomic bomb struck Hiroshima. It showed us how all the people from different places work together to try to get out of the mess the atomic bomb made. They healed the wounded together as one, and then aiding others. This story also shows the true side of history, due to the fact that it was based on people that have actually lived through the detonation of the bomb. This chapter can also be viewed by many to be the consequences of the Nanjin Massacre.
In the first chapter the author mainly talks about what the surviors were doing before the bomb. The Author was very detailed and had a great choice of diction
I thought that the way Hersey describes the victims’ plight was very god. He showed it from many different perspectives, so we could see it from different angles. We saw it from someone who was unaffected, but had family affected, we saw it from someone who was the only person in his entire building to be unaffected, and we read about someone being suspended like food between chopsticks. We can see the many different effects clearly. I also thought that the effect of the atomic bomb was amazing; it affected so many people in such a wide range. It was able to completely destroy many buildings, and also kill thousands of people. I think that the book helped me see the magnitude of the detonation.
Response of Hiroshima Chapter 1 I think this chapter is very realistic. It showed how the bomb hit from many points of views. Some thought it was carpet bombing, and others thought it was a new kind of weapon. It also showed how the man different races of people unit to heal each others’ wounds. It also showed real historical events that have happened in the past about what the Japanese people deserved after the Nanjin Massacre. The chapter describes the happening of the bomb that was dropped, which is toward the end of the World War II. For me, I think if I were the people who know about the bomb and was there, then I’d been frighten and hopeless. In the world today, I have never thought of any life like that, but in the first chapter of this novel have described very clearly and the picture can be easily imagined.
Chaos broke out after the explosion take place in the area of Hiroshima. I can’t believe it’s this horrible when an atomic bomb explode. Even though I’ve learn about them but according to this. John Hersey gave me bigger picture of what really happened. Clothes they were originally wearing are all burned. Thousands of people died, and everything is burning. All in chaos which I could not imagine myself to be in and especially being surround by the crow of people crying out for help. To think of myself in a situation like this is very scary. Time is the most important thing that they need to be aware of. In these perspectives, two met each other and knew some of them. I like how the author brings the character to meet each other from different location. It shows lots of different pains and hard times.
Chapter 1 response: This book, Hiroshima, by John Hersey impressed me. In the first chapter, the author used four points of view on the day of the explosion. It tells different perspectives, thoughts and situation when the explosion happened. In each perspective, I saw different situation they are in. Also, how they survive through the explosion while people around them died. That goes for Dr. Sasaki, and he was the only doctor in the hospital who’s unhurt. Is this miracle that these four people didn’t die? Or was it just their luck? This connects to an experience I’ve heard from my mom. How she survive through Vietnam when the war is going on, and also how she got away from Vietnam in the US air force plane. It was a long journey but a fearful one too, even though she did not have much fear than the one as shown from John Hersey. John Hersey had the same description on the four of them when it happened. First they saw the blinding light, and then they flew because of the vibration, and houses fell around them. They did not hear the explosion, and this fact overwhelmed me because I could not imagine what it will be like. This fact hit me saying the explosion is way too loud, and is over the range of our normal ears to hear that we can’t hear it. The part where Mrs. Nakamura walks unevenly over to her youngest daughter, it was after a few moment of the explosion. Author told us that she can’t hear any other children cries. This book is rather different from Night. Hiroshima had given us image, more of not physical fear but rather the fear of something they don’t know. Night had given us the image, the image of real torture by human, and it is something that you know. This is also how I become interested in this book.
-------------- What does the scene describe in the book makes you feel? What would you do if this happen?
The first chapter introduces us to the six main characters that the book will be talking about. We can learn a lot on how these civilians felt about the war. Most of them were touched by the war, even in the most indirect ways. Hersey shows how wartime hardship has an effect on every character's daily life. Another thing that is quite interesting is the utter confusion generated by the blast. Many people expect to hear the sound of approaching planes or the warnings or the air-raid sirens, but nobody hears anything before the bomb is dropped. All they see is a “noiseless flash”, and the only ones who survived the attack were just lucky to be in the right place at the right time. One thing I don’t get in the novel is the sentence “There, in the tin factory, in the first moment of the atomic age, a human being was crushed into books." I think this sentence is quite ironic because books were supposed to help people, but now it is something that kills human beings. What the author might want to tell us is that as books and technology get more advanced, they can become more and more dangerous to humans. As when the nuclear technology was improved, the atom bomb was produced and that killed hundreds of thousands of people.
I found this first chapter very riveting, even though it was sort of spread out over lots of different characters. However, the various descriptions and backgrounds of each character were good enough to make me care what happened to them. By using the lives of ordinary people, this book is able to show the incident in a unique manner. I already want to know what happens afterwards, especially to Dr. Sasaki, since there is already foreshadowing that he will soon have much to do, despite being relatively uninjured. I’m also worried about what will happen to the other characters, and how they will handle all that has happened.
In this chapter, Hersey tells the readers how quickly everything changed when the atomic bomb hit Hiroshima. There was no warning, in a sudden, an entire city turned from every-day tasks to a panicked life. Hersey also wrote ironies to entertain his readers. For instance, it was ironic that Miss Sasaki had spent time planning a funeral at work that morning. The funeral, scheduled for ten a.m., would not only never take place but would be forgotten from the bomb that was about to be dropped. Another irony is that while the dropping of the bomb over Hiroshima symbolizes a technological breakthrough into the "atomic age," Miss Suzuki was actually crushed by books instead of the brand new weapon. A number of the characters remember feeling relief at the all- clear signal that sounded at eight o’clock that morning, but after fifteen minutes later, another bomb was dropped on them. Hersey is showing the reader how unexpected and unpredictable the nuclear attack was for the citizens of Hiroshima.
There, in the tin factory, in the first moment of the atomic age, a human being was crushed by books.” (pg. 16) What is your opinion of the quote? :)
Jackie: I think this quote is an irony that the author wants to convey to the readers because the dropping of the bomb over Hiroshima symbolizes a technological breakthrough into the "atomic age," Miss Suzuki was actually crushed by books instead of the brand new weapon.
My question: Does Hersey's details persuade the readers that the events he wrote are realistic or leaves the readers doubt it?
In chapter 1 Hershey introduces each the six survivors, and provides us a window on the survivors’ normal lives in the hours before the disaster. Hershey shows how life in Hiroshima had changed, and war and bombs had become integrated into the citizens’ daily lives. For example, Mrs. Hatsuyo Nakamura seemed to have become accustomed to the daily warnings. Each survivor’s location is different, and their situations are different too, ranging from young to old, male to female, Japanese to German, poor to rich. All of them admit being nervous and worried by the war, and how Hiroshima could be bombed any time. From different places and in different situations, the survivors see “a flash of light” before the bomb hits and wipes out everything. They all have a reaction in common- complete confusion. In that single moment, their lives are changed, and they witness the destruction of an entire city and the death of 140,000 people.
I found the introductory chapter very intruiging - it starts off as six separate characters, all doing their own business in their own places (which, some are very far apart from each other), all of different classes and people of Japan, but all facing the same tragedy, the same bomb that has wrecked the lives of those about them, but miraculously, they themselves have survived.
However, I found the transitions between each character somewhat confusing - there are no asteriks or spaces that cut between them, and because we don't know the characters well enough yet and are unfamiliar with Japanese names, it's hard keeping track of who is who and what is going on with each. Where it mentions about the alarms sounding over and over again, it somehow reminds me of the boy who cried wolf. Although it's not the same - in that story, the boy sounds the alarm (cries wolf) for entertainment, the scene in Hiroshima is much more grave. However, the first couple of times you sound the alarm, everyone rushes to the evacuation arena. After a couple of times with the air raid siren going off and nothing at all happening, people start assumming it's another false alarm, another part of their life that they are unaffected of. Same with the story.
