1. “Hiroshima” by John Hersey

2. What do you know?
Take a few minutes now to make a list of things you know about World War II or Hiroshima
Share with classmates

3. Historical Context Nonfiction World War II:1939-1945 Allies vs Axis
Allies: USA, USSR, Britain, China, Poland, France
Axis: Germany, Italy, Japan
The book (a work of NONFICTION) starts on August 6, 1945, the day the first atomic bomb was dropped on human beings, and ends in 1985, with updates on the lives of the six survivors chronicled in the book. When the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, and a few days later on Nagasaki, Japan had been at war with the United States for three and a half years. It was by then a losing fight for Japan, as resources and soldiers had been severely depleted and the civilian population was living on meager rations. The atomic bomb attacks were a final devastation to the Japanese war effort.
The Japanese Empire surrendered unconditionally only nine days after the destruction of Hiroshima, on August 15, 1945.

4. Japan
Hiroshima

5. Hiroshima

6. Hiroshima

7. Historical Context Nonfiction World War II:1939-1945 Allies vs Axis
Surprise Attack on Pearl Harbor
Dec. 7, 1941
18 ships hit, 180 aircraft destroyed
2,400 killed; 1,200 wounded
The book (a work of NONFICTION) starts on August 6, 1945, the day the first atomic bomb was dropped on human beings, and ends in 1985, with updates on the lives of the six survivors chronicled in the book. When the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, and a few days later on Nagasaki, Japan had been at war with the United States for three and a half years. It was by then a losing fight for Japan, as resources and soldiers had been severely depleted and the civilian population was living on meager rations. The atomic bomb attacks were a final devastation to the Japanese war effort.
The Japanese Empire surrendered unconditionally only nine days after the destruction of Hiroshima, on August 15, 1945.

8. Pearl Harbor

9. Pearl Harbor

10. Historical Context Nonfiction World War II:1939-1945 Allies vs Axis
Surprise Attack on Pearl Harbor
Creation of New Weapon
Long War/American Lives
Manhattan Project
Potsdam Ultimatum
The book (a work of NONFICTION) starts on August 6, 1945, the day the first atomic bomb was dropped on human beings, and ends in 1985, with updates on the lives of the six survivors chronicled in the book. When the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, and a few days later on Nagasaki, Japan had been at war with the United States for three and a half years. It was by then a losing fight for Japan, as resources and soldiers had been severely depleted and the civilian population was living on meager rations. The atomic bomb attacks were a final devastation to the Japanese war effort.
The Japanese Empire surrendered unconditionally only nine days after the destruction of Hiroshima, on August 15, 1945.

11. “The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of thinking... the solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker.”
~Albert Einstein

12. Creating the Bomb

13. Historical Context Nonfiction World War II:1939-1945 Allies vs Axis
Attack on Pearl Harbor
Creation of New Weapon
August 6, 1945: First bomb
Temperatures/Winds
Radiation
200,000
The book (a work of NONFICTION) starts on August 6, 1945, the day the first atomic bomb was dropped on human beings, and ends in 1985, with updates on the lives of the six survivors chronicled in the book. When the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, and a few days later on Nagasaki, Japan had been at war with the United States for three and a half years. It was by then a losing fight for Japan, as resources and soldiers had been severely depleted and the civilian population was living on meager rations. The atomic bomb attacks were a final devastation to the Japanese war effort.
The Japanese Empire surrendered unconditionally only nine days after the destruction of Hiroshima, on August 15, 1945.

14. Dropping the Bomb
"If they (Japan) do not now accept our terms they may expect a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this earth.” ~President Harry S. Truman August 6, 1945
On August 6, 1945, at 8:15 in the morning an atomic bomb called Little Boy was dropped over the city of Hiroshima by a B29 bomber called the Enola Gay. The 15-kiloton nuclear device was detonated about 2000 feet above the city immediately generating temperatures in the millions of degrees and sending a fireball out in all directions. Even though the explosion was 2000 feet up, the temperatures on the ground below it reached 7,000 degrees Fahrenheit, melting tile and glass and instantly burning anything combustible. The blast generated winds up to 620 miles per hour and destroyed most houses and buildings within a mile and a half radius. The men, women and children who were not instantly incinerated by the blast were badly burned and exposed to very high levels of radiation. Most died within a few months. It is estimated that 140,000 people died by the end of that year. Subsequent deaths from radiation poisoning brought the death toll to somewhere around 200,000.

