merciful. She was, however, warmed and healed by the priest’s faithfulness to her, for it obvious that he, too, was weak and in pain,
yet he walked great distances to see her.
Hersey, 1989: 119 In 1954, Miss Sasaki decided that she would never marry and thought to
become a nun. Three years later, she became Sister Dominique Sasaki. As a nun, Sister Sasaki did great on her services. She was active internationally in giving her
services.
4.2.3.5 Mrs. Hatsuyo Nakamura
Mrs. Nakamura was a tailor’s widow with one son and two daughters. The oldest is Toshio who was ten years old when the bomb dropped. Then, there were an
eight-year-old Yaeko and a five-year-old Myeko. Mrs. Nakamura’s late husband, Isawa, only left a Sankoku sewing machine to his wife. Since acknowledged the
death of Isawa, Mrs. Nakamura supported the children, but poorly, by sewing. She has a habit of doing as she was told. At the night before the bomb was
dropped, the announcer on the city’s radio station advised the population of Hiroshima to evacuate to their designated safe areas, so she did, tagged along her
children. But nothing happened when the planes had passed, then they backed to their house a little after 2.30 A.M. She immediately turned on the radio which was
just then broadcasting a fresh warning to evacuate again. She looked at her children and noticed how tired they were, then decided to, once, not following what she was
told. Mrs. Nakamura’s personality that is showed in Hersey’s Hiroshima is mostly
tough. As a widow, she raised her three children by herself. When the bomb dropped and flew her across the room, she immediately rose up and freed herself from the
ruins of her house. Frantically, she clawed her way to unbury the children.
Universitas Sumatera Utara
[…] She now said, from underneath, that she could not move, because there was something on her legs. With a bit more digging,
Mrs. Nakamura cleared a hole above the child and began to pull her arm. “Itai It hurts” Yaeko cried. Mrs. Nakamura shouted, “There’s
no time now to say whether it hurts or not,” and yanked her whimpering daughter up. […]
Hersey, 1989: 19 From the quotation above, reader can see that Mrs. Nakamura is capable to
stay calm and tough for the children’s sakes. She left no argument for whining and focused on the safety of the children. She never let her children out of her sight
during the days after the bomb was dropped. From reading Hersey’s Hiroshima, reader also can tell that Mrs. Nakamura
was poor economically. Nearly a month after the atomic bomb, Mrs. Nakamura began to lose her hair and felt sick. But she had no money to see a doctor.
Fortunately, she gradually began to feel well without any treatment at all. A year after that, Mrs. Nakamura was destitute and weary. Mrs. Nakamura was too weary to
even care about the ethics of using the bomb and what the bomb was like. […] As for the use of the bomb, she would say, “It was war and we
had to expect it.” And then she would add, “Shikata ga nai,” a Japanese expression as common as, and corresponding to, the
Russian word ‘nichevo’: “It can’t be helped. Oh, well. Too bad.” […]
Hersey, 1989: 89
4.2.3.6 The Reverend Mr. Kiyoshi Tanimoto