Mr. Fukai said, "Leave me here to die" (Page 27). Then on the next page, Mr. Fukai cried, "I can't walk...Leave me here!" Father Kleinsorge picked Mr. Fukai up pickaback, but Mr. Fukai refused to. Then Father Kleinsorge replies, "We have lost all our possessions but not our sense of humor." What is the significance of Father Kleinsorge's quote? Why would Mr. Fukai want to give up his life? Isn't survival very important, because everyone wants to survive?
Jenny: Does Hersey's details persuade the readers that the events he wrote are realistic or leaves the readers doubt it?
------
I think most of the information that John Hersey wrote are true. There are probably some details that are not true. He adds in a lot of details and exaggeration to make the story sound serious. If you see in newspapaper articles, most of the information is true, while others are made up to attract readers. The purpose for information that isn't true is to add exaggeration to make readers read your story. Also, another purpose to add in information that isn't true is when the six people forget what exactly happened. The six people that Hersey interviewed may sometimes have forgetten what exactly happenened; this then causes the story to be inconsistent. To make the story more consistent, the author adds information that may not be true. An example that may not be true is when the book said, "He [Mr. Tanimoto] was the only person making his way into the city" (Page 29). The author exaggerates saying that Mr. Tanimoto is the only one going to the city. That is most likely not true, because there must be a few others who are going to the city, too. When the author adds that exaggeration, it makes the readers more interested in the book. Exaggeration makes the story in the "extremes," which here, the quote makes the story sound more serious.
I have another question. On page 38, the book says, "Everyone who is wearing anything white, take it off." What is the meaning of white? Does white mean death in Japan? If white means death, why is the color commonly used in hospitals? In America, white is used in weddings.
Hiroshima definitely has me hooked. I really want to know what’s going to happen next. I quite like how Hersey uses several POVs to tell the story. The story is devastating… Some of John Hersey’s words create a very vivid, very gruesome picture indeed, such as “while outside, all over Hiroshima, maimed and dying citizens turned their unsteady steps toward the Red Cross Hospital to begin an invasion that was to make Dr. Sasaki forget his private nightmare for a long, long time” (15). I could imagine the scenes as clearly as if watching a movie – which is definitely something. A question occurred to me while reading: why is Father Kleinsorge in Japan? Does it have anything to do with WWII (the AxisPowers)?
Why Does Hersey introduce six different individuals? Why not more? Or Less?
I think Hersey introduces six characters in the story to get a hold of different views. Each person is very different, no matter vocation, identity, or gender. Each man or woman were doing different things the moment the atom bomb was dropped, and all six had different reactions as well as injuries. Some were unscathed, others had their legs crushed, and some others lost their glasses or flipflops. through these different persons Hersey could tell the story of Hiroshima in every single perspective and view.
It’s interesting how the stories show you first handoff what happened before and after the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima. It was like one had gone back through time and had seen what happened on that faithful day. Everybody in Japan was on high alert for possible bombing from America, but they weren’t prepared for this. All of the survivors saw the same thing, a blinding white flash. After that, everything around them was in ruins. These survivors are very lucky, they lived while many perished. Throughout the story, one would be able to see and feel what each character had done or been through. One would also be able to sense each of the character’s terror when they saw the bomb explode in mid-air. This chapter really gave me a bigger view of what actually happened before and during the bombings of Hiroshima.
Describing the experience from different points of view would give us a broader range of imagination. The lucky survivors tell us from the closest distance what they say and felt. I heard that people within 1 km all experienced some kind of influence (such as the waves from the bomb). Up until now, I think it is quite boring, since you don’t get to go deeper.
Out of hundreds of victims of the atomic bomb, Heresy only talks about five of the survivors. I can’t imagine how the other victims felt. One of the survivers that stood out to me the most was Reverend Mr. Tanimato. He was educated in the United States, he dressed in “American clothes”. He lived the American way, yet he lived in the land of America’s enemy: Japan. It wasn’t surprising that some local people said he was “not to be trusted.” I think that this is kind of ironic because during the Meiji Reform, the Japanese wanted to get rid of the old traditional Japanese way and to have new Western ideas. But now during World War II, the Japanese are resenting the modern American ways. During the war, the government wanted the citizens to have a sense of nationalism. But to achieve this, the Japanese had to let go of the modern Western ways and go back to the Japanese culture they had once rejected and wanted to get rid of.
Why was there no sound when they dropped the bomb? Why was there no sound when the bomb exploded? Why were there only the flash and the impact of the bomb? When the bomb exploded all six characters in the story were never expecting the bomb to be launched now, all of them were expecting to hear the planes, the sound of the bomb, but they didn’t hear anything. I think they have gotten use to the sirens and the announcements of the planes, so they don’t take mind to them anymore, but they still fear the sirens but doubts the sirens at he same time. I think most of the survivors were coincidently at the right place at the right time. Dr. Masakazu Fujii was sitting out on the porch next to the river, so when the bomb exploded he flew into the river. Dr. Terufumi Sasaki was lucky not injured because he was not next to the windows. Father Wilhelm Kleinsorge was in the mission house, the mission house did not topple because it was earthquake proof. All of the characters lucky survived.
The first chapter introduces the settings and what a few survivors were doing when the bomb landed on Hiroshima. They were having a typical day just like everyone else, when suddenly they saw a “blinding light” and houses and buildings fell apart. In a lot of the survivor’s examples given, they said that they thought the bomb had directly landed on the place they were in. But they were actually more than 1,000 yards away from the center of the where the bomb landed. This demonstrates the power and strength of an atomic bomb. I think that it is sad how Einstein’s invention of the atomic bomb was used in such violent ways. The survivors are very lucky, because when the bomb dropped, they were in the right place at the right time. If the bomb dropped five minutes later, then they might not have survived.
After reading chapter one of Hiroshima, Noiseless Flash, I found it interesting how John Hersey used the omniscient third person point of view. Each survivor of B-29 had ordinary lives, but suddenly the B-29 dropped down, it immediately changes the atmosphere. I also noticed that their lives were unpredictable. They did not know when the bomb would drop down and they may die anytime. Each decision they make will affect whether or not they will die. If Dr. Sasaki took the train, he would be “close to the center at the time of the explosion and would surely have perished.” The ending of this chapter kept me thinking. “A human being was crushed by books.” I think this meant that the books meant technology. The bomb was made by technology, so it was actually technology killing people. I find this ironic because technology is supposed to help improve lives and not destroy people’s lives. I think this really shows how technology has been put in a negative use sometimes. Although this chapter has only been describing the lives of the survivors, I still think it was pretty interesting and exciting.
Chapter one, “the noiseless flash”, is the introduction of all the real life characters that had experienced and suffered the disruption of war. As the author introduces them into the story, I received the basic idea of the settings and their backgrounds. I find Mrs. Hatsuyo Nakamura as a very brave woman, because she has been caring for her three children and trying to protect them when the air raid siren is on. I think the author did a great job to make the story suspenseful by adding many hints to foreshadow this tragedy. He used hints that foreshadow the bombing to Hiroshima, because Hiroshima “has been spared any raids thus far in the war.” There are rumors that America has saved “something special” for the city. The imagery and the clear setting bring us back to a historical event, in which we can visualize the situation.
