ISSUES Briefly describe the issues that are dealt with in the book.
This book was vary informative to me. This book mainly talked about the affects
of nuclear weapons. On August 6, 1945, Hiroshima was destroyed by the first atom
bomb ever dropped on a city. It speaks about how even if you did survive the blast you
were so badly injured that you would die soon anyway. It talked about an incident where
someone's eye was melting and was oozing down his face. It speaks about how houses
were lifted of there foundation. After all the research about the bomb was made, they
reported that 78,150 people had been killed, 13,983 were missing, and 37,425 had been
injured. Even before the bomb, the citizens of Hiroshima were waken almost every night
because of false warnings of intruder planes coming in the area. It talked about how a lot
of people had to go on living with only one leg or one arm. To me, it brought up a good
point, that all those innocent people had do die for nothing.
CHAPTER SUMMARY Briefly summarize each of the chapters: main ideas, narrative
features.
The first chapter is called "A Noiseless Flash." The title kind of speaks for it self.
That was exactly how the bomb was. No one saw anything or heard anything but a flash.
The first chapter speaks about how people are wondering why they are alive, but their
next door neighbors aren't. It was weird, there could be a house right in the middle of
two houses; the one in the middle survived the bomb but the other two did not. A whole
neighborhood could be wiped out except for a few houses. Why those houses did not get
knocked down, no one knows.
The second chapter is called "The Fire." This chapter is about how the explosion
caused many fires. The fires were spread everywhere because of the high winds. Many
of the people were burned and buried in the smashed up bricks and ashes. The ones that
survived the bomb and fire, were seriously hurt. The book pointed out an incident where
someone's eye was melting and oozing down his check.
The third chapter was called "Details Are Being Investigated." In the radio, it had
been said that Hiroshima suffered of an attack by a few B-29. Many people are being
treated for their burns and injuries. Many have died and a lot more at this time are
missing. Everyone is still in shock after 2 days that the bomb struck.
The forth chapter is called "Panic Grass And Feverfew." This chapter, people are
still being helped in the Red Cross Hospital by the help of a devoted man named, Kiyoshi
Tanimoto. Scientist have done some research and found out that the radioactivity is 4.2
times worse than the average. They are also finding permanent shadows on walls form
people that just kind of "disappeared" from the blast. They estimated that the explosion
pressure was from 5.3 to 8.0 tons per square yard. They reported that 78,150 people had
been killed, 13,983 were missing, and 37,425 had been injured.
The last chapter is called "The Aftermath." This chapter speaks about the people
that were involved in this story and what finally happened to them. Hatsuyo Nakamura,
weak and destitute, began a courageous struggle, which would last for many years, to
keep her children and herself alive. In 1966, Nakamura, having reached the age of fifty-
five, retired from Suymam Chemical. She lived the rest of her life happy.
Dr. Terufumi Sasaki did very well with the rest of his life. He opened many
hospitals and became very rich.
Father Wilhelm Kleinsorge became a great priest. He became very ill and finally
died because of the bomb's radiation in November 19, 1977.
Toshiko Sasaki became a nun and gave a great speech to Mother General France
Delcourt in 1980. Sister Sasaki speech: "I shall not dwell on the past. It is as if I had
been given a spare life when I survived the A-bomb. But I prefer not to look back. I
shall keep moving forward."
Dr. Masakazu Fujii tragically got gas poisoning that came from his gas heater.
After he got poisoned, he became a "vegetable" and died 10 years later.
Kiyoshi Tanimoto was a great man. When the bomb hit, he helped everyone that
was injured. When he got older, Tanimoto had made three speaking trips, in the mainland
States in 1979 and 1982, and in Hawaii in 1981. Kiyoshi Tanimoyo was over seventy
now. The average age of all hibakusha was sixty-two. As you can see, Tanimoto was a
true fighter.
EVALUATION Give your opinion of the book: also, recommend or not recommend
to a fellow student and explain recommendation.
I would highly recommend this book because it is very informative. I think
everyone knows about nuclear weapons, but they don't know how harmful they are. I
didn't know how harm full they are until I read this book. Even if you don't like to read,
this would still be a good book for you because it is not that long.