Hiroshima

This chapter covers most of a year, from August 18, 1945, to August 1946. Hersey continues to follow the lives of the six characters and the bomb’s effects on each of them. A different stage of illness took hold about a month after the bombing, generally manifesting as an unexplained fatigue, weakness, and malaise. Father Kleinsorge, Rev. Tanimoto, and Mrs. Nakamura and one of her children experienced this, taking to bed for long stretches at a time. Nakamura’s hair came out in clumps when she brushed it. In the early autumn, Tanimoto went to his father’s home in Shikoku to convalesce for a month, while Kleinsorge was sent to a Catholic hospital in Tokyo. The doctors at the Catholic hospital thought Kleinsorge was in danger of dying from a high fever and dangerously low white blood cell count.

Rumors continued to spread about what caused this. Some thought the Americans had dropped a poison with the bomb that would last for up to seven years. However, Japanese scientists had a better idea of what happened, as they were well aware of atomic energy’s potential to create radiation sickness. Teams of physicists from around the country visited Hiroshima to conduct studies and determine where ground zero had been.