Hiroshima Post

Before I read the book Hiroshima by John Hersey, I didn't really know much about what happened in Hiroshima. What I liked most and what I felt worked for the book was all the detail, and since I didn’t know a lot about what happened, this book did a great job presenting the entire picture through the detail. The detail I remember most clearly is when someone went to go help someone up from the ground, and the skin came clear of the hand. That gruesome details proves the lengths Hersey went to give an accurate depiction of what happened.

What worked was how Hersey told a story. He wasn’t spewing out facts about Hiroshima, he took us into the lives of the people that were there and effectively showed us what it was like.

What I think didn’t work, was just the length of the book. At only 152 pages, it was not long enough to get all the stories of the people Hersey focused on. It just seemed like the book bounced back and forth a lot between the characters, and it was hard to keep track. I was constantly trying to keep track of everyone, and was forever flipping back the pages to see what I just read, to see what character I was on again, and trying to find where I last left off with that character.

As a first time reader, I really enjoyed Hiroshima, but the one thing I did think was missing was quotes from the characters Hersey was writing about. I didn’t think about it as I was reading it really though, I thought the story flowed well without them. Just when I thought of something it was missing, I thought quotes.

Journalists can learn from this book, the importance of being there. You would never have gotten all the detail Hersey did without him being a witness to it. If I wanted to write a book about Hiroshima now, the impact would not be nearly as great, and I would not have the little details Hersey did to make the reader feel like they were there. Journalists can also learn how to recount a true story the right way. Hiroshima flows well, and Hersey does such a great job in giving the reader as many details as he can while still keeping with his goal of recounting the story. I would compare this book to another of non fiction, but I am not sure I have read any non fiction before. 

Hiroshima was originally published as an article in the New Yorker a year after the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. And from what I have read, it was very well received, and i read somewhere that the issue that it was published in sold out. 

It’s not like Hersey dumbed down his writing style to make the story understandable, he just did such an incredible job at telling the story that is was easy to understand and anyone can just pick up the book and be able to follow along. I read the book in just one sitting one evening and was surprised how easily I got through it, having no prior knowledge of Hiroshima subject matter.