Hiroshima follows the lives of six people who survive the desolation of the atomic bomb on their city. 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. This section picks up to trace the lives of the people after the initial dropping of the bomb. Many of the major characters suffer minor injuries, but there are descriptions of those who have died and those who are gravely ill due to the fallout. It ends with a epilogue that includes a visit by the author many years later to see how each of the characters has been affected.
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. There is a great appeal to pathos in this second section. For example, Hersey writes, "Mrs. Nakamura lay indoors with Myeko. They both continued sick, and though Mrs. Nakamaru vaguely sensed that their trouble was caused by the bomb, she was too poor to see a doctor and so never knew exactly what the matter was. " (pg 99). 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. This is what ultimately affects the audience more.
Overall, I think that Hersey did achieve his purpose of objectively describing the lives of people affected by the dropping of the atomic bomb. He never once inserted his own opinion into the piece, he merely shared their stories. And that was a more powerful force than anything just one opinion could evoke.
John Hersey was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist who wrote for Time Magazine and The New Yorker.
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