This book was vary informative to me. This book mainly talked about theaffects of nuclear weapons. On August 6, 1945, Hiroshima was destroyed by thefirst atom bomb ever dropped on a city. It speaks about how even if you didsurvive the blast you were so badly injured that you would die soon anyway. Ittalked about an incident where someone’s eye was melting and was oozing down hisface. It speaks about how houses were lifted of there foundation. After all theresearch about the bomb was made, they reported that 78,150 people had beenkilled, 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 falsewarnings of intruder planes coming in the area. It talked about how a lot ofpeople had to go on living with only one leg or one arm. To me, it brought up agood point, that all those innocent people had do die for nothing.
The first chapter is called “A Noiseless Flash.” The title kind ofspeaks for it self. That was exactly how the bomb was. No one saw anything orheard anything but a flash. The first chapter speaks about how people arewondering why they are alive, but their next door neighbors aren’t. It wasweird, there could be a house right in the middle of two houses; the one in themiddle survived the bomb but the other two did not. A whole neighborhood couldbe 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 theexplosion caused many fires. The fires were spread everywhere because of thehigh winds. Many of the people were burned and buried in the smashed up bricksand ashes. The ones that survived the bomb and fire, were seriously hurt. Thebook pointed out an incident where someone’s eye was melting and oozing down hischeck.
The third chapter was called “Details Are Being Investigated.” In theradio, it had been said that Hiroshima suffered of an attack by a few B-29. Manypeople are being treated for their burns and injuries. Many have died and a lotmore at this time are missing. Everyone is still in shock after 2 days that thebomb 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 devotedman named, Kiyoshi Tanimoto. Scientist have done some research and found outthat the radioactivity is 4.2 times worse than the average. They are alsofinding 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 8.0tons per square yard. They reported that 78,150 people had been killed, 13,983were missing, and 37,425 had been injured.
The last chapter is called “The Aftermath.” This chapter speaks aboutthe people that were involved in this story and what finally happened to them. Hatsuyo Nakamura, weak and destitute, began a courageous struggle, which wouldlast 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 livedthe rest of her life happy. Dr. Terufumi Sasaki did very well with the rest of his life. He openedmany hospitals and became very rich. Father Wilhelm Kleinsorge became a great priest. He became very ill andfinally died because of the bomb’s radiation in November 19, 1977. Toshiko Sasaki became a nun and gave a great speech to Mother GeneralFrance 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 Iprefer not to look back. I shall keep moving forward.”Dr. Masakazu Fujii tragically got gas poisoning that came from his gasheater. 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 everyonethat was injured. When he got older, Tanimoto had made three speaking trips, inthe mainland States in 1979 and 1982, and in Hawaii in 1981. Kiyoshi Tanimoyowas over seventy now. The average age of all hibakusha was sixty-two. As youcan see, Tanimoto was a true fighter.
I would highly recommend this book because it is very informative. Ithink everyone knows about nuclear weapons, but they don’t know how harmful theyare. I didn’t know how harm full they are until I read this book. Even if youdon’t like to read, this would still be a good book for you because it is notthat long.
