[…] He grabbed up some bandages and an unbroken bottle of Mercurochrome, hurried back to the chief surgeon, and bandaged
his cuts. Then he went into the corridor and began patching up the wounded patients and the doctors and nurses there. He blundered so
without his glasses that he took a pair off the face of a wounded nurse, and although they only approximately compensated for the
errors of his vision, they were better than nothing. […]
Hersey, 1989: 25 The phrase ‘they were better than nothing’ expresses how the distress that
may occur in that state of situation. It describes the surviving action in a rush and chaos situation.
4.2.3 Narrative Elaborates the Character’s Personality The power of Hersey’s Hiroshima is placed on its detail in narrating the six
main characters. Hersey covers their story from before, during, and after the bomb fell.
Hersey’s Hiroshima is divided in five chapters. Each of them focuses into six parts which elaborates the six characters. Hersey managed to describe the situation of
each character until the smallest details. Although the story background is World War II, Hersey focuses on delivering the humanity side rather than the detail on
World War II itself. Reader will get attached to these six main characters by reading Hersey’s Hiroshima page by page. They will know less about the war and more
about each character personality.
4.2.3.1 Dr. Masakazu Fujii
In Hersey’s Hiroshima, Dr. Fujii’s personality is mainly hedonistic and always has an interest to foreign languages. At the age of fifty, he was healthy,
convivial, calm, and always pleased to pass the evenings drinking whiskey with friends. He had five children who later followed in their father’s footsteps.
Universitas Sumatera Utara
Dr. Fujii was openly eager to learn foreign languages, such as German and English. Even though Hiroshima was bombed by the Americans, he did not grow
quite hatred toward them. He actually honored them. […] Then he heard about a vacant private clinic in Kaitachi, a
suburb to the east of Hiroshima. He bought it at once, moved there, and hung out a sign inscribed in English, in honor of the conquerors:
M. FUJII, M.D. Medical Venereal.
Quite recovered from his wounds, he soon built up a strong practice, and he was delighted, in the evenings, to receive members
of the occupying forces, on whom he lavished whiskey and practiced English.
Hersey, 1989: 78 His personality is shown clearer in the last chapter of Hersey’s Hiroshima,
‘The Aftermath’, which Hersey wrote almost four decades after the explosion. In this chapter, the narrator shows reader how Dr. Fujii really enjoyed himself. His happy-
go-lucky attitude did well for his health. Dr. Fujii suffered from none of the effects of radiation overdose.
[…] He was compassionate toward his patients, but he did not believe in working too hard. He had a dance floor installed in his
house. He bought a billiard table. He enjoyed photography and built himself a darkroom. He played mah-jongg. He loved having foreign
houseguests. At bedtime, his nurses gave him massages and, sometimes, therapeutic injections.
Hersey, 1989: 128 In 1960s, Dr. Fujii seemed different and was not as happy-go-lucky as before.
His relationship with his wife was growing difficult. In 1963, he was found unconscious in his room. For the next eleven years, he remained in the hospital, fed
through a tube for two and a half years, and then was taken home. Dr. Fujii died in 1973 under his wife’s care in home.
4.2.3.2 Dr. Terufumi Sasaki