After reading this chapter, I think that the main characters are all very lucky to survive the bombing. It was very sudden and without warning, and they only survived by chance. I also feel bad for the people who died, because they evacuated to safety so many times due to false warnings, and in the end they died because of a bomb that came without warning. They had been so stressed, confused, and tired preparing themselves for an attack from America, and their hard work turned out to be useless.
“There, in the tin factory, in the first moment of the atomic age, a human being was crushed by books.” (16) This quote stood out to me because it was very ironic. Books are something we invented to benefit us, but here someone was bring crushed by the very thing we invented out of good will, something we never intended for it to do. This suggests that technology can bring consequences beyond our imagination, relating to the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
In the first chapter of Hiroshima, John Hersey describes what is happening in the Japanese city, Hiroshima. He narrates about six important characters and their daily life activities before the bomb struck the city. Although Hersey gives precise details of every character’s actions, I find it confusing to follow six characters at the same moment in time. The book seems very straightforward, but it is hard to imagine and look through six different perspectives of the same event. The names are too long which makes it even harder to understand which character did what.
This atomic bomb, codename “Little Boy”, was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 exactly 15 minutes past eight. It killed approximate a hundred thousand people, and because of the radiation and after-effect of the bomb, overall, it killed as much as 140,000 people. This chapter mainly sets up the setting and talks about the six main survivors that lived the bombing. These characters include reverend Mr. Kiyoshi Tanimoto, Mrs. Hatsuyo Nakamura, Dr. Masakazu Fujii, Father Wilhelm Kleinsorge, and Dr. Terufumi Sasaki.
Why does the author write from so many different perspectives? The author first talks about one character and then switches to another. It sort of makes me confused, because that way we can only learn a little bit about each character, instead of focusing on a few main characters.
Weifan: I think the author wants readers to think that nothing is wrong, everyone is doing what they do everyday. That Hiroshima was a peaceful place. But after the bomb, the author wants to convey a suprised sort of mood.
This chapter is mostly describing what the characters were doing at the time of the bomb’s explosion, so there isn’t much in-depth analyzing. However, I felt that the way the author wrote this showed well the way that one’s life can change in a split second, even if it was normal the second before. All these people were doing normal, everyday, things, some routine, some not but overall normal. And then all of a sudden, after a flash of bright white light, their surroundings are totally changed and they are thrust into states of confusion. The author is sort of telling us to live every moment as if it were our last, and not to leave things you consider important for later just because you don’t want to do them now. If we do, we may never get the chance to do them. Things may come along and keep you from achieving what you want.
Doris: Why does Hersey introduce six characters in the first chapter?
I think Hersey introduces not one, but six characters to give the reader a taste of different perspectives, of different characters at the same time. It probably makes it much more interesting to read or maybe, it would sound more convincing and realistic to the reader.
to chuni: I think the red circle is sun symbolizing the atomic bomb symbolizing Hiroshima's fate. The red sun is a symbol of pride on the japanese flag. However, the sun here is used to symbolize the atomic bomb, which fell on hiroshima and quickly brought about the japanese surrender. THis brought the japanese great shame. i suppose it's the irony effect
It is pretty scary how most of the Japanese citizens were just living a normal life and got cought up in a situation like this. Although some expected there to be a bombing in their city, no one had the mind to expect a atomic bomb, somtihing that was not yet invented at that time, nor shown to the world. The coincidence involved shocked me. For some people, if they caught a train a little bit later they would have had been killed by the shockwave of the atomic bomb. Others were lucky enough to be in a part of a building who's structure was hardy enough to withstand the blast.
I think all these people are lucky to have survived, especially Dr. Terufumi Sasaki; if he was late a few minutes, he would have died. How the bomb just fell on the unexpected citizen of Hiroshima is very unfair, but is very funny in a way how they had no idea the bomb was going to be dropped. They were just going on with their normal lives like Dr. Masakazu Fujii in his underwear when the bomb hit. I think how the author jumps from one person to another is slightly confusing and annoying because I still am not sure of the names yet. Still, it is interesting how the people reacted.
The first chapter of Hiroshima introduces six characters into the story. Their lives had been affected a lot by the war, having to live in constant fear of air-raids. The city of Hiroshima had not been raided though and was eventually bombed. We all know the story of the atomic bomb, but I had never read a story that came from the Japanese point of view. The chapter showed that each of them still lead normal lives and did normal things, but the atomic bomb disrupted everything. This chapter is truly amazing because it shows that the victims of the bomb were not soldiers on a battlefield, but instead normal humans living out their lives. I suppose that you kind of forget that when you hear about the history of World War II. I find it very terrifying how things can change your lives so much. The war and the bomb completely changed their lives, because now they must struggle to survive. The first chapter of Hiroshima seemed cool, and I can’t wait to finish the novel.
I find this chapter quite boring and confusing. The switching of the characters was sort of confusing and the names also made it sort of hard to remember who was what. There isn't a lot of action in this chapter, so it was quite boring to me. The only thing that stood out to me was the detail the author had in the story. Everything was very specific; the date and time was all written out. I think the author did a very nice job on the details in the story.
I thought the first chapter was confusing at first, because the author jumped around, not going chromatically. But later on I understood that John Hershey described the situation the characters went into when the atomic bomb landed one by one.
I thought the beginning and the ending matched up well, because they both talked about Ms. Sasaki's situation. First, it was about her turning her head and the atomic bomb fell, then it connects to other characters' reactions, then it went back to after the atomic bomb fell, and how Ms. Sasaki was being crushed by the books behind her.
The six main characters: Mr. Kiyoshi Tanimoto who spend most of his time in America, have been educated in America. Mrs. Hatsuyo Nakamura, a widow that she is very tired of taking care the three children. Dr. Masakazu Fujii works in a private hospital. Dr. Terufumi Sasaki is a thinker, and finally Miss Toshiko Sasaki. The novel said about their life and who are they. Later an explosion, had threatened the people in neighborhood. This explosion had led them know that they are in touch of the war. Every people were trying to find a place to hide from the war.
This opening of the book it is quite exciting, but I don’t really like the part that they introduce the main characters first. I wish that it starts with the explosion, and then about the characters, not direct characterize but finding out by our self, makes the reader to read forward of the novel.
Oh wow! This starting chapter, though somewhat boring, was also very interesting and suspenseful at the ends of each character segment. I find this chapter to be played out in a fashion very similar to “Vantage Point”, a wonderful film that takes from 8 different characters’ perspectives of a same event, except that we have 6 people here; I wonder if the entire book will follow in this manner… I was just wondering: why did the author add some technical notes (like how far the people were from the explosion) into the story. The author also added details like “before the explosion” and such; why couldn’t the author made it into a more story-like progression? It seems like somewhat of solid non-fiction, where sold facts are just stated. Of course, most of the chapter is still in pretty good third-person limited point of view. I would like to comment that the incorporation of Japanese and the simplicity of the sentences and structure make the story and the book itself very accessible.
“A step taken in time, a decision to go indoors, catching one streetcar instead of the next---that spared him.” Pg2
I feel that with this quote, Hershey shows the power of the bomb, and the helplessness of the people in Hiroshima against it. They had completely no idea of what was about to happen, and even if they did, there was nothing they could do to prevent it. Everything happened in an instant, without any chance for extra-protection; you either got lucky and survived or didn’t. Fate was the god during the explosion, there was nothing else the victims had to depend on, as the bomb was already out of the reach of power of mankind, and fate was the only chance you had at survival.
