Psychological Effects Of Hiroshima

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. When Hersey released the book, the events of Hiroshima bombing were still crisp

At the same time, we could also argue that those characters who do face severe mental problems in the aftermath of the explosion are given fairly short shrift in the book. Mr. Fukai, the secretary who presumably threw himself into the flames, is mentioned only briefly, although such a story has potential for enormous psychological impact. The same goes for Mrs. Kamai, the woman who walks around clutching her dead baby in her arms—Mr. Tanimoto turns his back on her, and we are spared any more discussion of her fate. Other possible reasons for the lack of psychological depth are the stoicism and pride of the Japanese people and Hiroshima survivors, who remain emotionally distant from the events. Toshio Nakamura is an interesting case. Hersey allows Toshio’s account to end the original book, using his school report as a kind of window into a child’s mind and perspective. Toshio’s account, however, is noteworthy for how undisturbed, but nonetheless disturbing, it is. Perhaps because we expect the characters to be more psychologically affected, the deadpan accounts are especially disconcerting. On the other hand, Hersey may have been unable to fully interview those people who were mentally and emotionally disturbed by the explosion, and that may account for the book’s lack of psychological