Journal 8 - Shravan Patel

1) I feel like the one thing that we can take away from John Hershey's book Hiroshima is the lessons we can learn from our mistakes. Throughout this novel Hershey points out the horrific consequences of  detonating the A-bomb on Japan. Father Kleinsorge and Mr.tanimoto are the two characters  I will hold on to for various reasons. Both these men showed enormous bravery and provided selfless service to those injured immediately after the explosion. Despite being a little injured themselves Mr.Tanimoto helped injured people for hours upon hours by either providing them with drinking water or ferrying the wounded across a river countless times. He is also seen apologizing to every victim he encounters, showing how sorry he felt for those who were injured. Father Kleinsorge showed the same courage and provided similar service to that of Mr.Tanimoto.

2 )I have an emotional reaction that I do not want to forget. Looking at the number of lives that were ended immediately and the countless lives that were affected by the adverse effects of the A-bomb is just agonizing and gut-wrenching. 

3 )-“and as if nature were protecting man against his own ingenuity,the reproductive processes were affected for a time; men became sterile, women had miscarriages, menstruation stopped”.(page 78) , this passage really sticks out to me because it show how nature stopped all the natural process that results in the progression of mankind; it’s like natures way of preventing any more life to suffer by the effects of nuclear bomb.

"As a christian he was filled with compassion for those who were trapped, and as a Japanese he was overwhelmed by the shame on being unhurt, and he prayed as he ran, 'God help them and take them out of the fire.'" (Hershey pg 29, 30) . I feel like this is an important passage because it shows how Mr.Tanimoto felt about the injured and it also show the tradition and belief of Japanese people about how they would rather be injured/dead than live while those around them are injured. 

“But there are many dying on the riverbank over there. The first duty, the doctor said is to take care of the slightly wounded” I think this passage is important because it depicts how severely injured some people were that there was no chance of them surviving, so instead of spending valuable and scarce medical resources on them, the doctors decided focus on those who actually had a chance of living. 

4.) The one thing this books educates on is to avoid the use of nuclear weapons.Because even though nuclear weapons bring quick end to wars, the mound of damage it cause immediately following the explosion and several years after is horrific.