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Hiroshima, a novel by John Hersey takes the reader back to 1945 when the first atomic bomb was dropped. John Hersey takes the stories of six survivors of Hiroshima. In this short novel John Hersey describes what happened to these six survivors when the bomb exploded and what happened to them 40 years later. Switching from character to character with suspense hanging from every page I think that I would call this book a "Page Turner." I think that it was an excellent book because of how the author makes the book both interesting and full of facts. The book not only takes you back to the day of the bombing but at the same time it helps you learn the truth and pain of Hiroshima's survivors. The book gives you a lot of facts from Hiroshima as well. Hiroshima takes you into the lives of these 6 lucky people. Throughout the book you experience the pain of these people (not as much of course). Even though the book is very descriptive and at some times very graphic I give it 5 stars. I recommend this book to everyone who has questions about what happened to people at Hiroshima.

Hiroshima is a book with six accounts of survivors of the Hiroshima bombing. The City of Hiroshima, Japan was bombed in World War II by the Americans. The bomb dropped, dropped on August 6, 1945, was one never seen before. It was called an atomic bomb. Besides the obvious damage of the bombings of war, it left long lasting effects like radiation, disease and other direct problems like horrible burns, which turned into Keloids, which are tough, pink pieces of skin on many of the area's residents.

The perspective of this book makes the Americans the evil antagonists because they made so many people suffer for so long. The Americans had almost no feedback as far as suffering goes after they dropped this bomb. The Japanese are shown as the protagonists. It makes it look like they didn't do anything and the Americans were just bombing them, then for no reason they were forced to suffer even until today. I feel before the accounts start to be told, the author, John Hersey, should have given some background on the reasons for the bombings and World War 2.

The six accounts in this book are of two doctors, Dr. Fujii and Dr. Sasaki, two religious leaders, Father Kliensorge and Reverend Tanimoto, and two women. The first woman is a personnel clerk in the East Asia tin works named Miss Toshinki Sasaki and the second, a widow named Mrs. Nakamura. The majority of the story takes place in Hiroshima but there is quite a lot of reference to Tokyo and the United States.

This book goes very in depth with what the people were doing before, during and after the bomb was dropped. You really learn a lot about the character personalities through how they handled the problems after the explosion. I also learned a lot about Japanese culture through reading this book. Hiroshima shows how every aspect of life is affected when something like this happens. Almost every single building was knocked down or damaged beyond repair. Every single person in this book has to overcome many changes. The way these people handle the changes is what the book is mostly about.

Towards the close of the book, the most important thing is relationships. This book is amazing because it recounts things that actually happened. People had to overcome the problems and restart their entire lives including a home, a job, a family and friends along with dealing with their state of grief and loss of family. The most amazing thing I read was when Mr. Tanimoto offered forgiveness and asked the same god to bless every member while taking part in the United States Senate.

The only thing I didn't really like about this book is the way it was put together. It was a little hard to understand because what happened to all the people were put in sections. The book is set up with what all six people were doing before the bomb. The it is what all six people did immediately after the bomb and then what all six people did for the rest of their lives. It would have been much easier to read and understand if it was set up with the entire account of the first person from before the bomb until death. Then it would go to the entire account of the next person from before the bomb until death and so on, perhaps like separate short stories.

This book reminds me a lot of a book titled Hatchet written by Gary Paulsen. It is about survival in the wilderness instead of society like in Hiroshima. What happens is the character in Hatchet is in a plane crash, which is an accident and he is forced to survive in whatever way possible. This is similar to Hiroshima because there is an incident, which is the bomb, and then every survivor is forced to survive any way possible. Then, finally in Hatchet there is a plane that flies overhead and rescues him just like society raised money in Hiroshima and rescued the economy and the survivors.

...is that teachers usually give it as an assigned read to their students without balancing it with other realities of WWII. Hiroshima is an accurate account of the after effects of atomic weaponry - however, it must not be forgotten that Japan was the agressor in the Pacific war. When teachers assign this book to their students, they should also give them an assigned reading that puts into perspective this event in the context of that era. I suggest that students be able to read something on the Nanjing Massacre, The Thai-Burma Death Railway, the Bataan Death March, the plight of "comfort women", the colonization of Korea by Japan, the forced starvation of Vietnam, or any other event connected to Japanese aggression. Too often, the facts get lost in the effort to portray Japan as "victim" of the war. One really interesting topic to research might be Japan's race to build an atomic bomb, as illustrated by the book "Japan's Secret War: Japan's Race Against Time to Build Its Own Atomic Bomb". Japan was a highly feared and brutal empire - after the bombing they all suddenly became experts on peace. Does this make any sense at all?

I lived in Japan for nearly a decade and was astounded at how little the average Japanese knew about Japan's wartime atrocities. This is due, no doubt, in part to the fact that the war is little mentioned in Japanese school textbooks. Moreover, the Hiroshima "Peace" Museum has absolutely no information on Japan's aggressive actions during the war. While I feel for the victims of the bomb, I also feel for the victims of the Japanese Army. It saddens me that the average Japanese has forgotten the victims of Japan's war campaign and instead chooses to wallow in self-pity over losing the war.