Journal 7 Jacob M Kroh

Part One) the character that I found the most interesting is is Dr. Terafumi Sasaki, the young surgeon.
In the aftermath of the bomb he took care of patients despite the lack of equipment and beds. He didn't really have a method to his care, he simply treated those closest to him at the time the best he could. He had to become more like a robot in his care, he had to block all emotion and just do what he could without thinking about it too much. his dedication shows when he works for 3 days straight with only an hour of rest throughout. He is then allowed to go to his mothers house( who he thought must think he was dead) and slept for 17 hours.  " He ducked down on one knee and said, as only a Japanese would, "Sasaki, gambare" "Be Brave". (Hersey, Page 14) He knew that he was about to be tested in a way that few people would be ready for and he would have to deal with unimaginable suffering.

Part Two) I was interesting in researching the system and value of honor and duty to the Japanese people at the time. One of the things that I noticed in the book so far was that in more then a few places some of the characters seem to be more focused on this type of thing then on some of the serious damage. At one point i think it was Mr. Tanimoto was walking around and was ahamed by his appearance. We see the hard working and very rigid emotions in the way they go about surviving. I was familiar with some of this idea but decided to research it further in the interest of getting a complete understanding of the context.

   
     

This is what they idealized.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushido#/media/File:Samurai.jpg

This is something called Bushido which literally translates to "Way of the Warrior". This is the concept that honor was the most important thing that a person had and it was worth going to great lengths to regain lost honor. This was something that the Japanese soldiers in the war were notorious for. They would fight tooth and nail for every inch of land and often throw their lives away in suicide charges at American lines and kill themselves rather than be captured. There are also the infamous Kamikaze pilots who would crash their planes into american ships in the hopes of sinking it.  This is part of the Bushido. Being defeated in battle was considered a massive dishonor and the best way to regain it was ritual suicide. This goes back to feudal Japan and the era of the samurai. When a samurai was defeated in a battle he was often given the option to kill himself rather than bear the shame. This was sometimes also afforded to noblemen who had been convicted of crimes.

     Through research I learned that the most common way of regaining honor was by committing seppuku which is a ritual suicide in which the samurai would cut himself across the belly. Sometimes there was an appointed second who would then behead the samurai. This was seen as an act of bravery so immense that it outweighed the shame that had been suffered. After the last samurai was gone the tradition lived on in the minds of the people. In most cases not as stringent as to kill onesself over honor; but still very important. The Japanese are a very proud people and at the time this book's events were unfolding, self sacrifice and dignity were of great importance. We see this peaking through in a few places throughout when characters and their traits are described.

 For the research: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushido