In A Doctor’s Diary of Hiroshima, Fifty Years Later, based on the diary of Dr. Michihiko Hachiya, goes over mostly the direct aftermath of the bombing of Hiroshima. Using vivid detail given directly from Dr. Hachiya or those whom he heard from, John Dower tells the life of those who survived the bombing. “Survivors in crowded ruined buildings, lying in vomit, urine, and feces. Everywhere maggots and flies,” (Pg. 156 Dower).
In Dowers book, there is much greater detail on what actually happened after the bomb was detonated, compared to the second reading, Reconstructing the Hiroshima Maidens by David Serlin. Serlin mostly talks about some of the ways the Japanese had cooped with the tragedy that had befallen Hiroshima, primarily focusing on Japanese-American sculptor Isamu Noguchi. Noguchi traveled to Japan in the post-war era and created many projects throughout Japan. One of his contributing pieces to the rebuilt Hiroshima was two stone bridge railings in the newly constructed Peace Memorial Park.
Both authors look at different aspects of the Hiroshima bombing. Dower looking at the direct aftermath in the city itself and Serlin discussing the rebuilding of the city. Dower’s argument was more directed at discussing the horrors that the Japanese citizens had to face when they were left to themselves after the bombing as their nation was, more or less, destroyed. At the end of the chapter, Dower says “What the atomic bomb did can never be undone. Our only hope is to face it squarely and learn from Hiroshima,” (Pg. 175 Dower). One could say that we have learned some lessons from Hiroshima, as no other nuclear bomb has been detonated in an act of war, with most nuclear capable nations only holding on to their bombs as a last ditch effort as they know it would be the end of both countries involved.
Serlin on the other hand talks about the ways that the Japanese people came to rebuild and honor the dead and those lost in Hiroshima. “For Noguchi, the proposed cenotaph registered the horrors of war by proudly memorializing the dead,” (Pg. 60 Serlin). The cenotaph in question being a memorial designed by Noguchi that was rejected by the Committee on the Construction of the Peace Memorial City because Noguchi was a Japanese-American, and thus seen as a foreigner.
You mention that we have learned lessons from Hiroshima, specifically not detonating any other nuclear weapons. Do you think there are other lessons besides this that we learned from Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
I wonder what we have learned since we still have an active nuclear program, I imagine though we understand the true devastation following Hiroshima and Nagasaki but it seems as if they were more of expendable experiment rather than and end all to the war.
Discussing Hiroshima can be difficult, especially when considering the horrible damage that was left ass a result. Your comparison certainly helps to identify different ways people saw Hiroshima, and creates an understanding of how different people cope with devastating events.