Hiroshima
August 6, 1945 (taken from first page of Hiroshima)
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Miss Toshinki Sasaki- clerk in the personnel department of the East Asia Tin
Works, had just turned her head to chat with the girl at the next desk.
Dr. Masakazu Fujii- physician that had just sat down to read the paper on the
porch of his private hospital.
Mrs. Hatsuyo Nakamura- tailor's widow that was watching a neighbor from her
kitchen window.
Father Wilhem Kleinsorge- German priest that lay on a cot in the mission house
reading a Jesuit magazine.
Dr. Terufumi Sasaki- young surgeon that walked along a hospital corridor with a
blood specimen for a Wasserman test.
The Reverend Mr. Kiyoshi Tanimoto- pastor of the Hiroshima Methodist Church
who was about to unload a cart of clothes at a rich man's home in the suburbs.
Ch 1 A Noiseless Flash
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An atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima exactly 15 minutes past 8 in the
morning on August 6, 1945.
Rev. Tanimoto was helping his friend, Mr. Matsuo, was unloading clothes when
the bomb hit Hiroshima. Rev. Tanimoto squeezed in 2 big rocks to avoid the
explosion.
Mrs. Nakamura was watching the man next door until the bomb hit and made
her fly across the room. After the explosion, Mrs. Nakamura found her
youngest, Myeko, but did not find the rest yet.
Dr. Fujii was reading the Osaka newspaper until he was tossed into the river
where he was squeezed into 2 lumbers in a V across his chest.
Father Wilhem Kleinsorge was reading a Jesuit Magazine and when the bomb hit
he was unconscious and gained his consciousness when he was at the Mission's
vegetable garden.
Dr. Sasaki drew blood from a patient and was going up to the 3rd floor to do the
test but when the bomb hit, he was standing at a safe place but everyone else in
the hospital was hurt.
Miss Sasaki was at work and was talking to the girl at the right of her but when
the bomb hit, the book case fell over and she was crushed by books.
Ch 2 The Fire
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Rev. Tanimoto left the Matsuo estate and led a woman and her kids to safety.
After, He finds his wife and baby unhurt.
Mrs. Nakamura found her 2 other children in the rubble and goes to Asano Park
which is an evacuation area.
Father Kleinsorge finds the 3 priests and finds his paper-mache suitcase filled
with papers and believes it was God who saved it
Dr. Fujii is hurt and his clinic is destroyed and goes to his parent's house and
wonders what weapon could have done all this destruction
Miss Sasaki has an injured leg and is put in a makeshift shelter with 2 other
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injured patients
Everyone goes to Asano Park for safety but soon spreading fire causes some
people to go in the river and drown.
Rev. Tanimoto and Father Kleinsorge try to stop the fire using clothes and water.
Rev. Tanimoto and Father Kleinsorge finds Mrs. Kamai with a dead baby and is
looking for her husband but Tanimoto thinks he is dead.
Ch 3 Details are Being Investigated
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Naval ships travel in river to tell people in Asano Park that help is coming.
Father Kleinsorge finds soldiers in the woods and lies about that help is coming.
The priests return the next day to help Mrs. Nakamura to go to the Novitiate.
Dr. Fujii examines himself and finds fractured ribs and extensive contusions.
Miss Sasaki was stuck and helpless in the tin works factory for 2 days and is
found by her friends and brought to a military hospital in Ninoshima.
A second bomb is dropped in Nagasaki.
On August 11, Miss Sasaki left the military hospital in Ninoshima and put on
a ship but the heat of the sun makes her infection get worst.
On August 15, Emperor Tenno announces that Japan surrenders unconditionally
and the war is over.
Ch 4 Panic Grass and Feverfew
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Father Kleinsorge goes to Hiroshima to deposit money but then he feels weak
and barely made it back to the mission.
Mrs. Nakamura's hair falls out and she and her daughter become ill.
Rev. Tanimoto is weak and becomes bedridden.
Miss Sasaki is transferred to the Red Cross Hospital in Hiroshima and is treated
by Dr. Sasaki.
Dr. Sasaki notices the same symptoms many of his patients have because of
radiation.
Dr. Fujii lives with his friend at Fukawa and begins to treat patients again.
A flood takes Fujii's friends house and his old residence is also flooded.
Mrs. Nakamura and Rev. Tanimoto are getting better from sickness.
Father Kleinsorge has low blood cell count and high fever and is sent to Tokyo
but, gets better and is surrounded by many reporters and interviewers.
Dr. Sasaki and the other doctors have predictions about the radiation sickness
by observing the patients.
Father Kleinsorge visits Mrs. Sasaki and soon Mrs. Sasaki's leg gets better and
walks on crutches.
Mrs. Sasaki starts to live her normal life again.
Dr. Fujii opens up a new clinic and treats American patients as well.
Father Kleinsorge and his comrade get another mission and when he gets too
busy he becomes ill and must go back to Tokyo to rest.
Rev. Tanimoto tries to restore his church but does not have enough money.
Mrs. Nakamura grows her hair back and rents a small house and sends her
children to a school in Hiroshima.
Dr. Sasaki focuses on his life and soon gets married.
Chapter 5 The Aftermath
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"Shikata ga-nai" means “It can't be helped.”
Mrs. Nakamura hits poverty but soon new laws were made to support people
that were affected by the bomb.
Mrs. Nakamura's daughters, Yaeko and Myeko go to school while her son,
Toshio saves money for high school and soon graduates.
After school, Yaeko leaves to go to her Aunt's inn and fell in love and Myeko
graduates high school and went to typing school with an arranged marriage.
Nakamura got 20,000 yen a month from the new law.
Dr. Sasaki earns money by being a surgeon
Hiroshima becomes beautiful again
Father Kleinsorge went to a hospital in Tokyo because he was sick.
Kleinsorge continued to be a priest and changed his name to Father Wilhelm M.
Takakura and dies in November 19, 1977
Ms. Sasaki became a tourist in Europe and goes back to Japan and becomes a
nun.
Dr. Fujii is now 55 and built a new clinic in Hiroshima.
Fujii trained to be an orthopedic surgeon and had 5 grown children: Myeko,
Chieko, Masatoshi, Keiji, and Shigenyuki.
Fujii builds a house next to the clinic and enjoyed himself but his wife soon
dies.
Rev. Tanimoto built houses that were burned down by the bomb and is still a
minister.
Rev. Tanimoto lived until he was 70
Rev. Tanimoto says, "His memory, like the world’s, was getting spotty.”