1/9/14
E1-S22
Jane Rupp
Hersey’s Argument: Who Agrees? & Who Doesn’t?
John Hersey the author of Hiroshima, addresses a very sentimental topic from a different perspective; that of the Japanese. He wrote this originally as an article for one of the most read newspapers at that time, The New Yorker, in 1946. His article gained popularity quite fast because people were interested to know the other side of the story. Soon he made it into a book that is still read by many. Hiroshima gives the reader an understanding of the suffering that Japanese went through and makes the reader feel sympathy and sorrow for these people. After reading the book the reader understands that Hersey’s argument was that the Japanese suffered enough through the war and it was not worth killing so many innocent lives. Hersey was successful in his argument because he did gain the support and sympathy of many Americans.
John Hersey uses narration to identify with the reader so that the reader can agree with him. His argument was that dropping the bomb was wrong and by using narration he can get the reader to agree with him by telling the story of people who went through this event. An example of narration that Hersey used was when describing an injured woman by saying, “Her left leg was not severed but it was badly broken and cut and it hung askew below the knee. They took her into the courtyard. It was raining” (Hersey 43). He uses the sense of sight to bring out a purpose which is the purpose of persuading the reader to feel sympathy. Using this rhetorical mode was successful because he made the reader feel as if he/she was there at the time. Another rhetorical mode Hersey used to help support his argument was description. By using this strategy, Hersey helps the readers visualize what they are reading or imagine what is happening. He achieves this through using descriptive words and by describing the feelings of characters. An example of him using description in his writing was when he said, “Opposite the house to the right of the front door, there was a large, finicky garden. There was no sound of planes. The morning was still; the place was cold and pleasant” (Hersey 6). He uses many adjectives like “large” and “finicky” to describe the setting that helps the reader imagine what it would look like before the bombing. Hersey was successful in using this strategy because he was being descriptive and included many details. A piece of writing that would support Hersey’s argument is The Testimony of Yoshitaka Kowamoto. This testimony was an example of another traumatizing experience during the dropping of the bomb. In the testimony Kowamoto describes his experience showing everything he suffered making people feel sympathy for him which is what Hersey was trying to achieve for the people he wrote about. To achieve his purpose, Yoshitaka uses example as a rhetorical strategy by persuading the reader that the events that happened were a really bad experience to go through. He uses concrete details to help achieve the purpose when saying, “The sky over Hiroshima was dark. Something like a tornado or a big fireball was storming throughout the city” (Yoshitaka Kowamoto). This
Hiroshima The book “Hiroshima” describes the war that took place between the America and the Japanese as a total war. The definition of a total war is everyone does what they have to do no matter what or who gets in the way to claim victory. That’s what the Americans did on August 6, 1945. Americans created total war based upon the weapons they used the territory they hit and the people they aimed for was unrestricted. This caused heartache in the lives of the Japanese people for decades. The…
Hiroshima – History Essay plan Pacific Theatre of War Generally considered that the Pacific War began on 7/8 December 1941 Empire of Japan invaded Thailand and attacked British possessions in: - Malaya - Singapore - Hong Kong as well as the United States military base in Pearl Harbour. Some historians contend that the conflict in Asia can be dated back to 7 July 1937 with the beginning of the Second Sino Japanese war between the Empire of Japan and the Republic of China Possibly…
Hiroshima Research Essay: “Was the dropping of the bomb on Japan Justified” It is clear that the atomic bombing of Hiroshima was justified; there are many reasons for this. Prior to the bombing several options had been taken by the Americans to end World War II; however, all of them failed miserably. The actions taken were diplomacy, a naval blockade, conventional bombing and attempted land invasions. The Emperor and his government could not be persuaded to surrender despite the actions, over…
Mikaela Hanson English 119 In Hiroshima John Hersey is aiming this book towards Americans, specifically American government figures. He wants Americans to empathize, and feel the significance of what their government does. I feel he’s picking survivors that are more likely to strike American hearts. Most of them are Christian leaders, Christians, or convert to Christianity. This religion appeals to American society, in those days we respected foreigners as human beings more if they were Christian…
Hiroshima was founded on the river delta coastline of the Seto Inland Sea in 1589 by the powerful warlord Mōri Terumoto, who made it his capital after leaving Kōriyama Castle in Aki Province.[2][3] Hiroshima Castle was quickly built, and in 1593 Terumoto moved in. Terumoto was on the losing side at the Battle of Sekigahara. The winner, Tokugawa Ieyasu, deprived Mori Terumoto of most of his fiefs including Hiroshima and gave Aki Province to Masanori Fukushima, a daimyo who had supported Tokugawa.[4]…
Hiroshima Lit. Circle {Discussion Leader} Madison Harvey 1. Since the bombings in Japan took a huge toll on the hospital supplies, do you think they take more precautions, like having more supplies readily available, now? Pg 46-47, “Ceilings and partitions had fallen; plaster, dust, blood, and vomit were everywhere. Patients were dying by the hundreds, but there was nobody to carry away the corpses.” During disasters hospitals usually have many problems, like power outages, supply demand…
Shalonda Beal Book Review “My review of Hiroshima by John Hershey is as follow.” The plot is about how six people lives are affected when Hiroshima was destroyed by the first atom bomb ever dropped on a city. Their lives are being followed day by day. They try to go back to their normal lives after the bomb dropped but they can not because they will always have in their mind the day that the bomb hit and memories of what they saw and what they had to go through just to recover. They wanted to…
are still trying to figure out. The war between Japan, and the U.S.A, was extremely deadly, it carried on for nearly three and a half years, until President Truman gave out the orders to unleash the atomic bomb onto Hiroshima, The blast of the atom bomb did not only effect Hiroshima but anywhere from 19.6 square miles was effected. Three days later another bomb carrying the same devastation destroyed Nagasaki, this bomb ended up killing over 70,000 people, which means that approximately 39.2 square…
as well as all it's life forms generate and much less promote love. I oppose nuclear war because it goes against the very idea and meaning of love, for instead of producing creation it literally tears it apart on a molecular level! Just look at Hiroshima, according to Sigal that one atomic bomb "devastated the city and killed as many as 80,000 people" (Sigal, 2).…
John Morrison US history 2 4/2/2013 An Atomic Mistake On August 6, 1945 the U.S. government, in efforts to spare American lives, chose to illegally drop the devastating atomic bomb on the military oriented city of Hiroshima, Japan. Three days later, after Emperor Hirohito allegedly decided to surrender, President Truman gave the go ahead to drop an additional atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Nagasaki. The earth has never seen such destruction from two individual bombs. These two cities were…