Hiroshima

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1946

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Key Figures

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

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Chapters 1-2Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 1 Summary: “A Noiseless Flash”

Content Warning: The source text contains graphic descriptions of the injuries and illness caused by the bombing of Hiroshima. Some of these descriptions are presented in this section to reflect the book’s content and intent.

Hiroshima begins “[a]t 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). In a short opening section of a single paragraph, Hersey introduces each of his six characters. He explains what each person had done that morning, from first getting up until the moment the bomb hit. The chapter covers the early morning of August 6.

Hersey begins with Kiyoshi Tanimoto, a Methodist minister who had studied theology in the United States. Since Hiroshima was one of the next cities expected to be bombed, Tanimoto’s wife and children spent nights in a town to the north. Tanimoto was alone that morning. He was in the process of moving furniture and other items to the house of a friend in Koi, a suburb two miles out of the city center, to protect his church’s property from damage. A friend, Mr. Matsuo, had helped him move the church’s piano, and Tanimoto was returning the favor by helping Matsuo move some things. Tanimoto had risen at five o’clock to get there early.

The two men had just started transporting a heavy piece of furniture on a handcart when the air-raid siren went off. It was about seven. This happened every morning when an American weather plane approached, so it did not alarm them; soon the all-clear signal sounded. They were taking a break when a light flashed in the sky like “a sheet of sun” (5). Matsuo took shelter in a house nearby and Tanimoto crouched next to a large stone in the garden. When the light and a rush of air passed, debris fell from the sky. Tanimoto ran into the street to see the damage. Opposite was a hill; the first thing he saw was a group of soldiers who had been digging shelters in the earth, emerging all bloody.

Next, Hersey discusses Mrs. Hatsuyo Nakamura, a widow with three children. The family had spent part of the prior night in an evacuation area on the outskirts of the city, then walked home after it was deemed safe to return. Upon reaching home, another alert sounded, but Nakamura decided to stay since her children were so tired. She awoke at seven when the air-raid siren went off and stayed put until an hour later, when the all-clear was given. She told her children to stay on their bed mats, as they were tired from the night before, and started cooking rice. At 8:15, she saw the flash of white and, by instinct, moved toward her children. Instantly, she was sent flying into the next room as debris fell around her. Afterward, she was able to get up. She quickly went to dig out her children, who were covered in rubble.

Dr. Masakazu Fujii owned a small private hospital and lived in the same building. On the morning of the bomb, only two patients were staying there, along with a couple of servants and six nurses. His family was all staying elsewhere, but a niece was visiting. He was reading the paper on the porch when the flash of light appeared in the sky, and he started to get up. The part of the building where Fujii lived was constructed on piles over a river. It collapsed into the river as the hospital, situated behind it, toppled forward. Fujii found himself pinned between two large timbers, which formed a V over his chest, but held his head above water. He had pain in his left shoulder and had lost his glasses. Otherwise, he was unhurt.

Hersey describes Father Wilhelm Kleinsorge, a Jesuit, German priest living at a mission house in Hiroshima. Kleinsorge had not felt well because of the poor diet he had from rations. After saying Mass that morning for a handful of worshippers and then having breakfast, he read a magazine in his room when the flash of light appeared. He blanked out. When he came to, he found himself in the mission’s garden, bleeding a bit. Only the mission house still stood, as it had been buttressed against earthquakes; all the other buildings had been flattened.

Dr. Terufumi Sasaki was a surgeon at the Red Cross Hospital in Hiroshima. The previous night he had stayed at his mother’s house, 30 miles outside the city. That morning he took an earlier train than usual to get to work. Upon arriving at the hospital, he reported to the head surgeon and began his work. A little before eight, he drew blood from a patient and then started toward the stairs to go to another floor where the laboratory was. He was just past a window when “a gigantic photographic flash” appeared (14). A blast followed; Sasaki lost the blood sample, his glasses, and his slippers, but was miraculously unharmed. He ran around looking for the head surgeon, only to find him horribly cut. The hospital was in shambles: supplies were everywhere and ceilings and walls had fallen in. Sasaki was the only doctor who was not injured. He grabbed some supplies and began to tend to the wounded.

Finally, Hersey discusses Toshiko Sasaki (unrelated to Dr. Sasaki), a personnel clerk in a factory called East Asia Tin Works. Toshiko Sasaki had been up since 3 a.m. to do housework and cook, as her mother was in the hospital with Sasaki’s ill baby brother. She commuted about 45 minutes to the plant, arriving about half an hour before the bomb hit. After helping prepare for a memorial service for one of the workers, she went to her office to work at her desk, which was quite far from the windows. She had just turned to talk to a coworker when the flash from the sky lit up the room. The ceiling fell in and a couple of bookcases fell on her. Sasaki’s left leg bent underneath her. She lost consciousness.

Chapter 2 Summary: “The Fire”

In Chapter 2, Hersey describes what happened to each of the six characters after the bombing and throughout the day, as Hiroshima became engulfed in fire. He jumps between characters, following the day’s chronology, the summary presenting each person’s complete story through that evening.

From the hills of Koi, Tanimoto had a view of the entire city. The widespread destruction made him think it was the work of a whole fleet of planes, though he hadn’t heard them. Mr. Matsuo, his companion, was safe, so he began running toward the city. His thoughts turned to his family and church. As he ran along the highway, he met hundreds of people streaming out of the city and noticed their extensive injuries: “The eyebrows of some were burned off and skin hung from their faces and hands. Others, because of pain, held their arms up as if carrying something in both hands. Some were vomiting as they walked” (29).

