Hiroshima

Vomiting is a motif that hints at the nature of the weapon used against Hiroshima. Dr. Sasaki works feverishly to aid the thousands of bomb victims streaming into the Red Cross Hospital. Hersey writes: “Many people were vomiting” (25). Later, Rev. Tanimoto sees people leaving the city center who were also vomiting. And at Asano Park, Mrs. Nakamura and her children are nauseous and vomiting.

Conventional bombing results in burns, lacerations, broken bones, and the like, all of which the survivors in Hiroshima also had. Exposure to radiation causes vomiting, but no one knew that at the time. Readers today might think of radiation sickness right away when they read of vomiting, but when the book was originally published they would likely not have understood. Hersey uses a limited point of view to illustrate what the characters knew at the time.

Asano Park represents a sanctuary in the midst of hellish conditions. Survivors made their way there, as it was a designated evacuation area and one of the few areas free of fire. Hersey writes that it was a “center of coolness and life” (35). Here the characters’ stories intersect for the first time, and it becomes apparent that some of them already knew each other—Father Kleinsorge and Rev. Tanimoto, for example.

The park also supports the book’s major themes: The Horrors of Nuclear Weapons are on full display in the wounds of injured individuals. The Simultaneous Fragility and Tenacity of Life is depicted by people living on the edge of life and death. Some with horrible wounds hang on to survive while others do not. Some—like Toshiko Sasaki—show resilience and thrive in spite of debilitating injuries. The park underscores The Commonalities of Humans, as people do what they can to provide aid and succor to strangers. Many scenes of kindheartedness take place at Asano Park: Tanimoto ferrying people across the river to escape fire, Kleinsorge finding a blanket to cover a shivering burn victim, both of them bringing rice and vegetables to feed 100 people, and a stranger bringing Kleinsorge tea leaves to assuage thirst.

Keloid tumors are composed of scar tissue that grows over a wound and appears “rubbery.” An overgrowth of collagen, they create a raised bump along the scar line instead of remaining flush with the skin. While there can be other causes of keloid tumors, like genetics, they formed on many bomb survivors because of radiation sickness. The body’s immune system overcompensates after being weakened by heavy exposure to radiation, causing skin around wounds to grow excessively. Dr. Sasaki treated many patients with keloid tumors, and Rev. Tanimoto helped a group of young women travel to the United States for plastic surgery.

The tumors are a visual mark of being a hibakusha, or bomb survivor; they symbolize the difficulties hibakusha faced. Hersey writes that hibakusha were often discriminated against by employers, who thought they would be too sick to work, and shunned by others. Miss Sasaki’s fiancé, for instance, broke off their engagement, and Rev. Tanimoto’s daughter Koko couldn’t marry her boyfriend in America because his parents were afraid her exposure to radiation would cause problems in future children.