The novel, Hiroshima, by John Hersey begins by describing the historical setting and background of Hiroshima and Nagasaki before the bombs detonate and the town is destroyed. The beginning takes place on August 6, 1945 in Hiroshima Japan and continues through the next 40 years telling the stories of survivors and their loved ones. The book opens with the actions of six main characters, "at exactly fifteen minutes past eight in the morning, on August 6, 1945, Japanese time, at the moment when the atomic bomb flashed above Hiroshima." (1). The narrator focuses on the main characters Miss Toshiko Sasaki, a clerk; Dr. Masakazu Fujii, doctor; Mrs. Hatsuyo Nakamura, a tailor's widow; Father Wilhelm Kleinsorge, German priest; Dr. Terufumi Sasaki, surgeon; and Reverend Mr. Kiyoshi Tanimoto, pastor. The narrator sets the scene of each character until at, " nearly midnight, the night before the bomb was dropped, an announcer on the city’s radio station said that about two hundred B-29s were approaching southern Honshu and advised the population of Hiroshima to evacuate to their designated 'safe areas,'" (4). The bombs detonation marks the end of the background and the beginning of the climax.
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The major conflict in Hiroshima is between the atomic bomb and the six main characters of the book. The atomic bomb creates a major problem for the residents; because, most of their houses and shelters get destroyed in the detonation. When the bomb detonates, many citizens are killed by the fire, or crushed by falling shelves and rubble from the houses. After the bomb, the narrator focuses on Dr Sasaki. He believed only his building was hit by the bomb, but when he steps outside his house he realizes, "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." (8). The conflict between the bomb and the citizens of Hiroshima continues throughout the book and even still today in Japan.
The climax of Hiroshima is hard to pin point because the climax takes up most of the novel. The bomb detonating and destroying the town creates the turning point in the novel, there is no going back to the normal life the characters had only a few hours before the alerts. The residants only have a few days to learn and figure out if they will live or die. Throughout the book, readers see the outcome of the bomb and how the six main characters deal with the destruction. The climax can be described as a point of no return. In the novel, the point of no return is when the characters are figuring out if they are going to die. Throughout the novel the six main characters wait and watch their loved ones die and see them get hurt. The narrator focusses on Mrs. Kamai at the end of chapter 2, when the bomb detonated, her house collapsed on her and her baby. She managed to crawl out with her baby, but the baby died in her arms. When Mr. Tanimoto found her later that day, "she was crouching on the ground with the body of her infant daughter in her arms. The baby had evidently been dead all day." (22). The climax of this novel continues throughout the story starting with the bombs detonation to the end with the resolutions and stories of the rest of the six main characters' lives.
The resolution to the novel occurs in the last chapter. The survivors of the bombing decide as a group to be called Hibakusha. They didn't like the name survivors becuase the name reminded them of the people that died. This chapter gives the stories of the Hibakusha and what they do to rebuild their lives. The final chapter focuses on the six main characters. Once the Hibakusha were able to face the destruction and except the past, they began, "repossessing the plots of rubble where their houses had once stood. Many had built crude wooden huts, having scavenged fallen tiles from ruins to make their roofs." (134). The outcomes for the six main characters are all different. A few of the characters experience tragic ends or loose their loved ones. A few of the Hibakusha had inspiring experiences that continue to inspire society today. Still to this day in Japan, there are tours running through the rubble from the bombings to insure that nothing of the sort happens again. The tragic bombing taught many important lessons to the people of Japan and the US. Even though this was a tragic event and many people lost their lives, important lessons were learned.
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