History of the Modern Era
This course is designed to interpret the development of two centers of civilization, Europe and America, within a global context and extend from at least the Age of Enlightenment through the present.
Hiroshima Essay
Dr. Masakazu Fujii, a physician, had just returned from an early morning errand and sat down to comfortably read the paper on the porch of his private hospital. He had a fairly lucrative business that, at the time, was not too busy. Even though it could house thirty patients, he had only two. He feared evacuation and had turned patients away in case of a fire raid. After fifty years, he was healthy, convivial, calm and sensible. Loyal to Japan, he switched brands of whiskey to support his country after the war started. Dr. Fujii relaxed on his porch, reading the Osaka Asahi from Osaka because his wife was there.
Looking down at the paper, 1550 yards from the center of the explosion, and facing the opposite direction, Dr. Fujii noticed the flash as a brilliant yellow. Having only enough time to rise to his feet, he was carried and thrown by the toppling hospital into the river. Things were speeded up, crushed, and wrecked. He immediately realized he was alive. However, he was tightly trapped between two long timbers with his head above water. Injured in the shoulder and dazed, he hung about twenty minutes until he became aware of and motivated by the danger of drowning and wriggled himself free.
Despite losing his glasses, Dr. Fujii noticed his ruined hospital, two distinct fires, his injured servants, and burn victims rushing around. However, he never found his niece. Presently, he encountered a fellow doctor who agreed with his suggestion that the event must have been a self-scattering cluster of bombs. Together with his nurses he walked to a relative�s house, bandaged, and was bandaged. Along the way, he noticed the great number of the sick and dying as well as the dead covering the ground. He became sure the damage was more than a cluster of bombs could do.
More than a month later, Dr. Fujii�s injury seemed to make good progress as he stayed in the house of Okuma. But a typhoon disturbed his rest when it washed the place away. Ten days after that, he built a practice in an eastern suburb of Hiroshima, honoring his conquerors by inscribing in English, receiving members of occupying forces, and practicing English language. He notices that it is hard to be medically cautious with so much to do.
At fifty, Dr. Masakazu Fujii was a friendly, merry man who enjoyed foreigners, his practice, and whiskey. He often engaged in German lessons from his friend, Father Kleinsorge. For his interest in languages, he was sometimes closely questioned by Japanese secret police. However, he was eager to make friends with Americans.
Dr. Fujii built a new clinic on the site of his former practice. Unlike before the war, he now considered himself to old to go very far with any specialty, and he lacked the equipment. He treated about eighty patients a day. He had also taken care of his five children who were now grown and following in his footsteps.
Suffering from none of the effects of radiation overdose, Dr. Fujii chose to follow the pleasure principle as therapy for any other effects. For instance, he drank often, danced, bought a billiard table, took up golf, joined a club, followed baseball, and became quite known for being a playboy.
But nine years later, things seemed different. Dr. Fujii resigned from his club when policies changed to his disliking. His marriage became difficult, and he built an American style house to accommodate an American couple. On New Years Eve, 1963, Dr. Fujii retired to his room and was later found unconscious with a gas heater turned on but not burning. Fresh air from a fan kept him alive. However, he could not be revived until four days later when on an ambulance. After seemingly recovering for a period of twenty-five days, he again lost consciousness. For the following eleven years he lived life as a vegetable. Cared for by his wife and servant, he seemed to only dimly register pleasure or displeasure.
Dr. Fujii slipped away on January 12, 1973. His son found that his father�s brain had atrophied, his large intestine had become enlarged, and there was a cancer the size of a Ping-Ping ball in his liver.
Mrs. Hatsuyo Nakamura was in the habit of doing as she was told, so when the city�s radio station advised evacuation, she listened. She responded by taking her three children to the military area known as the East Parade Ground. Sleeping until two, Mrs. Nakamura started back after the planes passed overhead. She heard another evacuation warning at 2:30 but decided to let her children sleep. Then, alarmed at 7:00 by a siren she hurried to the head of her Neighborhood Association and was told to remain home until an urgent warning sounded. Instead, she heard the all clear at 8.
Mrs. Nakamura put on rice and watched her neighbor through her window. She was a widow and supported her family by doing piecework. Her husband had gone into the army and died a corporal the day Singapore fell.