I thought this author isvery different from Elie. Hersay write in a very concise and percise tone. unlike Elie who really adds his feeling into what he writes, Hersay bearly put any emotion into his writing. Hersay just tell the tale as it is.
Also unlike Night this book tells a different of disaster. In night everything happened slowly, and things gets worst as time goes on. However in hiroshima things start from the worst, and all happend very fast.
Which do you think is less terrible those Jews who had experianced the concentration camps or the people that had survived the atomic bomb?
Jennifer: I think that quote is somewhat ironic, and also weirdly humorous. As a result, I'm not sure I like it, since it's making light of a deadly situation.
The chapter started out with a specific date and time and Hersey described what each of the survivor did or was doing at the time of the explosion. But what my question is, why does he talk about6 people rather than just one person? and how much of the story do you think is true and how much is created by Hersey?
I agree with Fernando. By starting a book by talking who the six survivors are and what they did when the bomb exploded was quite boring. If he started out with the explosion, it would have made his starting a litter more interesting.
When I got halfway into the chapter, seeing the author describing the characters in such a detailed way makes me doubt Hersey’s point of view. Personally, when I describe something in such a detailed way, I usually do that to show how bad I want to prove my point. Im guessing Hersey’s point was to prove the amount of damage the bomb did to the people. I was doubting his explaination because he might have some bias and also that not all facts passed on by people could be all correct.
67 comments:
To see the fates of all these strangers who scarely knew about the other suddenly tied together by a single catastrophic event is certainly interesting.
My Question:
What kind of atmosphere does John Hersey wish to convey to his readers prior to and after the explosion?
Weifan: I think the author wants to convey the mood "surprised" or "sudden". Before all the characters were leading what seemed to be normal lives, doing their everyday activity. But then the next second, their beloved country and most of those they loved died or vanished from the earth. So I think this is showing surprise or sudden terror.
I thought it was interesting how this book was a mix between fiction and nonfiction. The fact that he goes so detailed into these events makes it seem realistic. But at the same time, this also makes it seem unrealistic. The book clearly states the position of every person, which means the author couldn't have been to all those places at the exact same time. Also the fact that these six characters just happened to survive by chance was, for me, unrealistic. My question is that why does the author do this? And also, which parts are fiction and which parts are not?
Weifan: I think Jon wanted to give us a taste of what the normal life was like during the time of war and how it all of a sudden changed with one single bomb. It's destructive power was so powerful and he wanted to capture the essence of it's surprise on the people.
Hiroshima Chapter 1 response
After reading Hiroshima, I got an insight on how great the impact of the Atomic bomb set loose on Hiroshima was. I never really got the picture of how deadly it was. I had heard that 10,000 people were killed but I thought that was just on impact and by explosions. I didn’t realize all the other casualties happening and how lethal they were.
The bomb also only hit one spot yet it seemed to affect those within even 40000 feet away. From this range, houses were toppled, glass was shattered, and many people were killed in one quick flash. It was shocking to see pictures in my head where people are toppling over and cuts appearing all over their flesh. I never expected to see that much damage from such a far radius where the explosions are absent and there is only force. This Bombing was incredibly destructive and it surprised me at how badly the people were affected.
“There, in the tin factory, in the first moment of the atomic age, a human being was crushed by books.” (pg. 16)
I think Hersey is trying to get a message across to the reader with his use of irony. He writes that a book, a source of knowledge, can even be dangerous to humans. This suggests that technology and knowledge can be extremely dangerous as it progresses to higher levels of intelligence. With this simple sentence, the author leaves the reader with a feeling of horror questioning how things as simple and important to humans as books can contribute so much damage.
What is your opinion of the quote? :)
In this chapter, time is slowed down by how John Hersey describes it. He portrays what each main character—Mrs. Hatsuyo Nakamura, Dr. Terufumi Sasaki, Father Wilhelm Kleinsorge, Toshiko Sasaki, Dr. Masakazu Fujii, and Reverend Mr. Kiyoshi Tanimoto—is doing before the atomic bomb hits Hiroshima. Because John Hersey slowed the time down, it made the chapter seem more melodramatic. However, every single character’s doings are not depicted clearly with many details. Even though we do not know what each character did before, we learn what they were doing before the bomb blasted, which is most relevant to the plot of the story. This makes it seem more staged. The contrast between what the characters were doing before the atomic bomb bombed Hiroshima and what the characters were doing after the atomic bomb blasted in Hiroshima differs greatly. Everything seems different after the atomic bomb bombed—everyone is frightened, worried, and confused. The fact that Mrs. Nakamura didn’t believe the first warning shocked me. I was thinking You’re in a WAR! Every warning counts! What are you thinking? You’re going to die! However, afterwards I found out that she is tired of bring her three children to a safe place whenever there is a warning. It may seem very bizarre to us, but I can imagine how tiring it is to take care of three children in a war (because I have seen movies). The last paragraph of chapter one is the most significant paragraph of the whole chapter, because it shows that even books—the stuff we gain knowledge from—can be dangerous and harmful. What does this show? It shows how severe the war is at the point of time in the novel.
The first chapter talked about the six main characters of the story. It was the introduction of what activities they were doing before the bomb struck. I think it’s interesting how the author decided to tell us what the characters were doing minutes or hours before the bomb completely changed their lives. It showed a contrast between how they lived before the bomb fell, and after. I think the author was trying to allow us to compare how ordinary their lives were. Dr. Masakazu Fuji was still reading the newspaper in his underwear, and the tailor’s widow was letting her children nap. She ignored the warning sirens because she was tired of having to take her kids to the shelter and back.
There was this one character, Dr. Terufumi that was extremely lucky. He survived the attack without a scratch. If he had gotten on the train before the one he went on, he would have been dead. Also it was because he was standing away from the window, or he wouldn’t have survived the blast.
The most unfortunate of the main characters would be the Miss Toshiko, who got crushed by a bookshelf. It was dry humor when the author said, “There, in the first moment of the atomic age, a human being was crushed by books.”
The first chapter was kind of confusing, as I head to keep referring back to the character guide to make sure who the characters were. I know that the story is self-explanatory, but I like to make sure when the person is introduced. The way the atom bomb fell was described as though the apocalypse had just occurred. The day is going along smoothly, when all of a sudden, and with NO SOUND, the buildings start collapsing like this massive earthquake of unimaginable proportions had just taken place. It’d be like the lake exploding in the middle of lunchtime.
"The air raid siren went off"
"The all clear sounded"
These two quotes were repeated a lot of times during the chapter. After these two quotes the atomic bomb went off. Many of the people died because they were confident that nothing would happen because the all clear sound sounded. This caused many people to become careless. According to Mr.Tanimoto, the siren would go off every day and the all clear sound would also ring every day. So why was it that the people who rang the sirens were unaware of the situation? Was it because it felt like a routine and they felt that there was no need to check? Or was it because they were careless?
I like how Hershey wrote the story in many different point of views, so that readers can have an insight of what goes on with different people, and compare how the events affect them. It’s amazing how one atomic bomb can drastically change the lives of thousands, maybe millions, of people. It makes me wonder, did the US army and government think of how millions of innocent people would die or get injured? I also thought about how lucky the 6 main characters are. Did the author make up their escapes, or did they really happen to people during the time? The main characters are fortunate to have escaped, but will they reconcile with their family members? Will they spend the rest of their lives looking for them, or will they give up?
