Develop This Topic Into A Well-Organized , Following The Guidelines Below Essay Sample

Section One: Japan was a large country and America could have chosen many places to bomb. However, according to the author, Hiroshima made more sense than others. It was a highly strategic economic and military base and it “commanded the defense for all of southern Japan.” (HERSEY, p. 12) It seems like Tokyo would make more sense but Tokyo was more a symbolic place for politicians and not home to the bustling industrial and military bases that Hiroshima was. Furthermore, it was a place where many munitions were made that Japan would have used in places like Tokyo. It would also be easier for American planes to reach.
Section Two: The purpose of the author in focusing on so many pre-bomb anecdotes adds weight to just how destructive the bomb was. The reader is able to see that those in Japan were not mindless heathens fighting a war but common people with normal lives much like Americans. The reader is able to see that the bomb was not just an abstract thing from the history books but something that ruined the lives of countless individuals. He brings to life their various occupations, such as the doctor, the seminarian and the businessman which shows that the lives of the Japanese before the bomb was not all that different from anywhere else. It also shows how ordinary people made sense of and dealt with the tragedy unfolding around them. It shows how much confusion there was and how new this weapon was. It was almost a testament to the experimental nature of the bomb as well. It was unlike anything that one country had unleashed at another in world history. People were wondering whether it was a powder dropped, or if it was an actual bomb. It also shows the real toll of the bomb as something that America should never drop again.
One interesting character the author traces is Dr. Fujii. The bomb destroyed the doctor’s house. However, he was lucky because had he taken his customary route to drop a friend off, he would have surely died. The doctor’s perspective is really interesting because he is able to explain many of the different medical issues to the human body. Also, by giving so many of his experiences before the actual bombing, he is really brought to life for the reader. There is the time in the book where Dr. Fujii is sitting on his front porch in his underwear reading this newspaper. It said that he read that paper because his wife was in that other city. By using examples like this, the reader is able to really relate to the victims of Hiroshima. He himself was hurt with multiple lacerations and a broken clavicle. After he had healed from his wounds he built up a strong practice when he moved to a suburb east of Hiroshima. His experience of the bombing must have been different than others because he had previously spent his life helping people. Now he was in the midst of a situation where he was unable to help people and needed help himself.
Section Three: There are many different signs of radiation sickness that the author mentions. One can be found in the case of Mrs. Nakamura, “who had suffered no cuts or burns at all began fixing her hair and noticed, after one stroke, that he comb carried with it a whole handful of hair.” (HERSEY, p. 92) Another sign of radiation sickness is “general malaise, weariness, and feverishness” (HERSEY, p. 92). The patients were struck by a general weakness and lost their ability to move around. They would usually run a very high fever, sometimes as high as 104 degrees. Diarrhea and vomiting would also accompany the fever. There was also usually a large drop in white blood cells. They soon came to realize that the sickness mimicked what people would get from an over exposure to x-rays. It would also cause the cuts and lesions that one had received from the injuries to not heal properly and to swell up.
Section four: One reason that the medical efforts had so little effects in helping people following the bomb is that the doctors often had no idea what they were dealing with, since radiation sickness was not something they had ever had to deal with. At one point they just came to the conclusion that people with radiation sickness would die inevitably and stopped giving them any sort of useful treatment. As one doctor in Japan put, “Baffling cases, these atomic-bomb people” (HERSEY, p. 100). The disease had quirks also that made various treatments that doctors thought would work not helpful; such as patients experiencing different symptoms.
Another reason is that so many of the doctors themselves were sick. The rescue efforts too were plagued from this. The damage was so widespread and catastrophic that it was difficult to find any of the survivors. Many of the people and organizations that would have been put in charge of helping the victims would have not only not known exactly what they were dealing with, but also had many of the resources they had to help destroyed by the bomb.