Suddenly everything flashed white and as she turned to protect her children, she was flung into the next room with parts of her house. Buried but not deeply, she rose to hear her youngest child cry for help. Then she heard the other two, and she immediately began to free them. Without scratch, they then followed her out into the street, where she bundled them in clothes despite the warm temperature.
Mrs. Nakamura helped her neighbor bandage a baby and then suggested going nearer the citywide conflagration to fight it. But fearing more bombs, she went instead to Asano Park, an evacuation area. They were among the first to arrive and drank from the river. Soon after they became nauseated and began vomiting. Continuing to feel sick all day, Mrs. Nakamura and other thought it was from a gas that Americans dropped.
She and her children were then four of the fifty people taken to Noviate as guests of Father Kleinsorge. One morning she noticed that her comb was removing handfuls of hair. She and her youngest felt extremely weak and tired while the other two were fine. Within a month, Mrs. Nakamura heard the rumor that the atomic bomb had deposited poison in Hiroshima. This rumor aroused those who had formerly been quite passive about the moral issue of the atomic bomb.
However, by September, news of safety in Hiroshima reached the household in which Mrs. Nakamura was concealing herself. She sent her brother-in-law to look for the sewing machine but found later that it had been ruined. Without this means of livelihood, Mrs. Nakamura was too poor to see a doctor even though she continued to be sick and noticed that her daughter�s burns took months to heal.
As soon as her hair was presentable, she sought out a carpenter from Kabe who was building a number of wooden shanties in Hiroshima. No longer dependent on the charity of her in laws, she sold her last kimono but still her savings were gone. Mrs. Nakamura had two choices; taking work as a domestic for some of the Allied occupation forces, or repairing her broken, rusted sewing machine. She had her Sankoku machine repaired, but continued to be destitute for she could only work a couple days before she had to rest for two or three more. She earned barely enough money for food. At this time, she fell ill. Her stomach swelled up, she had diarrhea, and she had so much pain that she could hardly work at all. She had roundworm. Treated by a doctor, she was forced to pay him with her husband�s machine. It was the saddest moment of her life.
After years of this, she was accepted and assigned to one of the groups of houses built for victims of the bomb. This was a big step up for the Nakamuras. Soon she began working in Suyama Chemical. In this atmosphere, she eventually made friends, earned raises and grew accustomed to certain cheerfulness in the office; she even became affectionately nicknamed �Auntie�. After 13 years there, the searing experience of the bombing seemed gradually to be receding from the front of her mind. In 1966, at 55, Nakamura-san retired and began enjoying her life of relaxation.
In the fortieth year after the bombing, Nakamura-san danced with the women of the fold dance association. They danced to a song of happiness. Suddenly, Nakamura-san felt woozy and was put in an ambulance to the hospital. However, she insisted she was fine and was allowed to leave.
I chose Dr. Masakuzu Fujii and Mrs. Hatsuyo Nakamura for different reasons. I chose the former because, although a doctor, he lived a relatively simple, quiet life. I find it interesting to see how this near death experience changed his views. Although he switched loyalties between countries, he stayed an easygoing man. Plus, he engaged in some new hobbies to take full advantage of life. Mrs. Nakamura, on the other hand, struggled with poverty but eventually found financial ease and social relief when she was forced to part with the sewing machine.
I also chose these two characters so that I could compare their skills and the effect their knowledge had on their post-war survival. Whereas one was a doctor, he was able to recover possessions more easily because his talents were in high demand. However, the seamstress represents those who had abilities that were not immediately rewarding. Mrs. Nakamura, and others like her, struggled in many ways to get back on their feet.
Dr. Fujii and Mrs. Nakamura teach us, as do all hibakusha, that despite living through such unimaginable hardships like bombings, economic limbo, exposure ailments, postwar disorder, hunger, greed, thievery, and hibakusha prejudice, a life can still be a happy and fulfilling one. These two individuals overcame catastrophe by strong will and brave hope, setting a fine example and high standard for others that suffer injustices.
In conclusion, such injustices should be avoided after learning about the Hiroshima aftermath. The world should acknowledge the extreme pain and savage brutality of atomic bombs. When used on civilians, it is not, in any way, a respectable weapon. This instrument causes long-term suffering and puts people who use it to shame. By looking at the victims closely, the world should learn that human beings have irrationally take upon themselves the license to destroy people, families, homes, youth, and life.