15. Dropping the Bomb

16. Dropping the Bomb

17. Just wanted a memorable name
The “Enola Gay”…the plane that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, piloted by Brig. Gen. Paul Tibbets.

19. “Little Boy” was what the military named the
Exploded 2000 feet above Earth
“Little Boy” was what the military named the
bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima.

20. “As the bomb fell over Hiroshima and exploded, we saw an entire city disappear. I wrote in my log the words: ‘My God, what have we done?’”
-Capt. Robert Lewis
co-pilot of the Enola Gay

21. This picture is an example of a “Hiroshima Shadow”
This picture is an example of a “Hiroshima Shadow”. The man that was standing by his ladder disintegrated instantly after the blast.
A “Hiroshima” shadow…
When the blast took place, radiation moved across in every direction, scorching everything in its path.
Anything that was behind, or
covered, by an object, was
left unscortched…
the “shadow" effect
-it is similar to when you
get a sunburn, but there
are places not burned
--like a tan line.

22. “Sixteen hours ago an American airplane dropped one bomb on Hiroshima and destroyed its usefulness to the enemy. That bomb had more power than 20,000 tons of T.N.T. …which is the largest bomb ever yet used in the history of warfare.” ~President Harry S. Truman in a radio address to Americans after the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima

24. John Hersey Born 1914 in China
Studied journalism at Yale and Cambridge
WWII correspondent for Time magazine
Writings center around the topic of war
Pulitzer Prize
Died 1993

26. “Hiroshima”
“[I was] astonished that in all the millions of words being written about the bomb–how and why the decision was made, how the bomb came to be built, whether it should have been dropped at all–what had actually happened in Hiroshima itself...was being ignored.”
William Shawn
Managing Editor, The New Yorker

27. TO OUR READERS: The New Yorker this week devotes its entire editorial space to an article on the almost complete obliteration of a city by one atomic bomb, and what happened to the people of that city. It does so in the conviction that few of us have yet comprehended the all but incredible destructive power of this weapon, and that everyone might well take time to consider the terrible implications of its use. - The Editors.

28. The Survivors… interviewed by John Hersey for “Hiroshima”
Mrs. Hatsuyo Nakamura
Miss Toshinki Sasaki
Dr. Masakazu Fujii
Father William Kleinsorge
Dr. Terufumi Sasaki
Rev. Kiyoshi Tantimoto
1. The widow of a tailor, Mrs. Nakamura is raising three young children on her own, Mrs. Nakamura is caring and resourceful, as well as a dedicated citizen. As Hersey puts it, she “had long had a habit of doing as she was told.” She and her children survive the explosion without any external physical harm, but she and her daughter, Myeko, later come down with radiation sickness and suffer with it for years.
2. Miss Sasaki is a personnel clerk at the East Asia Tin Works factory. She is in her early twenties and lives with her parents and young sibling at the time of the blast. Her left leg is severely injured when bookshelves fall on her from the impact of the bomb, and she is left crippled.
3. Dr. Fujii is a middle-aged physician who is comfortable financially since he owns his own private hospital. Being fairly self-absorbed, he enjoys fine whiskey, relaxation, and the company of foreigners. His hospital is completely destroyed in the blast and he is moderately injured.
4. Father Kliensorge is a thirty-eight year-old German missionary priest with the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). He loves the Japanese people and is committed to his work in Hiroshima but feels uncomfortable with the xenophobia of war-time Japan. He incurs only small cuts in the blast, but suffers years later from debilitating effects of the radiation, and dies in the 1970s with a loyal Japanese nurse by his side.
5. Dr. Sasaki is an idealistic, young surgeon working at the Hiroshima Red Cross Hospital. (No relation to Ms. Sasaki). He is the only uninjured doctor from the bomb, and in the chaotic aftermath, he treats thousands of victims from all over the city for three days straight with no sleep.
6. Rev. Tanimoto is a hard-working and thoughtful pastor. He is largely unhurt by the blast, and spends the first several days after the attack compassionately caring for the wounded and destitute of the city.

