Is it possible to say that the killing of hundreds of thousands of human beings can be justified? Hiroshima, written by John Hersey, illustrated the horror of the use of a new powerful weapon to end the world's worst military conflict to this day. Through his book, Hersey told the stories of six Hiroshima residents, survivors of the world's first atomic bomb used against human life and property. These citizens were referred to as "hibakusha", which literally means "explosion-affected persons". He began each story from minutes before the bomb exploded, to hours, days and years after, illustrating the terrible consequences of a close encounter with the energy caused by the splitting of an atom. He explained the sights, sounds, smells and feelings that each person experiences during their ordeal. Hersey also included a small amount of information about Japan's immediate reactions after the bombing, which was essential to his illustrating of what news victims were receiving immediately following the bombing, but he never approached a discussion of why this bomb was used by the United Stated and its allies against the last standing power in the 'Axis of Evil'. John Hersey omitted this discussion to allow his readers a far less clouded view of the horrors that an atomic weapon can and will produce in its use. In the following, I will discuss why John Hersey may have done this and its affects on the overall outcome of his book, Hiroshima.
             On August 6, 1945, an astonishing number of human beings lost their lives in a 'noiseless flash', as John Hersey described it. Many more were to die from exposure to high doses of radiation, burns, infection, and trauma caused by a blast that had the power of twenty thousand tons of TNT. Is it possible to justify a human act that would cause something of this magnitude? I believe the answer to this question to be yes, but very hard to u...