FREE ESSAY ON SHIKATA GA-NAI; IT CAN'T BE HELPED

SHIKATA GA-NAI; IT CAN'T BE HELPED

Shikata Ga-nai; It Can't Be Helped
Welcome to August 6, 1945. In a final attempt to end World War II, the United States of
America drops the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, a major industrial and military center.
Temperatures are more sweltering than the surface of the sun. Light is resplendent. Air
is thick and heavy with an enveloping radiation. John Hershey informs us of the
experiences of six people that survived the planets' first nuclear explosion in
Hiroshima.
Hiroshima begins by characterizing the situations of the six individuals just before and
at the moment of the explosion that changed history. The book first introduces Miss
Toshiko Sasaki, a personnel clerk in the East Asia Tin works, who had just turned to chat
with her friend during a rest from work. Next, Dr. Masakazu Fujii, a doctor at a private
hospital, was introduced as relaxing on his clinic's porch and reading the daily
newspaper, a stone's throw away from a calm river. At the same time, Mrs. Hatsuyo
Nakamura was watching her next door neighbor, who was making way for a larger fire escape
route, through her kitchen window. Fr. Wilhelm Kleinsorge, a German priest, was lying on
a couch in his room reading a magazine, corresponding with the actions of Dr. Terufumi
Sasaki, a surgeon who was walking down a hospital corridor carrying blood specimens.
Finally, Rev. Mr. Kiyoshi Tanimoto, the pastor of the Hiroshima Methodist Church, was in
the process of tiredly moving the belongings of his house of worship. Unbeknownst to
these innocent civilians as they were carrying out their daily tasks, a plane called the
Enola Gay silently passed unnoticed overhead and quietly dropped the world's deadliest
bomb that altered the future. A noiseless flash of light was the only warning they
received, a split-second which gave them just enough time to turn their heads. The bomb
detonated at ground zero, and in seconds, hell unlike any other kind unraveled. Miss
Sasaki was knocked unconscious when her bookcase, due to the impact of the blast,
trampled her to the ground. She lay trapped, as the bookcase had fallen on and crushed
her leg, leaving her crippled. In the years to follow, she learns to overcome this
disability and enters a house of Catholic nuns. She spends a great deal of her life
aiding orphaned children. Dr. Fujii was thrown like a rag doll into the nearby river,
surviving with only two pieces of wood holding his head above water level. Although he
later centers things on himself, he is not completely unsympathetic to those around him.
His once erect hospital stood in ruins, but he eventually recovered both his health and
fortune, continuing to live comfortably as a doctor. Mrs. Nakamura was trapped under the
debris of her household items, virtually scratchless. She at once began searching for her
daughter, the youngest of three, whose screams she heard audibly. No signs are given that
her other two children, a son and a daughter, are alive, but she finds them amongst the
rubble. She suffers mildly from the effects of the radiation, but is constant in helping
others even through the worst, leaving her four decades later a still-active citizen.
Father Wilhelm Kleinsorge fell to the ground, thinking the bomb had fallen directly on
him, ending up dazed and in his vegetable garden. His immediate actions are to help the
wounded, though he has no realization of what actually occurred. He incurs only small
cuts in the blast, but suffers devitalizing effects of the radiation. After several more
years, he seeks Japanese citizenship and adopts the Japanese name of Fr. Makoto Takakura.
Dr. Sasaki, bent at time of impact, was not hurt. In fact, he remained the only uninjured
doctor in the hospital. He went long periods of time without sleep, and without his own
glasses, in order to give ample attention to the bombardment of injured fleeing to his
hospital. He treats thousands of victims and eventually starts his own clinic outside of
Hiroshima, where he prospers greatly. Largely unhurt, Rev. Mr. Kiyoshi assumed a bomb had
fallen on the house immediately next to him, for pieces of that house showered on him. He
spends days caring for the wounded and destitute. He goes back and forth between America
and Hiroshima, raising money for Hiroshima peace causes, although he receives much
criticism for his work.
The extent of demolition was voluminous. Completely annihilated describes the scene at
ground zero. Buildings turned to rubble. People turned to ash. Survivors, few as they
were, were running mad along the streets in a fog of radiation. Some suffered vast burns,
some severed limbs, others, who unfortunately stood outside when the bomb dropped, were
completely incinerated. The only thing remaining of these were their shadows, permanently
fused with the streets, buildings and sidewalks they happened to be cast upon. Not a
thing was left but the cries of survivors. Disastrous as it was, this story leaves large
impact on anyone who reads it, myself included. I thoroughly enjoyed every page of this
book because it opened up the world of war in a wider window than I originally gazed out
of. I looked at war from the victim's point of view instead of through the eyes of a
victor. Revenge may be drummed into our military and may also be part of American
beliefs, but reading Hiroshima leads me to sympathize with the many innocent lives that
were taken unjustly to benefit other's needs. I learned a great deal from this graphic
account of the first use of the atomic bomb, and I can only hope that many others will be
able to say the same.