29. He is merely a scribe for those
Hersey’s Writing
Hersey as author/narrator:
Never speaks
Never offers opinion
Never gives analysis
He is merely a scribe for those
who were there.

30. Setting Scenes
From every second or third house came the voices of people buried and abandoned, who invariably screamed, with formal politeness, “Tasukete kure! Help, if you please!” The priests recognized several ruins from which these cries came as homes of friends, but because of the fire it was too late to help. (28)

31. Setting Scenes
At Sakai Bridge, which would take them across to the East Parade Ground, they saw that the whole community on the opposite side of the river was a sheet of fire; they dared not cross… (28)

32. Creating Images
They encountered only one person, a woman, who said to them as they passed, “My husband is in those ashes.” (40)

33. Creating Images
He met hundreds and hundreds who were fleeing […] skin hung from their faces and hands. Others, because of pain, held their arms up as if carrying something. Some vomited as they walked. On some undressed bodies the burns made patterns–of undershirts [and] the shapes of flowers they had on their kimonos. (29)

34. Emotional Impact
Under many houses, people screamed for help, but no one helped; in general, survivors that day assisted only their relatives or immediate neighbors, for they could not comprehend or tolerate a wider circle of misery. (29)

35. Emotional Impact
Tugged here and there in his stockinged feet, bewildered by the numbers, staggered by so much raw flesh, Dr. Sasaki lost all sense of profession and stopped working as a skillful surgeon and sympathetic man; he became an automaton, mechanically wiping, daubing, winding, wiping, daubing, winding. (26)

36. Using Dialogue
“Itai! It hurts!” Yaeko cried. Mrs. Nakamura shouted, “There’s no time now to say whether it hurts or not,” and yanked her whimpering daughter up. (19)

37. Using Dialogue
Father Kleinsorge went into the room and took Mr. Fukai by the collar of his coat and said, “Come with me or you’ll die.”
Mr. Fukai said, “Leave me here to die.” (27)

38. Numbers and Statistics
Of a hundred and fifty doctors in the city, sixty-five were already dead and most of the rest were wounded. Of 1,780 nurses, 1,645 were dead or too badly hurt to work. (24)

39. Numbers and Statistics
At least 10,000 of the wounded made their way to the best hospital in town, which was altogether unequal to such a trampling, since it had only 600 beds, and they had all been occupied. (25)

40. Keeping it Simple
A woman from next door ran up to him and shouted that her husband was buried under her house and the house was on fire; Father Kleinsorge must come and save him.
Father Kleinsorge, already growing apathetic and dazed in the presence of cumulative distress, said, “We haven’t much time.” (26-27)

41. Critical Reaction
"The death and destruction not merely of people and cities, but of the human conscience is clearly involved."
– NY Times
“An insipid falsification of the truth of atomic warfare. To have done the atom bomb justice, Mr. Hersey would have had to interview the dead.” – Mary McCarthy

42. Critical Reaction
“I don't think I've ever got as much satisfaction out of anything else in my life.” - Harold Ross, founder, The New Yorker

43. Position Statement
Will be writing a persuasive essay about whether or not the US should have dropped the atomic bombs
Evidence: notes from last week, “Hiroshima”, news articles, websites, etc.
Three best arguments

44. Reading/Test Schedule
Mon-Wed: Chapter 1 (questions due Wed)
Wed-Fri: Chapter 2 (questions due Fri)
Test on Monday 5/3 (Ch 1-2)
Mon-Wed: Chapter 3 (questions due Wed)
Wed-Fri: Chapter 4 (questions due Fri)
Test on Monday 5/10 (Ch 3-4)
Please do not read ahead. Extra credit worksheets are available if you finish early (and ONLY if your reading guide is 100% done)