[…] 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
After reading Hersey’s Hiroshima and contemplating all the characters, readers may find this character, Mr. Tanimoto, as most sincere man and
unquestionably, a hard-worker. The narrator describes Mr. Tanimoto in Hersey’s Hiroshima, when the days before the bomb fell, as a small man, quick to talk, to
laugh, and to cry. His black hair was parted in the middle and rather long. Further, Hersey puts his opinion about Mr. Tanimoto appearance in the passage below.
Universitas Sumatera Utara
[…] The prominence of the frontal bones just above his eyebrows and the smallness of his mustache, mouth, and chin gave him a
strange, old-young look, boyish and yet wise, weak and yet fiery. He moved nervously and fast, but with a restraint which suggested
that he was a cautious, thoughtful man. […]
Hersey, 1989: 3 Days before the bomb fell, Mr. Tanimoto had carried all the portable things
from his church to a house two miles away from the center of the town. He moved the chairs, hymnals, Bibles, altar gear, and church records, all by himself.
Although Mr. Tanimoto was Japanese, he also felt uneasy in his neighborhood because they feared him as a spy to Americans. It was because he was
graduated from Emory College, in Atlanta, Georgia. He spoke excellent English and dressed in American clothes. Even the police had questioned him several times. This
situation got worst when there was a rumor from an anti-Christian yet notorious in Hiroshima, Mr. Tanaka, that said Mr. Tanimoto should not be trusted. To show
himself publicly he was a good Japanese, Mr. Tanimoto had taken on the chairmanship of his local tonarigumi, or Neighborhood Association, or Rukun
Tetangga RT in Indonesia. The sincerity in Mr. Tanimoto can be seen in many parts in Hersey’s
Hiroshima. The quotation below is one small example. He was running frantically in the search of his wife and baby across the town. While he ran, he saw too many
wounded people without so much help he could give at that time. […] All the way, he overtook dreadfully burned and lacerated
people, and his guilt he turned to right and left as he hurried and said to some of them, “Excuse me having no burden like yours.” […]
Hersey, 1989: 30 After made sure that his wife and baby were safe, he went back to give help
for others. He gave water to some pleading wounded people whom he met on the street. He carried some most severely injured people across a river in Asano Park and
Universitas Sumatera Utara
away from the spreading fire. He worked several hours for that. He found twenty wounded people on the sandpit and lift them on his boat to help them out.
[…] They did not move and he realized that they were too weak to lift themselves. He reached down and took a woman by the hands,
but her skin slipped off in huge, glovelike pieces. He was so sickened by this that he had to sit down for a moment. Then he got
out into the water and, though a small man, lifted several of he men and women, who were naked, into his boat.
[…] On the other side, at a higher spit, he lifted the slimy living bodies out and carried them up the slope away from the tide. He had
to keep consciously repeating to himself, “These are human being.” It took him three trips to get them all across the river. […]
Hersey, 1989: 45 At those days, Mr. Tanimoto was sincere in helping people although he did
not know them. He even helped the one who had spread rumor about him, Mr. Tanaka. Mr. Tanaka received serious burns from the bomb and was dying. He asked
Mr. Tanimoto to comfort him for the last minute in his life, so Mr. Tanimoto did. In the following years after that, he still busied himself in helping others and started
over his ruined church. He determined to spend his life working for peace.
4.2.4 Narrative Sharpens Emotions
