Hersey writes, "And now each knows that in the act of survival he lived a dozen lives and saw more death than he ever thought he would see" (2).
Focus on your chosen character's experiences to interpret this quote. How does this character live "a dozen lives" and what does this character overcome in the act of surviving? Write a minimum of 2 paragraphs and use at least 3 textual quotes to support your answer.
Response Due: Monday, December 6
The person I have chosen to focus on is Mrs. Hatsuyo Nakamura. I believe that she has lived " a dozen lives" because she not only has to take care of herself, but also her three children. Her husband died in the army so she was left alone to deal with takign care of her family. She is a very strong-willed and loving mother.
ReplyDeleteHer children mean the world to her. Even though people thought that there wasn't much of a chance for the bombing, since they were warned everyday, Mrs. Nakamura still took the precautions to make sure her and her children were safe. With a daily radio warning to go to the evacuation area, she "got her three children out of bed and dressed them and walked with them to the military area known as the East Parade Ground, on the northeast edge of the city" (6). She wanted to make sure they were safe, even though many people didn't see the need for it anymore.
Fortunately, when the bomb hit, she wasn't injured, while many of her neighbors died. As her house slowly collapsed over her, “The debris did not cover her deeply,” (9). She was able to uncover herself easily and heard Myeko, her five-year-old child, buried and unable to move. "As Mrs. Nakamura started frantically to clawed her way toward the baby, she could see or hear nothing of her other children" (9). If her other two children were dead under the mess, she wanted to still be able to save her youngest child, wanting to still have a part of her family left. Thankfully, she later found that the two other children weren't injured either. “The children were filthy and bruised, but none of them had a single cut or scratch” (19).
Mrs. Nakamura was also a very caring woman when it came to the people around her. When a neighbor asked for some bandages for her baby, she went into her house and even though she had none, she grabbed some materials instead. "...she crawled into the remains of her house again and pulled out some white cloth that she had been using in her work as a seamstress, ripped it into strips, and gave it to Mrs. Nakamoto” (20). Mrs. Nakamura sewed a lot to keep her husband in mind, for it was his sewing machine she used. She was willing to give someone a piece of material that she was using for sewing, just to help a neighbor.
As she was sitting in Asano Park, she was offered some pumpkin but couldn't keep it down, for her whole family was sick. Even though she didn't have any wounds or burns, she still had the chance of dying, not able to eat. Mrs. Nakamura had been living a rough life before and after the bombing, having to take care of herself and her children, with no husband to help her. I feel as though she was a character that lived "a dozen lives".
My character of choice is Dr. Terufumi Sasaki. He was a member of the surgical staff of the Red Cross Hospital. Living "a dozen lives" means that not only had you just survived, but saw many others die. The bomb was so severe that it was just amazing how Dr. Sasaki had survived that hit. Many people only encounter one death in a lifetime, usually their own, but he had seen so many get killed from the bomb which made him live "a dozen lives".
ReplyDeleteWhile the bomb was in action and that flash occurred Dr. Sasaki was very quick to get into a safe place. "He was one step beyond an open window...he ducked down on one knee and said to himself, 'Sasaki, gambare!' Be brave!" (14). Dr. Sasaki could not even believe the result of this hit, "Dr. Sasaki, who believed that the enemy had hit only the building he was in." (15). The power and force this bomb had done was impossible to him, but he did not stand around and wait. As soon as he saw all of the killed and severely injured people, he tried to help treat as many as he could. "Dr. Sasaki lost all sense of profession and stopped working as a skillful surgeon and a sympathetic man; he became an automaton..." (26). Clearly a person could tell that he tried to do everything in his power to help anyone.
