Journal 7: Lydia Freudenberg

Part One:

The character profile that I believe has been the most interesting would have to be Miss. Sasaki's. At the end of chapter one, Miss. Sasaki is now being crushed by books (which is rather ironic, being crushed my knowledge in such a devastating situation). After being under the books for a couple of days, and being denied help once, several men eventually find her and pull her out of the rubble. Miss Sasaki's leg was badly hurt and even then, the poor women still would not receive medical help. She was placed outside under a small shelter for two days, where she become smelly and her leg very swollen. But what really amazed me about Miss. Sasaki story was how she was rescued by army doctors and taken to a near by island to a military hospital only to be denied immediate help and almost threatened to be taken back to Hiroshima. Why would they send wounded back into the terror city? Sure, they may not have room in the military hospital but at least take her to the country side or another city. Why were they not evacuating people from Hiroshima?

I'm interested to see what happens to Miss. Sasaki. With her family all but dead, and her leg still growing more and more swollen as well as oozing with puss and pain. Will she loose her leg? She obviously survives but looking at her current condition, I'm amazed she does.


Part Two:

The question that I purposed was as followed: Those who did not have visible wounds or burns, but still passed, why did they pass? Psychological reasons? 

At the bottom of page 35 in Hiroshima a women by the name of Iwasaki is mentioned. She is speaking to Father Kleinsorge and he notice how she had no physical injuries, but unfortunately passed away later that same day. Why would someone who seems to be perfectly okay just die? It was concluded that many people experienced shock after the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. The type of shock Iwasaki was experiencing would have been classified as neurogenic shock, which is severe emotional disturbance. When someone goes into neurogenic shock the severe symptoms are all internal; a slower heart rate and low blood pressure, the limbs are warm while the rest of the body is cold and urine may cease. Iwasaki was not elaborated on her symptoms but we can infer that she was suffering from a lack of blood/oxygen flow, causing her heart to just stop.

There were also many long-term psychological affects due to the Hiroshima bombing. Psychologist conducted a study and found that many of the survivors suffered from fatigue, amnesia and a lack of concentration. Survivors also had many symptoms of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) such as nightmares, flashbacks, extreme anxiety, feeling numb, anger or irritable, as well as depressed, and some victims even having suicidal thoughts. It's not very difficult to understand why they had such severe personality changes after the bomb. One moment you're walking down the street, the next moment you're cover head to toe in burns, your neighborhood is on fire, along with your own house, where your family now are screaming under rubble or lying dead.

This picture I thought did a good job at showing the
shock people experienced after the bomb. The small
family looks sad and the little boy seems confused with
why he is posing in such an ominous and destroyed area.