TOW #12: Hiroshima by John Hersey

Hiroshima follows the lives of six people who survive the desolation of the atomic bomb on their city. The story is divided into four parts, starting with the bomb being dropped. The first section sets the scene by describing the lives of each of the six people, alternating perspectives every few pages. The first character introduced is Reverand Mr.Kiyoshi Tanimoto, followed by Mrs. Hatsuyo Nakamaru, Dr. Matasakazu Fujii, Father Wilhelm Kleinsorge, Dr. Terufumi Sasaki, and Toshiko Sasaki. These people are very different, all with different personalities and professions. The one thing that binds them is that all of them were in the city of Hiroshima when the atomic bomb was dropped. This section ends with each of them feeling the impact of the bomb.
Although I have not finished the story, it seems clear that the author's purpose in writing Hiroshima was to inform the American public about the effects of the decision to drop the atomic bomb. This book, published in 1946 a year after the event occurred, sought to put faces on those who suffered at Hiroshima. One rhetorical device used by Hersey is his distinct writing style, combining a journalistic professionalism with a narrative-like story-line. Hersey narrates the lives of each of the six survivors from an outside perspective, impartially but with detailed descriptions as well. Writes Hersey, "Mr. Tanimoto was a small man, quick to talk, laugh, and cry. He wore his black hair parted in the middle and rather long...he moved nervously and fast, but with a restraint which suggested that he was a cautious, thoughtful man" (5). This may be reflective of his desire to turn his writing into a news story, since it was originally published in The New Yorker, without losing a human appeal. Hersey also employs multiple perspectives from each of the characters. By doing so, he widens the scope of his story and makes it more comprehensive and detailed as to all the events that were occurring at the same time. Hersey achieves his purpose by factually detailing the events that occurred and leaving out his own emotions in favor of the much more powerful emotions of his six characters.
John Hersey was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist who wrote for Time Magazine and The New Yorker.