John Hersey's Hiroshim Summary

The author of Hiroshima, John Hersey, was born on June 17, 1914 in Tientsin. His parents, Roscoe M. and Grace, were American missionaries. Hersey spoke fluent Chinese and attended the British Grammar School as well as the American School. Also, according to “Early Years”, Hersey said that when he thinks back to his childhood growing up in China, he lived a pretty “normal” childhood. When Hersey was about ten, his father became sick. His father had encephalitis which means his brain had inflation, probably due to an infection or an allergic reaction. Hersey and his family had to come back to America and they settled down in Briarcliff Manor, New York. He attended Hotchkiss Preparatory School where he worked as a janitor and waiter. Yale

The novel tells about the first nuclear bomb in 1945. It focuses on how the event impacted ordinary people in their everyday lives. When this novel was published, the bombing event of Hiroshima was extremely fresh in everyone’s head. Americans had yet to realize that they had absolutely no clue what really happened. They saw it as a necessary evil and had the thought that it was a last resort. Hersey was not actually hitting that subject, but he did reveal a human side to the horrific tragedy. Hiroshima was not just land, it had a community of people, and they were all impacted greatly. Hersey reveals that Americans justified the bombings too much and need to really and truly see the long term effects. The book helped Americans see just that without portraying America as threatening and wicked. And recognized the fact that it is devastating to the whole society, not only the victims. In the book, Hersey also tells about six different characters who show great amounts of courage, strength, and lend a helping hand to

Terufumi Sasaki was a young doctor who worked at the Red Cross Hospital in Hiroshima at the time of the bombing. He was working towards his license in hope of completing his physician certification. Dr. Sasaki had an eventful life to say the least. He was compassionate, caring, hard-working, and determined, not to mention he had his fair share of wealth. His wealth appears to be a defense against the ghosts that haunt him after the incident on August 6, 1945. Once the bombing happened, Dr. Sasaki was quick to scoop up all the bandages that he could get his hands on. As he went on about his day, treating patient, after patient, he wound up working nineteen hours straight. The reason he stopped then was because he could hardly see or bandage people up properly. His whole career he would work long and hard to care for his patients the way he saw fit. There was absolutely no question to if he was an extremely good doctor or not. As the saying goes, hard work does pay off, especially for Dr. Sasaki. His hard working ethic and determination gave him lots of money to fall back on if he so desired. All of the long hours that he pushed through, helped him have a way to escape, especially after August 6, 1945. Dr. Sasaki shuts himself out of relationships and closes himself off from all emotions. He focused on work, and work only. It was only after he was diagnosed with lung cancer that he began spending more, and more time with the ones he loved most. After he