Hiroshima

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Summary: A touching, emotional novel that everyone can relate to
Review: In this novel, John Hersey describes the devastation that took place on August 6, 1945, when the Americans dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. As he records this, he also enters the lives of six survivors and writes about each one's personal experience during and after the bombing. It is through these survivors in which the book is centered, making it a very touching and moving novel. Now, in its latest version, Hiroshima includes a final chapter about the survivors nearly fifty years after the destruction. This version marvelously completes each survivors emotional stories.

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Summary: Hiroshima was a well written and intersting novel
Review: I really enjoyed reading Hiroshima, this book held my attention. Before I began to read it, I thought that it would be a boring and dry history book. Fortunatly, it was not, hiroshima presented historical facts and information in a unique and enjoyable story. The straight forward approach that Hersey used in this book helped me to get into the story. he didn't make it long and drawn out, there was always something interesting going on. Overall, Hiroshima was a very good book that was both enjoyable and eductional. This book is worth reading again.

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Summary: Extremely Eye-Opening!
Review: John Hersey's Hiroshima is a wonderful depiction of the horrors and tragedies associated with war. Hersey successfully involves the readers by his graphic accounts of the destruction inflicted upon the city and the victims. Altogether, Hiroshima is an incredible learning experience. Hersey tells this story in a way that no history books ever will!

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Summary: Lasting Effects On the Future
Review: John Hersey's Hiroshima is an excellent book to display the events in a war the opposing side cannot grasp. All too often a society justifies heinous acts of war if they are summarized as "bomb" or "conflict." Hersey puts faces to the generalizations and numbers, forcing a reader to understand that enemies are people with hearts, minds, and souls. The book wasn't a question of opinion, "Should we have done it?" Rather, it was a journalistically unbiased approach to telling the survivors' stories. The novel creates community among demographically diverse readers by unifying concepts of survival, humanity, and reconciliation. Hersey's essay simply was not the redundant, overused concept of, "Don't let history repeat itself." The book was an epiphany; readers met survivors and were forced to be put in their shoes. Readers saw how the people of Hiroshima weren't revengeful, just desperately wanted the hate to end. The novel was not Anti-America or Pro-Japan, it broke all culture boundaries and lines of hate to form universal realizations. Yes, compassion and sypathy are inevitably felt, but the book did not press guilt upon a reader. I praise John Hersey and Hiroshima for letting the stories of six survivors be known - the entire truth of their pain and courage. Every day is sacred in its opportunities to change lives and have lasting effects on the future. Through reading Hiroshima, all readers are woken up to harsh realities and are inevitably changed.

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Summary: touching book
Review: In my opinion, Hiroshima by John Hersey is a great book. It is a book that I believe everyone should read. John Hersey tells this tragic story from six of the survivors points-of-view, which is really interesting and caught my attention. Reading about the stories these six survivors have to tell really helped me to understand what emotional pain the people of Hiroshima experienced. Before reading this book I never really had an opinion on the bombing of Hiroshima; it never ran through my mind. After reading this book I now have an understanding of what happened in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, which I'm thankful I have. Stories of shock, helping each other, and moving on are told. We tend not to think about the people that lost their homes, family, and friends because it didn't happen to us or our country. However, it was real and did happen. John Hersey tells the surviving stories of Miss Toshinki Sasaki, Dr. Masakazu Fujii, Mrs. Hatsuyo Nakamura, Father Wilhelm Kleinsorge, Dr. Terfumi Sasaki, and Reverend Kiyoshi Tanimoto, and also in the new edition their fates forty years later. There is no better way to tell the story of Hiroshima than by the survivors of it. I enjoyed this book very much and encourage everyone who hasn't read it to do so.

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Summary: Everyone should try and read Hiroshima
Review: I feel that everyone, especially High School students, should read Hiroshima. Although it is not the most exciting book, it portrays many important themes. It also teaches significant lessons. John Hersey avoids preaching readers; instead he keeps a journalistic point of view, and tells it like it is. He unfolds the lives of the victims before and after the explosion. Furthermore, he gets personal with the readers. Personally, it wasn't one of my favorites, but it did make me think. The book made me develop a greater appreciation of life. As a result, through his teachings, Hersey attempts to reveal vital messages which in turn may help prevent another event like this from occurring again.

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Summary: Mixed Feelings
Review: Although I found Hersey's novel to be somewhat touching, I am not fond of his writing style. His detached, journalistic view creates an emotionless mood. Perhaps this style was effective with some readers, but it didn't go over with me. Maybe I have a preference for flowery writing, but I found that Hersey's gruesome details of peeling skin and oozing puss made me sick rather than sympathetic. When the author shows no emotion towards a situation, it is difficult for the reader to do so. Instead of focusing on the emotions, thoughts, and feelings of the survivors, his story centers on the technical aspects of their survival. The reader feels sympathy toward the survivors because of their situations, NOT Hersey's portrayal of them.

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Summary: It has the potential for greatness, but falls short.
Review: While achieving acclaim for his novel Hiroshima, I feel that John Hersey's work is overrated and does not meet the publicity it has received. I admit that, yes, he did an incredibly accurate job in describing the survivors and their ordeals. His non-preaching point of view proved critical to the universal feeling which emanates form this novel. It is said to have reached individuals across the globe with famous persons like Albert Einstein ordering one thousand copies. I do not dispute this, but I feel that in his effort to be non-biased, he loses many readers to a lack of interest. This novel is presented in a manner that quickly becomes mundane and boring. Certain ideas and events show up over and over again in slightly differing circumstances. Also, the story, while pristine in preciseness, is extremely confusing. Two of the six main characters share the same last name and as the novel progresses, an additional two hibakusha change their names. I felt bewildered while reading. I found myself having to go back and re-read passages, sometimes pages. This novel just could NOT keep my attention. Hiroshima has the potential to be a truly touching book. Hersey's viewpoint is perfect, the possibility for greatness is there. Unfortunately though, with long and overdone descriptions and confusing details, I don't feel it was a literary success in any light.

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Summary: An incredible book creating worldwide community
Review: Hiroshima is an extremely moving story that paints a very realistic picture of tragedy. Hersey does an excellent job of telling the survivors' stories in an honest, non-blaming way. Although the plot became monotonous at times, Hiroshima makes the reader think deeply and experience a sense of compassion for humankind. It is important that people from both sides of World War II's battle lines listen to the ideas and themes Hersey presents. In addition, students and adults alike can learn about the mass devastation from Hersey's honest writing style.

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Summary: A great and extrememly accurate book.
Review: John Hersey's Hiroshima truly captures the horror of the historic event. This extremely accurate book should be read by everyone. John Hersey gives a vivid description of the lives of 6 people who lived through the traumatic experience of the bombing at Hiroshima. Through their stories, the reader can see how hard it was to deal with the pain and suffering that people had to go through. Hiroshima helps people to appriciate all races, colors, religions, etc. because it creates a sense of community. A hundred thousand people died due to the atomic bomb. This book helps to put faces and names to the statistics. It makes the reader realize that those who died were people with dreams and wishes for their futures and their families. Those innocent lives were cut short within minutes because of the bomb's disastrous effects.