Bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki
On the dates of August 6th and August 9th a major impact on national history was made. Many of us Americans were taking part in our normal every day routines, meanwhile the United States military was dropping a Nuclear Hydrogen bomb on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Most of the Pearl Harbor revenge seekers were glad, while few sensitive mourned the dropping. Whichever one you were, you conceded that this devastating military action was in order to eradicate us from war. On the flip side of the coin, the people who lived in the city of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that were now dead, hurt, or missing, felt the wrath of war and felt it hard. Thousands of people were killed, but some survivors lived to tell the story. Many people have different perspectives on if a weapon of this magnitude should have been implemented. Writer John Hersey interviewed a survivor of the Hiroshima bombing named Hatsuyo Nakamura. In Hersey's writings he clearly states the effects of the atomic bomb on Nakamura's life then and throughout her life. Hersey describes Nakamura's health throughout his work. For example, "A month after the bombing, she came down with radiation sickness; she lost most of her hair and lay in bed for weeks with
By describing a nuclear weapon with this compassion, he gives a definite notion to the reader that he is definitely for the dropping of this bomb. What is so compelling about his writings is that he takes us on a journey step by step of the day and each happening along the way leading up to this historical bombing. Laurence describes the atomic bomb in saying, "It's a thing of beauty to behold, this "gadget". He uses his stories and graphic detail to show you the mass destruction that this weapon had caused to not only people, but also families. He shows this by depicting real life situations that describe very sorrowfully the happenings of certain people after the bomb was dropped. Laurence worships the bombing and it seems as if he is glad he was a part of this devastating action. Graphically he illustrates the fact that when people are frightened, their hair tends to stand on end. He drew a gruesome picture in the reader's head of a women's hair standing on end, while her skin was peeling off. Laurence, permitted to fly with the mission to drop the second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, witnessed first hand, through his own eyes, the incredible impact its presence felt. John Berger, from the first paragraphs of his work to the very end, states strongly that he is against the dropping of the Atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Obviously, through this technique he is indirectly showing his disapproval of the use of this military weapon.
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