BOOK: HIROSHIMA

NAME: GAVIN
LEVEL: GRADE 8
AUTHOR

• John Hersey, in full John Richard Hersey, (born June 17, 1914, Tientsin, China—died
March 24, 1993, Key West, Fla., U.S.), American novelist and journalist noted for his
documentary fiction about catastrophic events in World War II. Hersey wrote his book
because he was determined to present a real and raw image of the impact of the bomb to
American readers.
CHARACTERS

• Mrs. Hatsuyo Nakamura

• A tailor’s widow living in Hiroshima. Mrs. Nakamura narrowly escapes disaster when the
explosion destroys her house. She and her three children cope with illness and radiation
poisoning for years after the bomb, and she faces tremendous difficulties finding work
and housing in the years after the explosio
• Dr. Terufumi Sasaki
• A young surgeon at the Red Cross Hospital in Hiroshima. Dr. Sasaki treats thousands of
the dying and wounded after the bomb, and eventually operates on Miss Sasaki’s
fractured and infected leg. After the war, he studies radiation sickness and other effects of
the bomb.
• Father Wilhelm Kleinsorge
• A German Jesuit priest living in Hiroshima. Father Kleinsorge comforts many of the
dying and wounded, even as he falls prey to radiation sickness. He helps Miss Sasaki
recover her will to live and eventually become a nun. In the years after the war, he
becomes a Japanese citizen and takes the name Father Makoto Takakura.
• Toshiko Sasaki
• A young clerk who works in a tin works factory. Miss Sasaki becomes trapped in the
wreckage of a factory when a bookcase crashes onto her. For weeks she receives no real
medical care for her leg, which is badly fractured and infected, and she remains crippled
for the rest of her life. After the war, with the guidance of Father Kleinsorge, she becomes
a nun, Sister Dominique Sasaki.
SUMMARY

• On August 6, 1945, during World War II (1939-45), an American B-29 bomber dropped
the world's first deployed atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The
explosion immediately killed an estimated 80,000 people; tens of thousands more would
later die of radiation exposure. US bombed Hiroshima because they believed Supporters
believe that the atomic bombings were necessary to bring a swift end to the war with
minimal casualties; critics dispute how the Japanese government was brought to
surrender, and highlight the moral and ethical implications of nuclear weapons and the
deaths caused to civilians. The restoration process took approximately two years and the
city's population