“A step taken in time, a decision to go indoors, catching one streetcar instead of the next---that spared him.” (Hersey 2) I thought this quote showed the deadliness of the atomic bomb. How you can only escape death by chance and if you did, you might have been affected by the radiation. An example could be seen with doctor Sasaki where people who were in the same room as him were killed while he survived because he had been at the right place. The author gave us an image of how Japanese families lived their everyday life. Kindness could be seen among the Japanese people through Hersey’s descriptions. These descriptions made me feel how immoral it was dropping a bomb on these people when they were not the people fighting in the war. Hersey also wrote how the Japanese had no knowledge of the atomic bomb when they had thought the destruction had been caused by a single bomb landing right on top of them. That innocence of the people made it seem inhuman that the atomic bomb was dropped on them.
In chapter one, the author is basically introducing every characters and what they are doing one hour before the explosion. Everyone’s life seemed normal, but I think the author wants to show one’s life can change immediately in a split second.
The last sentence of chapter one seems important to me: “There, in the tin factory, in the first moment of the atomic age, a human being was crushed by books.” Books are full of knowledge, a symbol of education, but it can also be dangerous.
In this chapter, I found it extremely interesting how Hersey gave us a look about the peoples past lives before the bomb hit. He gave us a before picture and an after picture. He showed us how much the bomb affected their lives.
On page 11, Father Wilhelm Kleinsorge “felt the strain of being a foreigner in an increasingly xenophobic Japan; even a German, since the defeat of the Fatherland, was unpopular. “ It’s really interesting to see how Japan is starting to hate foreigners, even their own allies, the Germans. However, the tone hints that Germans were once popular and welcome in Japan. The change might have been brought about by the defeat of Germany in the European Theater. Perhaps the Japanese were afraid that they were going to meet the same fate. It is perhaps already imminent at this stage that Japan was going to lose the war.
It would only be reasonable to understand the Japanese denial towards the possibility of losing. This may be explained by the surge of Japanese nationalism during WWII. This xenophobic behavior may have been caused by the denial to face the fact that their strongest ally has lost and that they are facing imminent defeat.
=.=.=.=.=.=.=.==.=.=.===.=.=.=.
In response to Tying Yi,
I think the siren sounded so often that they took no notice for it. After all, you can't just hide in bunkers all day right? It also mentions that normally the sirens are caused by American weather planes. The planes probably came so often that they no longer took surprise in it.
=.=.=.=.=.=.=.=.=.=.=.=.=
Question:
The illustrations on the front of the book is extremely interesting. What did it symbolize? Why do you think the author used it? Was the red ball the atomic bomb or was it the sun? Why?
Why does Hersey introduce six characters in the first chapter?
I think he introduced six characters because each of them had a different perspective of the bombing. They are all different, with different ages and personalities, so what they experience and how they go through it will also be different. The situation in how they met the bomb also varies. However, the war has changed them all equally.
Reverend Mr. Kiyoshi Tanimoto was educated in America; because of the war, he sought to prove his loyalty to Japan-to prove that just because he was American-educated didn’t mean that he was not Japanese. Mrs. Hatsuyo Nakamura had faithfully followed bomb-raid evacuation plans for the past three times. However, because the past three times had been false warnings, she became tired of moving, and decided to stay. Perhaps, if she hadn’t stayed at her house, and instead had fled, she would have been safer. Dr. Masakazu Fujii, whose sole responsibility as a doctor should have been to take care of as many patients as he could, is forced to only keep two patients for easier evacuation. Father Wilhelm Kleinsorge had been affected by war-time rations, and so is staying at the mission house. Maybe the diarrhea had saved his life, but it doesn’t change the fact that war was the main cause for his sickness. Dr. Terufumi Sasaki joined the Red Cross Hospital to save those who were hurt. Miss Toshiko Sasaki’s leg was crushed, and readers don’t really know what happens to her next.
I think the first chapter is just to expound the characters and emphasize the differences of their stories; but it’s also to show that wartime was harsh on all of them, and had affected them with equal devastation.
I expected as much from a novel that was based on the Hiroshima bombing because I’ve seen a documentary type TV show on Discovery Channel before. I don’t remember the exact details of which people they interviewed in the show, but I remember them interviewing an old woman that told us that she saw a soldier without a face. He had his head there but there was nothing on it. Another thing I remember from the TV show was the black rain that fell after the bombing. The rain was literally black, and it was highly toxic because it was filled with radiated chemicals (I think), but the people were dying of thirst so they drank it and died. A lot of the people survived the blast but died later of a mysterious illness that included symptoms like hair falling off and skin rotting away. It said in the show that the Americans didn’t know the full extent of the damage radiation could cause until after the bombing, which I think is pretty cruel. So basically, the bombing in Hiroshima was a test case for a new weapon – atomic bombs.
In the first chapter, it talks about six characters lives that have been altered by the bomb. I think his word choice before the bomb and after, really changes a lot. It’s also very interesting how he writes the first chapter; it seems like some of the story is true, and some he made up himself. I think Hersey was also trying to tell us that people’s lives could be changed just by one single thing.
Another thing caught my attention, he talked only about six characters, and just those six characters made the story interesting to read about.
It was just one place and the bomb had affected Hiroshima a lot. I find it interesting that John Hersey focuses on Hiroshima and not other cities.
So my question is, why did Hersey wrote only about Hiroshima, but not other cites?
“There, in the tin factory, in the first moment of the atomic age, a human being was crushed by books.” (pg. 16)
I found this quote pretty ironic because we were the ones who discovered the knowledge but now it destroys us. Its very true in fact. For example, we create machines, but we are destroying earth--> global warming; soon it will destroy us.
If I were one of the survivors,I would be pretty freaked out! It’s really scary how you don’t even know when a bomb might have landed near you home or where you are; you have no time to escape, but just to hide behind a rock or something. Why do the American planes want to bomb Japan? I still don’t really understand why yet.
Why does the author chose the six people to survive in particular?
In this chapter, we learned about how the atomic bomb struck Hiroshima. It showed us how all the people from different places work together to try to get out of the mess the atomic bomb made. They healed the wounded together as one, and then aiding others. This story also shows the true side of history, due to the fact that it was based on people that have actually lived through the detonation of the bomb. This chapter can also be viewed by many to be the consequences of the Nanjin Massacre.
In the first chapter the author mainly talks about what the surviors were doing before the bomb. The Author was very detailed and had a great choice of diction
I thought that the way Hersey describes the victims’ plight was very god. He showed it from many different perspectives, so we could see it from different angles. We saw it from someone who was unaffected, but had family affected, we saw it from someone who was the only person in his entire building to be unaffected, and we read about someone being suspended like food between chopsticks. We can see the many different effects clearly. I also thought that the effect of the atomic bomb was amazing; it affected so many people in such a wide range. It was able to completely destroy many buildings, and also kill thousands of people. I think that the book helped me see the magnitude of the detonation.
Response of Hiroshima Chapter 1
I think this chapter is very realistic. It showed how the bomb hit from many points of views. Some thought it was carpet bombing, and others thought it was a new kind of weapon. It also showed how the man different races of people unit to heal each others’ wounds. It also showed real historical events that have happened in the past about what the Japanese people deserved after the Nanjin Massacre. The chapter describes the happening of the bomb that was dropped, which is toward the end of the World War II.
For me, I think if I were the people who know about the bomb and was there, then I’d been frighten and hopeless. In the world today, I have never thought of any life like that, but in the first chapter of this novel have described very clearly and the picture can be easily imagined.
To Jackie:
that even in the atomic ages when Book are still very important. its stronger than bombs.
