

John Herseyrsquo;s novel ldquo;Hiroshimardquo; puts a face on the victims of the atomic bomb. This is significant because, in America we often see the dropping of the bombs as an issue of solely numbers: we killed over 200, 000 Japanese people to spare the lives of possibly more American soldiers. Herseyrsquo;s book looks at this event not through numbers but through emotions.
Herseyrsquo;s novel centers around six main characters and their memories of the bombing. The first chapter summarizes the charactersrsquo; actions directly before and after the bomb. The actual incident itself is a brief soundless moment, yet the consequences are endless. Each character becomes intertwined and their lives all dramatically change. The most powerful scene to me was at the end of chapter two. Mr. Tanimoto finds his neighbor Mrs. Kamai, cradling her dead baby for the entire day. The scene made me forget about rational explanations for the atomic dropping, and displayed the emotional side of the event. �
By delving into the Hiroshima victimsrsquo; lives Hersey humanizes the war. The reader sees the horrors Japanese civilians witnessed, and feels their emotions. Hersey is able to connect the reader to each character, and present a different perspective into the bombings. A common justification for the atomic bomb was that Japanese civilians would ruthlessly fight until the warrsquo;s end. But by highlighting different traits in his charactersrsquo; stories, Hersey depicts other wise.��
Herseyrsquo;s ldquo;Hiroshimardquo; uses six stories to truly illustrate the Japanesersquo;s side to the atomic bombing. This is vital because we often forget about the individual in times of war. People are simplified into a clump of numbers, and their faces disappear into statistics. When I hear on the news that X amount of soldiers and civilians died in Iraq, I have a hard time grasping the number. I know nothing about the victims and their lives, so I canrsquo;t connect with them. Itrsquo;s easy to simplify people into numbers, but itrsquo;s difficult to truly see each person. �
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