As he got closer to the city center, there was fire everywhere, blocking his progress. He doubled back to try to outflank the flames and find a clear way into the city. Everywhere he went people were badly injured and calling out for help. He felt both compassion and guilt for being uninjured himself. Finally, after running for seven miles, he followed a river toward the city center. Fire again blocked him, but he noticed the opposite bank was not burning. He jumped into the water and swam, ending up on a small sandbar that jutted out from the bank. As he ran alongside the river, he happened upon his wife with their infant daughter. She had just returned to the city when the bomb hit; she and the baby were buried under rubble but unhurt. She was headed back to the suburb where she spent nights, and they parted.

As Tanimoto made his way toward his home, he came across Asano Park, where the wounded had gathered. Spotting some of his neighbors, he tended to them. Later he came across a boat in the river and began ferrying people across to escape spreading fires. When fire reached Asano Park, he organized a bucket brigade to put it out. Tanimoto ran into Father Kleinsorge. They and a few others decided to get some rice that Tanimoto knew was stored in his neighborhood shelter. They passed Kleinsorge’s mission, where the last building and the garden had now burned. Flames had essentially cooked pumpkins and potatoes, which they gathered up. With these and the rice, they managed to feed about 100 people when they returned to the park.

After Nakamura freed her children from the rubble of their home, they went out into the street. She had only one item of value—her husband’s old sewing machine that she used to make a little money. She submerged it in the water tank at her house to protect it from fire. With a neighbor, she and her children made their way to Asano Park, where they spent the afternoon and night. When Father Kleinsorge and the others returned with the food, he offered her family some pumpkin, but they were nauseous and couldn’t keep any food down.

At the mission, Father Kleinsorge and the other priests gathered after the bombing and helped others in the immediate vicinity. Some of the priests were injured, though just one appeared to have serious wounds. The father superior asked two others to take him to a doctor, but they soon returned, unable to find one. Kleinsorge collected a few things from his room, amazed to find a papier-mâché suitcase completely unscarred. It was fortunate, as the suitcase contained important papers and record books of the mission. He took the suitcase with him, and they left to escape the fire, making their way to Asano Park. At the park, Kleinsorge took part in the bucket brigade that Rev. Tanimoto organized to put out the fire there, then helped Tanimoto and others bring the food back to feed some of those gathered.

Dr. Fujii at first could not free himself from the timbers that pinned him in the river, but finally did. He climbed up one of the timbers that rested on the bank and got to land, then walked to a bridge and stood on it looking down. When fire approached and it became too hot to stay on the bridge, Fujii went down to the river’s edge and stood in the water with others. Later the wind kicked up and the river’s waves got stronger. Fujii and two surviving nurses from his hospital moved to a sandbar near Asano Park. Later they decided to go to Nagatsuka, five miles away, where Fujii’s parents’ home was.

Dr. Sasaki, at the Red Cross Hospital, was one of a small number of uninjured healthcare workers in the city. As Hersey writes: “Of a hundred and fifty doctors in the city, sixty-five were already dead and most of the rest were wounded. Of 1,780 nurses, 1,654 were dead or too badly hurt to work” (24). He quickly grabbed some supplies and, after first bandaging up the hospital’s chief surgeon, started working triage. As the best hospital in the city, the Red Cross attracted many wounded—a total of 10,000 or more that day. Sasaki was quickly overwhelmed and became like a machine, “mechanically wiping, daubing, winding, wiping, daubing, winding” (26).

Meanwhile, Toshiko Sasaki, at the tin factory, lay buried for hours under a pile of books, debris, and the bookcases that had fallen on her. She felt terrible pain in her lower left leg, at times wondering if it had been cut off. She drifted in and out of consciousness as she heard voices above her. After some time came the sound of digging above her, as people began removing rubble to look for survivors. When they got to her and cleared an opening, she still couldn’t move. A large beam pinned down one of the bookcases on top of her. When she was finally extricated, it was clear from the angle of her leg that it was broken. Some people helped her outside where it was raining, and a man created a lean-to and carried her over to sit under it. Then he brought two more people who were even more wounded than her. She stayed there all afternoon and night.

Chapters 1-2 Analysis

These first two chapters take place on the day of the bombing. The bombing itself is the thread that connects the stories, as it’s not apparent yet that some of the characters know each other. The chapter ends when the last character’s story concludes, at the moment of the bombing.

These chapters are short relative to the others. Hersey might have combined them, but doing so would have made the narrative less clear and dramatic. Splitting up the information allowed Hersey to set the scene and focus on the bombing, then describe the aftermath. Each chapter’s tone and themes are different, which would have gotten lost with combined stories.

The Simultaneous Fragility and Tenacity of Life is apparent in Chapter 1, with average people going about their everyday business, completely unaware of how their lives will be upended. The reader connects with the characters on a personal level: The characters are relatable, taking care of their families and commuting to work. Chapter 2 depicts the chaos and damage the bomb unleashed, picking up each character’s story right after the blast. As Hersey describes the city and its people through the six characters, The Horrors of Nuclear Weapons comes to the fore. Hersey gives this theme a personal layer by describing it through individuals, rather than presenting it abstractly.

Hersey has a direct writing style. He avoids hyperbole and flowery language. Instead, he states simply and unemotionally what happened or what a character saw. For example, Hersey matter-of-factly describes what Rev. Tanimoto saw on his way into the city as hundreds of people fled:

Many were naked or in shreds of clothing. On some undressed bodies, the burns had made patterns—of undershirt straps and suspenders and, on the skin of some women (since white repelled the heat from the bomb and dark clothes absorbed it and conducted it to the skin), the shapes of flowers they had had on their kimonos (29).

Hersey uses this approach to let the facts speak for themselves; in Hersey’s view, they alone were so horrifying that added emphasis or emotional language was unnecessary.