Chaos broke out after the explosion take place in the area of Hiroshima. I can’t believe it’s this horrible when an atomic bomb explode. Even though I’ve learn about them but according to this. John Hersey gave me bigger picture of what really happened. Clothes they were originally wearing are all burned. Thousands of people died, and everything is burning. All in chaos which I could not imagine myself to be in and especially being surround by the crow of people crying out for help. To think of myself in a situation like this is very scary. Time is the most important thing that they need to be aware of. In these perspectives, two met each other and knew some of them. I like how the author brings the character to meet each other from different location. It shows lots of different pains and hard times.
Chapter 1 response:
This book, Hiroshima, by John Hersey impressed me. In the first chapter, the author used four points of view on the day of the explosion. It tells different perspectives, thoughts and situation when the explosion happened. In each perspective, I saw different situation they are in. Also, how they survive through the explosion while people around them died. That goes for Dr. Sasaki, and he was the only doctor in the hospital who’s unhurt. Is this miracle that these four people didn’t die? Or was it just their luck? This connects to an experience I’ve heard from my mom. How she survive through Vietnam when the war is going on, and also how she got away from Vietnam in the US air force plane. It was a long journey but a fearful one too, even though she did not have much fear than the one as shown from John Hersey.
John Hersey had the same description on the four of them when it happened. First they saw the blinding light, and then they flew because of the vibration, and houses fell around them. They did not hear the explosion, and this fact overwhelmed me because I could not imagine what it will be like. This fact hit me saying the explosion is way too loud, and is over the range of our normal ears to hear that we can’t hear it.
The part where Mrs. Nakamura walks unevenly over to her youngest daughter, it was after a few moment of the explosion. Author told us that she can’t hear any other children cries. This book is rather different from Night. Hiroshima had given us image, more of not physical fear but rather the fear of something they don’t know. Night had given us the image, the image of real torture by human, and it is something that you know. This is also how I become interested in this book.
--------------
What does the scene describe in the book makes you feel? What would you do if this happen?
The first chapter introduces us to the six main characters that the book will be talking about. We can learn a lot on how these civilians felt about the war. Most of them were touched by the war, even in the most indirect ways. Hersey shows how wartime hardship has an effect on every character's daily life. Another thing that is quite interesting is the utter confusion generated by the blast. Many people expect to hear the sound of approaching planes or the warnings or the air-raid sirens, but nobody hears anything before the bomb is dropped. All they see is a “noiseless flash”, and the only ones who survived the attack were just lucky to be in the right place at the right time. One thing I don’t get in the novel is the sentence “There, in the tin factory, in the first moment of the atomic age, a human being was crushed into books." I think this sentence is quite ironic because books were supposed to help people, but now it is something that kills human beings. What the author might want to tell us is that as books and technology get more advanced, they can become more and more dangerous to humans. As when the nuclear technology was improved, the atom bomb was produced and that killed hundreds of thousands of people.
I found this first chapter very riveting, even though it was sort of spread out over lots of different characters. However, the various descriptions and backgrounds of each character were good enough to make me care what happened to them. By using the lives of ordinary people, this book is able to show the incident in a unique manner. I already want to know what happens afterwards, especially to Dr. Sasaki, since there is already foreshadowing that he will soon have much to do, despite being relatively uninjured. I’m also worried about what will happen to the other characters, and how they will handle all that has happened.
In this chapter, Hersey tells the readers how quickly everything changed when the atomic bomb hit Hiroshima. There was no warning, in a sudden, an entire city turned from every-day tasks to a panicked life. Hersey also wrote ironies to entertain his readers. For instance, it was ironic that Miss Sasaki had spent time planning a funeral at work that morning. The funeral, scheduled for ten a.m., would not only never take place but would be forgotten from the bomb that was about to be dropped. Another irony is that while the dropping of the bomb over Hiroshima symbolizes a technological breakthrough into the "atomic age," Miss Suzuki was actually crushed by books instead of the brand new weapon. A number of the characters remember feeling relief at the all- clear signal that sounded at eight o’clock that morning, but after fifteen minutes later, another bomb was dropped on them. Hersey is showing the reader how unexpected and unpredictable the nuclear attack was for the citizens of Hiroshima.
There, in the tin factory, in the first moment of the atomic age, a human being was crushed by books.” (pg. 16)
What is your opinion of the quote? :)
Jackie: I think this quote is an irony that the author wants to convey to the readers because the dropping of the bomb over Hiroshima symbolizes a technological breakthrough into the "atomic age," Miss Suzuki was actually crushed by books instead of the brand new weapon.
My question: Does Hersey's details persuade the readers that the events he wrote are realistic or leaves the readers doubt it?
In chapter 1 Hershey introduces each the six survivors, and provides us a window on the survivors’ normal lives in the hours before the disaster. Hershey shows how life in Hiroshima had changed, and war and bombs had become integrated into the citizens’ daily lives. For example, Mrs. Hatsuyo Nakamura seemed to have become accustomed to the daily warnings.
Each survivor’s location is different, and their situations are different too, ranging from young to old, male to female, Japanese to German, poor to rich. All of them admit being nervous and worried by the war, and how Hiroshima could be bombed any time. From different places and in different situations, the survivors see “a flash of light” before the bomb hits and wipes out everything. They all have a reaction in common- complete confusion. In that single moment, their lives are changed, and they witness the destruction of an entire city and the death of 140,000 people.
I found the introductory chapter very intruiging - it starts off as six separate characters, all doing their own business in their own places (which, some are very far apart from each other), all of different classes and people of Japan, but all facing the same tragedy, the same bomb that has wrecked the lives of those about them, but miraculously, they themselves have survived.
However, I found the transitions between each character somewhat confusing - there are no asteriks or spaces that cut between them, and because we don't know the characters well enough yet and are unfamiliar with Japanese names, it's hard keeping track of who is who and what is going on with each.
Where it mentions about the alarms sounding over and over again, it somehow reminds me of the boy who cried wolf. Although it's not the same - in that story, the boy sounds the alarm (cries wolf) for entertainment, the scene in Hiroshima is much more grave. However, the first couple of times you sound the alarm, everyone rushes to the evacuation arena. After a couple of times with the air raid siren going off and nothing at all happening, people start assumming it's another false alarm, another part of their life that they are unaffected of. Same with the story.
Mr. Fukai said, "Leave me here to die" (Page 27). Then on the next page, Mr. Fukai cried, "I can't walk...Leave me here!" Father Kleinsorge picked Mr. Fukai up pickaback, but Mr. Fukai refused to. Then Father Kleinsorge replies, "We have lost all our possessions but not our sense of humor." What is the significance of Father Kleinsorge's quote? Why would Mr. Fukai want to give up his life? Isn't survival very important, because everyone wants to survive?
Jenny: Does Hersey's details persuade the readers that the events he wrote are realistic or leaves the readers doubt it?
------
I think most of the information that John Hersey wrote are true. There are probably some details that are not true. He adds in a lot of details and exaggeration to make the story sound serious. If you see in newspapaper articles, most of the information is true, while others are made up to attract readers. The purpose for information that isn't true is to add exaggeration to make readers read your story. Also, another purpose to add in information that isn't true is when the six people forget what exactly happened. The six people that Hersey interviewed may sometimes have forgetten what exactly happenened; this then causes the story to be inconsistent. To make the story more consistent, the author adds information that may not be true. An example that may not be true is when the book said, "He [Mr. Tanimoto] was the only person making his way into the city" (Page 29). The author exaggerates saying that Mr. Tanimoto is the only one going to the city. That is most likely not true, because there must be a few others who are going to the city, too. When the author adds that exaggeration, it makes the readers more interested in the book. Exaggeration makes the story in the "extremes," which here, the quote makes the story sound more serious.
