Hiroshima (book)

Hiroshima is a report by the American author John Hersey from 1946. It deals with the atomic bombing on Hiroshima and its consequences.

The book has sold over three million times to date.

content

The report is divided into several chapters: A Noiseless Flash , The Fire , Details are Being Investigated and Panic Grass and Feverfew . Based on the dropping of the atomic bomb on August 6th, Hersey describes the aftermath such as the fire and the destruction in the city and the care for the thousands of injured. For this he describes the fates of six different people in the city:

• Kiyoshi Tanimoto (谷 本 清, Tanimoto Kiyoshi, 1909–1986), Methodist pastor
• Hatsuyo Nakamura, seamstress
• Dr. Masakazu Fujii, doctor and head of a private clinic
• Father Wilhelm Kleinsorge SJ (Makoto Takakura, 1907–1977)
• Dr. Terufumi Sasaki (1920–), surgeon at the Red Cross Hospital
• Toshiko Sasaki (later sister Dominique Sasaki, 1925–), employee

• 

  Kiyoshi Tanimoto

• 

  Hatsuyo Nakamura

• 

  Dr. Masakazu Fujii

• 

  Father Wilhelm Kleinsorge (Makoto Takakura)

• 

  Dr. Terufumi Sasaki

• 

  Toshiko Sasaki (sister Dominique Sasaki)

The short and long-term consequences such as the destruction of a Methodist church , the burns as a result of the bomb explosion and radiation sickness are discussed . The original version ends a year after the atomic bombs were dropped, at which point almost everyone was still suffering from the events and unable to rebuild their existence.

In a new edition published in 1985, Hersey added the comprehensive chapter The Aftermath to the original book edition . The survivors, now called Hibakusha in Japan , have walked different paths. Dr. Fujii has so z. B. can rebuild his practice, the German Kleinsorge became a Japanese citizen and was highly valued for his commitment to the survivors in Hiroshima. At the time of the re-publication, however, he, like another of the contemporary witnesses, had already passed away. The Methodist preacher Kiyoshi Tanimoto, however, still travels the world to raise money for his church and the victims.

Release history

In early 1946, Hersey was sent to Hiroshima by William Shawn , editor of The New Yorker magazine , to document the consequences of the atomic bombing in a report. At the time, Hersey was 32 years old and had just won a Pulitzer Prize for his war novel A Bell for Adano . Hersey spent two weeks in Hiroshima. In preparation he used, among other things, the eyewitness report of the German Jesuit Johannes Siemes . Susan E. Swanberg of the University of Arizona pointed out how much the report by Siemes shaped the report. On the other hand, Hersey had just read the novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder , from which he took over the design idea of ​​writing the report based on the six survivors.

The approximately 30,000-word report first appeared in The New Yorker on August 31, 1946, shortly before the anniversary of the end of World War II . The editors had prepared the complete edition for publication. Despite the drastic description of the atomic bombing, the story was in great demand and a radio play version was broadcast on ABC Radio . In the same year the Book of the Month Club published Herseys reportage in book form, then Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. took over the further publication. In 1947 a German-language edition followed in Switzerland, translated by Justinian Frisch , the father of the nuclear physicist Otto Frisch . A reprint of this translation under the title Hiroshima. August 6, 1945, 8:15 am with a foreword by Robert Jungk , saw several editions from 1982 onwards. The American occupation authorities published a small edition of the book in Japan in 1947, and a Japanese translation followed in 1949.

The report was also published in Germany in 1947 (?) In the Neue Zeitung published in the American zone of occupation .

A new edition published on July 15, 1985 in The New Yorker deals in the additional chapter The Aftermath with the further path of human life. This chapter has been included in recent book editions.

literature

expenditure

• Hiroshima. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1946
• Hiroshima. [Only authorized transfer by Justinian Frisch], Zurich: Diana-Verlag 1947, 2nd edition 1957
• Hiroshima: August 6, 1945, 8:15 am With a foreword by Robert Jungk.
  • Unchanged reprint of the German first edition from 1947; Munich; Königstein: Author's Edition 1982 ISBN 978-3-7610-0589-7
  • Frankfurt am Main: Athenäum 1989 ISBN 978-3-610-04740-5 (Athenäum pocket books 140)
  • Unchanged reprint, Berlin: Philo 1999 ISBN 978-3-8257-0148-2
  • Unchanged reprint, Hamburg: Europäische Verlags-Anstalt 2005 ISBN 978-3-434-50596-9
• Eva Lindner (ed.): John Hersey: Hiroshima, August 6, 1945 - a report. 1st edition, digital original edition, Munich: GRIN Verlag 2008, also as a print edition: ISBN 978-3-640-52277-4

Secondary literature

• Nancy L. Huse: James Hersey and James Agee. A reference guide . Hall, 1978

Individual evidence

1. ^ Roger Angell: From the Archives, "Hersey and History" . In: The New Yorker, July 31, 1995, p. 66
2. ↑ Swanberg on Her Research on John Hersey and Hiroshima Eyewitness John A. Siemes, SJ, August 2, 2017, accessed August 11, 2020
3. ↑ The US hid Hiroshima's human suffering. Then John Hersey went to Japan. , Washington Post August 6, 2020, accessed August 12, 2020
4. ↑ europaeische-verlagsanstalt.de ( Memento of the original from June 21, 2014 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
5. ↑ The pure horror of Hiroshima
6. ↑ The Aftermath , accessed August 12, 2020