Journal 7 from Mandy Lilly

    The most interesting character to me was Miss Toshinki Saski, the clerk in the personnel department of the East Asia Tin Works who was trapped underneath a book case after the explosion went off. Miss Saski seems to be the least talked about person compared to the other characters in the book, mostly because she spent most of her time helpless and in pain, while the other characters went about trying to save others. She was the most interesting to me because I think she had suffered the most. Being trapped and almost left for dead underneath a bookcase for hours after the explosion people finally got her out and set her outside besides two seriously injured people. After waiting for 3 days, some of her friends came along, not to help her, but to let her know that her mother, father and baby brother had died. They then left her alone. I can't imagine what she was feeling in those moments. From the pain of her broken leg, to the pain of losing her entire family and having no one to help her is why I think she was one of the strongest of the survivors. Even though she wasn't able to go around and help like Tanimoto or Kleinsorge did, she went through some of the greatest physical and emotional pain out of the characters. Having to endure the pain of waiting several days for someone to look at her leg and the pain of losing her family, it shows that Saski is a fighter, and has a very strong character. Even while Saski was being passed around from doctor to doctor and had no help, she never complained. "She lay there for several days before a specialist on fractures came from Kobe. By then her leg was red and swollen up to her hip." (61) Having to lay around and wait for someone to finally help her after being in so much pain shows what kind of person she is, which is a fighter and survivor.

    What I decided to research was what the radiation of the atomic bomb did to the people of Hiroshima considering their health. Radiation can effect a person by killing cells and damaging tissues, which can eventually alter genes. It can also have long term effects like cancer or mutations in the DNA. It is estimated that almost half of the deaths from Hiroshima were from the radiation. With long term effects from the radiation, people suffered most cancer. The most deadly of cancers was leukemia, which had increased in Hiroshima two years after the atomic bombs were dropped and peaked 6 years after the bombs. When looking up research on this topic I found a percentage difference in the rates of children with leukemia from before and after the bombs were dropped. "The percent difference in the incidence rate of a condition between an exposed population and a comparable unexposed one reveals how great of an effect radiation had on leukemia incidence. The Radiation Effects Research Foundation estimates the attributable risk of leukemia to be 46% for bomb victims." (Listwa) This proves that the radiation from the atomic bombs put a lot of people at risk and effected their lives and contributed to their deaths.

This is a photo of some mutated children that suffered from the radiation of the atomic bombs. -1945