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
According to Robert Vare, as says in Harsono and Setiyono 2008: xi, emotion makes the story alive. This point also one that rarely be found in another
journalistic work. Literary journalist is able to dig deeper into characters’ emotion, whether it is love, hatred, glutton, loyalty, happiness, and any other kind of emotion.
Since Hersey’s Hiroshima is a journalistic piece of work, the diction Hersey uses in it is commonly straight to the point and simple. He barely uses vague nor
flowery sentences in telling the stories. If it was fear, he would say fear. If it was happy, he would say happy. It is plain as that. However, Hersey could sharpen the
character’s emotion with that plain diction style. His power is in the ways he told the story with so much detail and direct voices.
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The quotation below is one example on how Hersey makes reader to also feel the rush of the situation that Mr. Tanimoto headed.
[...] He had thought of his wife and baby, his church, his home, his parishioners, all of them down in that awful murk. Once more he
began to run in fear—toward the city.
Hersey, 1989: 18 Reader may recognize that Hersey uses a compound sentence to show how
panic Mr. Tanimoto was. The sentence ‘He had thought of his wife and baby, his church, his home, his parishioners, all of them down in that awful murk’ comes from
four individual sentences. They are ‘He had thought of his wife and baby down in that awful murk,’ ‘He had thought of his church down in that awful murk,’ ‘He had
thought of his home down in that awful murk,’ and ‘He had thought of his parishioners down in that awful murk.’ By compounding those four sentences,
Hersey makes a different emotion for the reader. Then, it is sealed with the obvious emotion that Mr. Tanimoto felt at that time. The sentence ‘Once more he began to
run in fear—toward the city’ clearly states the word ‘run’ and ‘fear’ which represent Mr. Tanimoto’s panic and dread. Hersey’s style in the quotation above is to build the
emotion first before stating it in a quite obvious way. The passage below is another example that shows how Hersey uses narrative
writing style to build up the emotion and then sharpen it. He tells the story chronologically and uses straight-to-the-point writing style.
[...] She was stood against the wall, with lights in her eyes so glaring she could not see beyond them; she could hear Japanese and
American voices. One of the former told her to take off the gown. She obeyed, and stood there for what seemed an eternity, with tears
streaming down her face.
Koko was so frightened and hurt by this experience that she was unable to tell anyone about it for twenty-five years.
Hersey, 1989: 149
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This is an experience from a junior high school Koko, Mr. Tanimoto’s daughter who was an infant when the bomb exploded. She had been taken almost
every year to the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission which had been set up to study the radiation aftereffects of the bomb. Hersey leads reader to slowly take a look
at the situation then states the obvious emotion of Koko. The last sentence, ‘Koko was so frightened and hurt by this experience that she was unable to tell anyone
about it for twenty-five years.’ has clearly covered what Koko felt at that time. The fact that she kept it secret for over twenty-five years is the peak of painful emotion
that Hersey is trying to deliver. Although Hersey’s diction is not as much different as other kind of
journalistic writing’s diction, Hersey managed to narrate the story and it suceed to sharpen the emotion along the story. Conventional journalists may not bother to put
this kind of description of emotion into their writing. In sharpening the emotion in the story, Hersey does not always narrate the
fact and finally states the emotion in obvious words. This quotation below is one of the example when he narrates the story without put the emotion in obvious statement.
[...] She began to shiver heavily, and again said it was cold. Father Kleinsorge borrowed a blanket from someone nearby and wrapped
her up, but she shook more and more, and said again, “I am so cold,” and then she suddenly stopped shivering and was dead.
Hersey, 1989: 45 As one out of six of the main characters in Hersey’s Hiroshima, Father
Kleinsorge does not show his emotion much. He just acts alert to the situation. The quotation above is more to shake the reader’s emotion. Hersey shows reader that
death, at that time of crisis, is one thing that people cannot be dwell on. Hersey as the narrator puts it simple and short, ‘[...] and then she suddenly stopped shivering and
was dead.’
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In the first publication of Hersey’s Hiroshima, there are just four chapters instead of five. Hersey ends the story in the fourth chapter. He closes it with an
innocent point of view from Toshio Nakamura, son of Mrs. Nakamura who was ten years old at the time of the bombing.
[...] “The day before the bomb, I went for a swim. In the morning, I was eating peanuts. I saw a light. I was knocked to little sister’s
sleeping place. When we were saved, I could only see as far as the tram. My mother and I started to pack our things. The neighbors
were walking around burned and bleeding. Hataya-san told me to run away with her. I said I wanted to wait for my mother. We went
to the park. A whirlwind came. At night a gas tank burned and I saw the reflection in the river. We stayed in the park one night. Next day
I went to Taiko Bridge and met my girl friends Kikuki and Murakami. They were looking for their mothers. But Kikuki’s
mother was wounded and Murakami’s mother, alas was dead.”
Hersey, 1989: 90 That was Toshio’s essay for his teacher at Nobori-cho Primary School, a few
weeks before the anniversary of the bombing. Hersey forces reader to see the war effect from an innocent Toshio. At the age of ten, Toshio experienced a gruesomely
experience, although he had nothing to do with the war. Reader may find this closure as a pitiful fact and as an enlightenment to against any kind of atomic bomb in the
future. Altogether, Hersey’s Hiroshima indicates that narrative indeed sharpens the
emotion by narrating the story. Whether the emotion of the character or the emotion that is hoped to be felt by the reader.
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CHAPTER V CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
5.1 Conclusion
Journalistic work started to adopts narrative writing style in 1960s. The pioneer for this new journalism is Tom Wolfe. With the development until these
days, people call it as literary journalism. This thesis is trying to analyze the impact of narrative to literary journalism as seen through John Hersey’s Hiroshima.
Hersey’s Hiroshima is a journalistic work that is first published as an article in The New Yorker in August 1946. It is the product of journalism that indicates all is said
in it is truth. John Hersey’s Hiroshima is also a literary work besides it is a journalistic
work. Hersey’s Hiroshima can be categorized as a literary work because it adopts the narrative writing style. Based on the narrative theory from Gorys Keraf, Hersey’s
Hiroshima has every elements of narrative. The elements are plot, action, character, setting, and point of view.
There are four impact of narrative to literary journalism as seen through John
Hersey’s Hiroshima. Narrative makes the story is like a novel and longer than other journalistic works. Narrative also elaborates the characters’ personalities and
sharpens the emotion for reader.
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