Hiroshima

By: John Hersey

 • During the last stages of WWII, United
States President Harry Truman gave
Japanese forces an ultimatum, calling for
complete surrender, known as the Potsdam
Declaration.

• The Japanese refused the declaration,

willing to fight “down to the last woman
and child,” leaving the United States with a
hard decision.

If the United States was to invade the island of Japan, thousands of

more American lives would be lost. The decision was made to
engage in nuclear warfare, and on August 6, 1945 an atomic bomb
nicknames “Little Boy” was dropped on the city of Hiroshima in
Japan. Three days later, a similar bomb, nick named “Fat Man” was
dropped on the city of Nagasaki.
• On August 10, 1945, Tokyo sued for peace on one condition that Hirohito
remain on his throne – ending WWII.

Within the first two to four months of the bombings, the acute effects killed
90,000–166,000 people in Hiroshima and 60,000–80,000 in Nagasaki, with
roughly half of the deaths in each city occurring on the first day. The
Hiroshima prefectural health department estimates that, of the people who
died on the day of the explosion, 60% died from flash or flame burns, 30%
from falling debris and 10% from other causes.
 During
During WWII,
WWII, newsweekly
newsweekly correspondent
correspondent John
John Hersey
Hersey
covered
covered fighting
fighting in
in Europe
Europe and
and Asia,
Asia, writing
writing articles
articles for
for
Time
Time and
and Life
Life magazine.
magazine.

Shortly afterwards John Hersey began discussions with William Shawn, an

editor at The New Yorker, about a lengthy piece about the previous summer's
bombing. Hersey proposed a story that would convey the cataclysmic
narrative through six individuals who survived: the Jesuit priest; a widowed
seamstress; two doctors; a minister; and a young woman who worked in a
factory. The following May, 1946, Hersey traveled to Japan, where he spent
three weeks doing research and interviewing survivors. He returned to
America in late June and began writing.
 The result was his most notable work,
the 31,000-word article "Hiroshima",
which appeared in the August 31, 1946
issue of The New Yorker. The story
dealt with the atomic bomb dropped on
that Japanese city on August 6, 1945,
and its effects on the six Japanese
citizens. The article took up the entire
issue of the magazine – something The
New Yorker had never done before, nor
has it since. The Book of the Month
Club rushed a copy of the article into
book format, which it sent to members
as a free selection. Then, the novel was
later published by Afred Knopf.
In the novel Hiroshima, author
John Hersey depicts the lives of
six individuals whom lived
through a common crisis.
Hersey thoroughly writes of not
only the immediate devastation
of the atomic bombs dropped
on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in
1945, but the decades of
aftermath as well. Overall, he
illustrates the lives of each
victim, painting a hopeful
picture for readers.