Hiroshima by John Hersey – a Story of 6 Survivors

Hiroshima, written by John Hersey, focuses on 6 survivors of what is the first atomic bomb ever. One universal theme that showed immediately in the story was the importance of community in the face of tragedy. A few characters who exhibit this theme are, Mr. Tanimoto and Father Kleinsorge. These two characters worked to help those in need and even at one point in the book, interact with each other and help others together. Mr. Tanimoto had gone out and tried to help, or get help for those in need. Father Kleinsorge, on the other hand, had helped those who were unfortunate like Miss Sasaki overcome the scarring event. Overall, both of these characters showed that without the community, they might not have survived, nor anyone else.

Mr. Tanimoto helps many people doing things like getting them food, taking care of them. By helping the people who were hit by the bomb he could help the community get over the bombing. The book states, the night was hot, and it seemed even hotter because of the fires against the sky, but the younger of the two girls Mr. Tanimoto saved and the priest had rescued complained to Father Kleinsorge that she was cold. He had covered her with his jacket. (Hersey. 45). Here, Mr. Tanimoto helped the little girls with Father Kleinsorge by recusing helping them survive until they could get actual help. But as state earlier he tried, the younger of the two girls had a large burn on her; being in salt water before she was recused was probably excruciatingly painful for her. Seeing this Mr. Tanimoto wanted to prevent any more deaths and helped more people and keep. Another example of Mr.Tanimoto showing the importance of community in the face of tragedy is when the book says, There he saw hundreds of people so badly wounded that they could not get up to go farther from the burning city (31). Here Mr. Tanimoto has the choice to just leave or help, but in the face of tragedy, he feels that he should help the wounded. So instead of leaving he goes and retrieves the wounded water. Mr. Tanimoto strived to help everyone, helping him, and them get over the atrocious tragedy. Broadly speaking Mr. Tanimoto contributed a lot to the community helping them overcome the terrible bombing and by getting those in need help.

On the other side, Father Kleinsorge is also helping those in need. Father Kleinsorge is helping those who have lost faith, restore hope. By doing this those who have lost faith can get back up again and strive forward. In the book Father Kleinsorge encourages Miss Sasaki to become a Christian, this helps her pick herself back up and move forward for her own sake as shown as, during the early summer, she prepared herself for conversion to Catholicism. IN that period she had ups and downs. Her depressions were deep (86). Hereby encouraging Miss Sasaki, Father Kleinsorge had shown what he as a part of her community could do to help her get over her depression due to the bombing.

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