This book. This book. Is so amazing. I’d never read anything by John Hersey, didn’t know a thing about him, so I had to google!
He follows linear chronology, but he has six different people to follow. He begins just before the blast, and pulls together what the six survivors were doing just before the bomb hit. Then, the blast itself, six different accounts, representing different parts of the city. I’m a third of the way through and am not the least bit confused. The approach has a kind of implacable rhythm.
Strangely, survivor accounts report a flash, not the sound. It came almost without warning, then. With an approaching missile, you can actually hear it. But none of the survivors mentioned hearing anything.
They also looked up at the sky. Everyone looked at the sky. They were always trying to gauge the severity of the bombing by counting the number of enemy planes in the sky. One survivor saw three planes gradually approaching, another saw only one. Neither thought those planes were dangerous, because who strafes a city with only one or three planes?
Immediately after the blast, we’re back to Survivor # 6, the Reverend Kiyoshi Tanimoto. He’s run out into the street. He sees a group of soldiers running out of a cave which they used as a de facto bomb shelter. The soldiers have blood coming out of their ears, noses, mouths — which is strange, Mr. Tanimoto thinks, because the cave should have sheltered them from the blast. He comes upon a terrified old woman carrying a little boy on her back. He brings her to a school nearby that has been designated as a temporary hospital in case of emergency.
By this solicitous behavior, Mr. Tanimoto at once got rid of his terror.
— Hiroshima, p. 24
I make a solemn vow that if by any chance I happen to experience a nuclear attack (and survive it, though I don’t think I’m that lucky), in order not to go bananas, I’ll follow Mr. Tanimoto’s example and help other people. So what if I’m only doing it to avoid having a nervous breakdown? I’ll still be killing two birds with one stone.
Stay tuned.