Journal 8 Cameron Watson

     The two characters that I will hold on to the most are Mr. Tanimoto and Dr. Fujii.  The reason that I have chosen these two is because in my opinion, they play the biggest roles within this story.  Mr. Tanimoto is one of the most courageous individuals i have ever read about.  He helped others before himself and even when he was injured, there always seemed to be more people around him who were worse than he was.  Dr. Fujii although many argue that he did the least, did a lot in my opinion.  He was strong and was at one point attending to many people who were suffering from radiation poisoning and scabs that were too difficult to remove.  With both of these characters, I would hate to lose sight of what both of their intentions seemed to be throughout the entire novel, the idea of putting others before themselves.

    A emotional response that I do not want to forget is the struggle that each of these six characters went through.  Sure there were about two-hundred thousand more struggles throughout this book, but these six were highlighted the most.  Mrs. Nakamura struggled each day after the bomb was dropped.  She spent many days trying to figure out a way to make her leg somehow magically heal.  Unfortunately it never happened and for me that is emotionally tough to read about.  With Dr. Fujii when he reportedly tried to commit suicide, when it failed he remained alive but in a vegetative state. That too is unreal to think about, the idea that this blast was so bad, that it came to people slowly dying and killing themselves so that it just might be a little bit easier and quicker.

    First passage that I enjoyed was "Father Kleinsorge was pressed by the thought that all the damage he saw had been done in one instant by one bomb."  To me that is incredible.  To put yourself in his shoes and imagine the chaos and destruction around you.  The second passage is "She didn't care.  her leg had been so swollen and painful all along that the doctor had not even tried to set the fractures, and though the X-ray taken in November showed that the bones were mending, she could see under the sheet that her left leg was nearly three inches shorter that her right and that her left foot was turning inward."  The imagery is intense at this certain time and it allows us to once again imagine the shear pain that she was going through.  The last passage that I enjoyed reading was "Gray hair seldom fell out.  And, as if nature were protecting man against his own ingenuity, the reproductive process were affected for a time: men became sterile, women had miscarriages, menstruation stopped."  This area of the book is quite sad.  Allowing the readers to feel for not a certain character at this point in time, but the entire population of Hiroshima.

    Within this book, I think that a lot can be learned from this.  Education is constantly changing, but is it changing for the better or for the worse?  As students and everyday citizens we can learn from this book and take away a lot of things that it has to offer.  One thing is staying positive and not judging a book by its cover.  Mr. Tanimoto against his better judgment some might say decided to be on national television with a man who was responsible for dropping the bomb.  After that interview, many people both American and Japanese questioned his loyalty and whether or not it was for publicity.  Truthfully it was never Mr. Tanimoto's plan to make a mockery of Japan or attempt to win over the American people, he did it just do it.  This is something that shouldn't be forgotten and should be read in every high school and various colleges like we are now.