I have another question. On page 38, the book says, "Everyone who is wearing anything white, take it off." What is the meaning of white? Does white mean death in Japan? If white means death, why is the color commonly used in hospitals? In America, white is used in weddings.
Hiroshima definitely has me hooked. I really want to know what’s going to happen next. I quite like how Hersey uses several POVs to tell the story. The story is devastating… Some of John Hersey’s words create a very vivid, very gruesome picture indeed, such as “while outside, all over Hiroshima, maimed and dying citizens turned their unsteady steps toward the Red Cross Hospital to begin an invasion that was to make Dr. Sasaki forget his private nightmare for a long, long time” (15). I could imagine the scenes as clearly as if watching a movie – which is definitely something.
A question occurred to me while reading: why is Father Kleinsorge in Japan? Does it have anything to do with WWII (the AxisPowers)?
Why Does Hersey introduce six different individuals? Why not more? Or Less?
I think Hersey introduces six characters in the story to get a hold of different views. Each person is very different, no matter vocation, identity, or gender. Each man or woman were doing different things the moment the atom bomb was dropped, and all six had different reactions as well as injuries. Some were unscathed, others had their legs crushed, and some others lost their glasses or flipflops. through these different persons Hersey could tell the story of Hiroshima in every single perspective and view.
What is ironic about Mr. Tanimoto's actions?
It’s interesting how the stories show you first handoff what happened before and after the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima. It was like one had gone back through time and had seen what happened on that faithful day. Everybody in Japan was on high alert for possible bombing from America, but they weren’t prepared for this. All of the survivors saw the same thing, a blinding white flash. After that, everything around them was in ruins. These survivors are very lucky, they lived while many perished. Throughout the story, one would be able to see and feel what each character had done or been through. One would also be able to sense each of the character’s terror when they saw the bomb explode in mid-air. This chapter really gave me a bigger view of what actually happened before and during the bombings of Hiroshima.
Describing the experience from different points of view would give us a broader range of imagination. The lucky survivors tell us from the closest distance what they say and felt. I heard that people within 1 km all experienced some kind of influence (such as the waves from the bomb). Up until now, I think it is quite boring, since you don’t get to go deeper.
Out of hundreds of victims of the atomic bomb, Heresy only talks about five of the survivors. I can’t imagine how the other victims felt. One of the survivers that stood out to me the most was Reverend Mr. Tanimato. He was educated in the United States, he dressed in “American clothes”. He lived the American way, yet he lived in the land of America’s enemy: Japan. It wasn’t surprising that some local people said he was “not to be trusted.” I think that this is kind of ironic because during the Meiji Reform, the Japanese wanted to get rid of the old traditional Japanese way and to have new Western ideas. But now during World War II, the Japanese are resenting the modern American ways. During the war, the government wanted the citizens to have a sense of nationalism. But to achieve this, the Japanese had to let go of the modern Western ways and go back to the Japanese culture they had once rejected and wanted to get rid of.
Why was there no sound when they dropped the bomb? Why was there no sound when the bomb exploded? Why were there only the flash and the impact of the bomb? When the bomb exploded all six characters in the story were never expecting the bomb to be launched now, all of them were expecting to hear the planes, the sound of the bomb, but they didn’t hear anything. I think they have gotten use to the sirens and the announcements of the planes, so they don’t take mind to them anymore, but they still fear the sirens but doubts the sirens at he same time. I think most of the survivors were coincidently at the right place at the right time. Dr. Masakazu Fujii was sitting out on the porch next to the river, so when the bomb exploded he flew into the river. Dr. Terufumi Sasaki was lucky not injured because he was not next to the windows. Father Wilhelm Kleinsorge was in the mission house, the mission house did not topple because it was earthquake proof. All of the characters lucky survived.
The first chapter introduces the settings and what a few survivors were doing when the bomb landed on Hiroshima. They were having a typical day just like everyone else, when suddenly they saw a “blinding light” and houses and buildings fell apart. In a lot of the survivor’s examples given, they said that they thought the bomb had directly landed on the place they were in. But they were actually more than 1,000 yards away from the center of the where the bomb landed. This demonstrates the power and strength of an atomic bomb. I think that it is sad how Einstein’s invention of the atomic bomb was used in such violent ways. The survivors are very lucky, because when the bomb dropped, they were in the right place at the right time. If the bomb dropped five minutes later, then they might not have survived.
After reading chapter one of Hiroshima, Noiseless Flash, I found it interesting how John Hersey used the omniscient third person point of view. Each survivor of B-29 had ordinary lives, but suddenly the B-29 dropped down, it immediately changes the atmosphere.
I also noticed that their lives were unpredictable. They did not know when the bomb would drop down and they may die anytime. Each decision they make will affect whether or not they will die. If Dr. Sasaki took the train, he would be “close to the center at the time of the explosion and would surely have perished.”
The ending of this chapter kept me thinking. “A human being was crushed by books.” I think this meant that the books meant technology. The bomb was made by technology, so it was actually technology killing people. I find this ironic because technology is supposed to help improve lives and not destroy people’s lives. I think this really shows how technology has been put in a negative use sometimes.
Although this chapter has only been describing the lives of the survivors, I still think it was pretty interesting and exciting.
Chapter one, “the noiseless flash”, is the introduction of all the real life characters that had experienced and suffered the disruption of war. As the author introduces them into the story, I received the basic idea of the settings and their backgrounds. I find Mrs. Hatsuyo Nakamura as a very brave woman, because she has been caring for her three children and trying to protect them when the air raid siren is on. I think the author did a great job to make the story suspenseful by adding many hints to foreshadow this tragedy. He used hints that foreshadow the bombing to Hiroshima, because Hiroshima “has been spared any raids thus far in the war.” There are rumors that America has saved “something special” for the city. The imagery and the clear setting bring us back to a historical event, in which we can visualize the situation.
After reading this chapter, I think that the main characters are all very lucky to survive the bombing. It was very sudden and without warning, and they only survived by chance. I also feel bad for the people who died, because they evacuated to safety so many times due to false warnings, and in the end they died because of a bomb that came without warning. They had been so stressed, confused, and tired preparing themselves for an attack from America, and their hard work turned out to be useless.
“There, in the tin factory, in the first moment of the atomic age, a human being was crushed by books.” (16)
This quote stood out to me because it was very ironic. Books are something we invented to benefit us, but here someone was bring crushed by the very thing we invented out of good will, something we never intended for it to do. This suggests that technology can bring consequences beyond our imagination, relating to the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
In the first chapter of Hiroshima, John Hersey describes what is happening in the Japanese city, Hiroshima. He narrates about six important characters and their daily life activities before the bomb struck the city. Although Hersey gives precise details of every character’s actions, I find it confusing to follow six characters at the same moment in time. The book seems very straightforward, but it is hard to imagine and look through six different perspectives of the same event. The names are too long which makes it even harder to understand which character did what.
This atomic bomb, codename “Little Boy”, was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 exactly 15 minutes past eight. It killed approximate a hundred thousand people, and because of the radiation and after-effect of the bomb, overall, it killed as much as 140,000 people.
This chapter mainly sets up the setting and talks about the six main survivors that lived the bombing. These characters include reverend Mr. Kiyoshi Tanimoto, Mrs. Hatsuyo Nakamura, Dr. Masakazu Fujii, Father Wilhelm Kleinsorge, and Dr. Terufumi Sasaki.
Why does the author write from so many different perspectives? The author first talks about one character and then switches to another. It sort of makes me confused, because that way we can only learn a little bit about each character, instead of focusing on a few main characters.
Weifan: I think the author wants readers to think that nothing is wrong, everyone is doing what they do everyday. That Hiroshima was a peaceful place. But after the bomb, the author wants to convey a suprised sort of mood.
This chapter is mostly describing what the characters were doing at the time of the bomb’s explosion, so there isn’t much in-depth analyzing. However, I felt that the way the author wrote this showed well the way that one’s life can change in a split second, even if it was normal the second before. All these people were doing normal, everyday, things, some routine, some not but overall normal. And then all of a sudden, after a flash of bright white light, their surroundings are totally changed and they are thrust into states of confusion. The author is sort of telling us to live every moment as if it were our last, and not to leave things you consider important for later just because you don’t want to do them now. If we do, we may never get the chance to do them. Things may come along and keep you from achieving what you want.
Doris: Why does Hersey introduce six characters in the first chapter?
I think Hersey introduces not one, but six characters to give the reader a taste of different perspectives, of different characters at the same time. It probably makes it much more interesting to read or maybe, it would sound more convincing and realistic to the reader.
to chuni:
I think the red circle is sun symbolizing the atomic bomb symbolizing Hiroshima's fate. The red sun is a symbol of pride on the japanese flag. However, the sun here is used to symbolize the atomic bomb, which fell on hiroshima and quickly brought about the japanese surrender. THis brought the japanese great shame. i suppose it's the irony effect
It is pretty scary how most of the Japanese citizens were just living a normal life and got cought up in a situation like this. Although some expected there to be a bombing in their city, no one had the mind to expect a atomic bomb, somtihing that was not yet invented at that time, nor shown to the world. The coincidence involved shocked me. For some people, if they caught a train a little bit later they would have had been killed by the shockwave of the atomic bomb. Others were lucky enough to be in a part of a building who's structure was hardy enough to withstand the blast.
I think all these people are lucky to have survived, especially Dr. Terufumi Sasaki; if he was late a few minutes, he would have died. How the bomb just fell on the unexpected citizen of Hiroshima is very unfair, but is very funny in a way how they had no idea the bomb was going to be dropped. They were just going on with their normal lives like Dr. Masakazu Fujii in his underwear when the bomb hit. I think how the author jumps from one person to another is slightly confusing and annoying because I still am not sure of the names yet. Still, it is interesting how the people reacted.
The first chapter of Hiroshima introduces six characters into the story. Their lives had been affected a lot by the war, having to live in constant fear of air-raids. The city of Hiroshima had not been raided though and was eventually bombed. We all know the story of the atomic bomb, but I had never read a story that came from the Japanese point of view. The chapter showed that each of them still lead normal lives and did normal things, but the atomic bomb disrupted everything. This chapter is truly amazing because it shows that the victims of the bomb were not soldiers on a battlefield, but instead normal humans living out their lives. I suppose that you kind of forget that when you hear about the history of World War II. I find it very terrifying how things can change your lives so much. The war and the bomb completely changed their lives, because now they must struggle to survive. The first chapter of Hiroshima seemed cool, and I can’t wait to finish the novel.
I find this chapter quite boring and confusing. The switching of the characters was sort of confusing and the names also made it sort of hard to remember who was what. There isn't a lot of action in this chapter, so it was quite boring to me. The only thing that stood out to me was the detail the author had in the story. Everything was very specific; the date and time was all written out. I think the author did a very nice job on the details in the story.
I thought the first chapter was confusing at first, because the author jumped around, not going chromatically. But later on I understood that John Hershey described the situation the characters went into when the atomic bomb landed one by one.
I thought the beginning and the ending matched up well, because they both talked about Ms. Sasaki's situation. First, it was about her turning her head and the atomic bomb fell, then it connects to other characters' reactions, then it went back to after the atomic bomb fell, and how Ms. Sasaki was being crushed by the books behind her.
The six main characters: Mr. Kiyoshi Tanimoto who spend most of his time in America, have been educated in America. Mrs. Hatsuyo Nakamura, a widow that she is very tired of taking care the three children. Dr. Masakazu Fujii works in a private hospital. Dr. Terufumi Sasaki is a thinker, and finally Miss Toshiko Sasaki. The novel said about their life and who are they. Later an explosion, had threatened the people in neighborhood. This explosion had led them know that they are in touch of the war. Every people were trying to find a place to hide from the war.
This opening of the book it is quite exciting, but I don’t really like the part that they introduce the main characters first. I wish that it starts with the explosion, and then about the characters, not direct characterize but finding out by our self, makes the reader to read forward of the novel.
Why does Hersey talk about the lives of six people? Why not just focus on only one person?
Oh wow! This starting chapter, though somewhat boring, was also very interesting and suspenseful at the ends of each character segment. I find this chapter to be played out in a fashion very similar to “Vantage Point”, a wonderful film that takes from 8 different characters’ perspectives of a same event, except that we have 6 people here; I wonder if the entire book will follow in this manner…
I was just wondering: why did the author add some technical notes (like how far the people were from the explosion) into the story. The author also added details like “before the explosion” and such; why couldn’t the author made it into a more story-like progression? It seems like somewhat of solid non-fiction, where sold facts are just stated. Of course, most of the chapter is still in pretty good third-person limited point of view.
I would like to comment that the incorporation of Japanese and the simplicity of the sentences and structure make the story and the book itself very accessible.
“A step taken in time, a decision to go indoors, catching one streetcar instead of the next---that spared him.” Pg2
I feel that with this quote, Hershey shows the power of the bomb, and the helplessness of the people in Hiroshima against it. They had completely no idea of what was about to happen, and even if they did, there was nothing they could do to prevent it. Everything happened in an instant, without any chance for extra-protection; you either got lucky and survived or didn’t. Fate was the god during the explosion, there was nothing else the victims had to depend on, as the bomb was already out of the reach of power of mankind, and fate was the only chance you had at survival.
I thought this author isvery different from Elie. Hersay write in a very concise and percise tone. unlike Elie who really adds his feeling into what he writes, Hersay bearly put any emotion into his writing. Hersay just tell the tale as it is.
Also unlike Night this book tells a different of disaster. In night everything happened slowly, and things gets worst as time goes on. However in hiroshima things start from the worst, and all happend very fast.
Which do you think is less terrible those Jews who had experianced the concentration camps or the people that had survived the atomic bomb?
Jennifer: I think that quote is somewhat ironic, and also weirdly humorous. As a result, I'm not sure I like it, since it's making light of a deadly situation.
The chapter started out with a specific date and time and Hersey described what each of the survivor did or was doing at the time of the explosion. But what my question is, why does he talk about6 people rather than just one person? and how much of the story do you think is true and how much is created by Hersey?
I agree with Fernando. By starting a book by talking who the six survivors are and what they did when the bomb exploded was quite boring. If he started out with the explosion, it would have made his starting a litter more interesting.
When I got halfway into the chapter, seeing the author describing the characters in such a detailed way makes me doubt Hersey’s point of view. Personally, when I describe something in such a detailed way, I usually do that to show how bad I want to prove my point. Im guessing Hersey’s point was to prove the amount of damage the bomb did to the people. I was doubting his explaination because he might have some bias and also that not all facts passed on by people could be all correct.
Post a Comment