The Selfless Characters In Hiroshima, By John Richard Hersey

It is often said that history repeats itself; thus, the importance of history classes and education about the past. There are certain things, like wars, that we do not wish to see happen again in our world. Hiroshima is a book written by John Richard Hersey. He was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American author, and was known as one of the primal specialist of the so called ‘New Journalism’. It can be seen in his book that he had adapted the method of storytelling to showcase his work. It tells the stories of six survivors of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, covering a period of time right before to and one year after the atomic bomb was dropped on August 6, 1945. The time when he published the book, the events of Hiroshima air attack were still …show more content…
However, we can argue that Hersey presents the more selfless characters in the book in a more favorable light. Dr. Sasaki and Father Kleinsorge cross paths as saints, and Miss Sasaki and Mrs. Nakamura are almost Christ-like in their presentation of anguish. Dr. Fujii and Mr. Tanimoto, on the other side, exists in a kind of drab field. Whereas Dr. Fujii may have been a very noble doctor, most of the stories in Hersey’s narrative focus on his love for pleasure or his concern for his own fate, particularly when compared to Dr. Sasaki’s progress in the aftermath of the explosion. Mr. Tanimoto, on the contrary, is a very inconclusive character. He is devoted to the peace process, but he also appears self-serving and ingratiating at times. He seems to be a leader, but he is also under attack and scrutiny for being a self-promoter by Japanese and …show more content…
Throughout the book we find characters whose entire families have been killed, such as Mrs. Kamai, who grasps the dead body of her baby in her arms, and we look at those who have been disconnected or detached from their family members. For instance, the Kataoka children. At the same time, three of the main characters—Father Kleinsorge, Miss Sasaki, and Dr. Sasaki—do not have companion or partner or children of their own, and neither Mr. Tanimoto’s nor Dr. Fujii’s families are involved in the story. Hiroshima is much more a book about community than it is about family. Ever since the bomb has rattled families and eradicated homes, the residents of the city must come together and benefit one another as a society, as they do in the Asano Park. If Hersey had focused his account on families fighting for their survival, his book probably would be more sentimental. Somebody like Mrs. Nakamura, for example, is the most compassionate character because she battles to take care of her three children on her own, yet her story is minimal until the postscript. Hersey chooses instead to focus on those who give themselves to their community, like Father Kleinsorge and Dr. Sasaki, or those who gain from the well being of others, like Miss Sasaki. A story about lost relatives finding each other or families struggling to rebuild their lives might be more emotional, but it would not have the same