1. The two characters that stuck out most to me where Mrs. Nakamura and Sister Sasaki. Mrs. Nakamura was memorable to me, because she wasn't to anyone else around her. She is a window into the life of someone who wouldn't otherwise be on TV or in the paper. She was poor and already heavily affected by the war. She lost everything but her three children and had no marketable skills. Mrs. Nakamura showed us what happened to those who weren't doctors or otherwise lucky. She had to work hard just so she could eat and she could not always be concerned with her health despite how bad it was. She was also interesting because even though she was in dire straits she never resorted to crime to get by. She was honest and decent, but unfortunately impoverished. Sister Sasaki was notable because when we initially read about her she is incredibly depressed and is considering suicide. She pulls a complete 180 and decides to do everything in her power to help everyone else. When she became a nun, she wasn't just stuck at a convent somewhere. She was put in charge of an elderly care facility that was in terrible shape and turned that place around. The things she accomplished for no real material gain was impressive.
2. Reading this book reminded me of the time I read Night by Elie Wiesel in middle school. There is gravity to the events described. The events recounted are horrifying. It is made worse by my understanding of what is occurring to the people as they are affected by radiation. The experience of the reading is dulled a bit by the very general way that it is recounted, but to describe with greater detail the author would have had to take artistic license.
3. From chapter two we get some description about people coming from the city: "The eyebrows of some were burned off and skin hung from their faces and hands. Others, because of pain, held their arms up as if carrying something in both hands. Some were vomiting as they walked." This stood stood out to me because all of these people are almost certainly dead.
From Chapter four: "Altogether, the Japanese scientists were somewhat amused at the efforts of their conquerors to keep security on atomic fission." I found this humorous. It sounds absurd to keep security on a bomb. The cat was out of the bag. The chapter also described how quickly Japanese physicists figured everything out based on the damage.
From chapter five: "...she felt that more notice should be given to the causes than to the instruments of total war." The section before this described her view as bitter. I think most people can agree with her. The topic was heavily politicized but for years there were a group of untouchables in Japan who were ignored by everyone until it became politically convenient.
4. Learning to not forget about the personal and long lasting impact of events like this was probably the most important thing that stood out to me. For every major event or tragedy people's lives are affected for decades. The vast majority of people just forget because it isn't the hot news story that week. In this book we see people trying to get their lives back together or trying to make things easier for everyone else for decades. Honestly most of their work seemed thankless and I don't know how they did it.
No comments:
Post a Comment