Hirishima
...mson). The cities were chosen because they had been otherwise relatively untouched during the war. The Target Committee wanted the first bomb to be “sufficiently spectacular for the importance of the weapons to be internationally recognized when publicity on it was released”(Kurzman) In the book, Hiroshima, John Hersey tells the story of six human beings who lived through the greatest single man-made disaster in history. Through out the book he explains in great details what six individuals were doing immediately before and after 8:15 a.m. on that fateful day when the first atomic bomb destroyed Hiroshima. Hersey’s purpose in writing about the effects the bomb had on specific, individual people is to demonstrate how the dropping of the atomic bomb impacted the lives of its victims in hopes that the horror of this event will never be repeated. Also how with a blinding flash, their lives were irrevocably changed. The author divides each chapter into sections that follow the movements of the six people during specific periods of time that morning. The book begins with their first waking thought, carries the six through the actual bombing of the city, and describes their utter bewilderment as to what had transpired. Hersey goes into minute detail, describing the sounds, the smells, and the sights. Although the citizens of Hiroshima anticipated that their city would be attacked, they did not expect the level of destruction that the atomic bomb produced. Hersey uses quotations from citizens who survived the assault to illustrate the people's inability to comprehend the devastation. Small clues such as the fact that walls had tumbled inward, not outward, the collapse of so many buildings when the .people heard no planes, and the fact that not enough bombs had fallen to cause such a catastrophe, are but a few of the personal details the book sets forth. Early on August 6, 1945, as the weather plane flew over the city, the air raid siren sounded as usual. Some, accustomed to this occurrence, did nothing to protect themselves. When the "all clear" sounded, the people resumed their daily routines, wholly unprepared for what would occur within the hour. The survivors initially had no comprehension of what had happened. Rumors abounded as to the cause of the devastation. "Perhaps it was a Molotov flower basket," proclaimed some residents who believed that the Americans had sprayed the city...