Mr. Tanimoto lived a dozen lives through the people he attempted to help and rescue. He was so determined right after the detonation to get to his wife and baby that he went into the city to find them. Hersey writes, “He met hundreds and hundreds who were fleeing, and every one of them seemed to be hurt in some way” (29). Mr. Tanimoto, being the Christian that he was, felt the need to help as many people as he could in the process. He became a part of these peoples’ lives for the time he’s helping them; they depended on him for survival, Hersey recalls, “whose energy and initiative many had come to depend” (39). In that sense he lived in that moment with them.
ReplyDeleteMr. Tanimoto managed to overcome one of the most significant things to stop you from trying; fear. Mr. Tanimoto, was completely overwhelmed by the fact that he was alive and uninjured, and felt the need to help as many as possible that were hurt. To do so however, he had to erase any feelings of what was going on. Hersey writes, “By this solicitous behavior, Mr. Tanimoto at once got rid of his terror” (17). As well, Mr. Tanimoto seems to have overcome his untrustworthy image. As mentioned, “A man famous in Hiroshima for his showy philanthropies and notorious for his personal tyrannies, had been telling people that Tanimoto should not be trusted. To show himself publicly a good Japanese, Mr. Tanimoto had taken on the chairmanship of his local tonarigumi” (4). All of the acts of kindness he had done make it very noticeable that he is far from untrustworthy, more like a brave hero risking his own life for the well being of others.
By surviving, Mr. Kiyoshi Tanimoto has lived a dozen lives and saw more death than he ever thought he would see. Seeing all of the dead and injured people around him, he starts to feel as though he had lived multiple lives instead of just one. In one lifetime, a person generally sees some older family members die, and that is it. In his case, he sees a "twenty-year-old girl, Mrs. Kamai,...with the body of her infant daughter in her arms. The baby had evidently been dead all day" (40). He witnesses both old and young people die, creating a sense that he has lived many lives.
ReplyDeleteIn the act of surviving, Tanimoto becomes a strong, important leader. He helps the injured people he sees by "carrying water to the suffering strangers" (31). He was able to become a man that everyone could turn to in a time of need. When there was a huge fire, Tanimoto "formed a bucket chain from one of the pools in the rock gardens" (37). With his new leadership, he is able to help others and put out the fire.
The six main characters that this story focuses on all did live "a dozen lives." Each have survived the bombing, fires, and injuries. The most astonishing character to me, so far, has been the Reverend Mr. Kiyoshi Tanimoto. Mr. Tanimoto always thought of others before himself and risked his life in many ways, he was fearful for his church, wife and child, "He was the only person making his way into the city; he met hundreds and hundreds who were fleeing,and every one of them seemed to be hurt in some way"(29).
ReplyDeleteMr. Tanimoto seemed to be even more driven after experiencing this life changing event; "Mr. Tanimoto lifted them away from the boat, and as he did so, he experienced such horror at disturbing the dead"(37). He felt guilty if he ran out of time to help the injured, but he knew he had to keep moving and helping. He brought food to the hungry, water to the thirsty, he helped bandage wounds, pull people out of debris. He helped even if he was almost certain of the outcome, "He knew he hadn't a chance of finding Mrs. Kamai's husband, even if he searched, but he wanted to humor her"(41). Mr. Tanimoto definitely saw more death than he ever imagined and he probably lived even more than a dozen lives with all the people he saved. He found the strength in him to help others and then himself.
This quote means that the person "lives a dozen lives" or does things that they would not believe capable of in their life. They also watch so many others die and see what they go through that it is like having more than one life happening at the same time. Dr. Terufumi Sasaki for instance was the only one uninjured among thousands of wounded people. "At least ten thousand made their way to the best hospital in town..." (25). He was currently in the best hospital and felt that it was his responsibility to take care of all of these sick and wounded people. His mind was spinning so fast and he could not comprehend it but still worked at healing as many patients as possible. He worked as though he was twelve different people.
ReplyDeleteDr. Sasaki was fortunate enough to be in the right place as to not be affected y the bomb. He simply kneeled down and hoped for the best. When he began to examine the damage done he realized it was worse than he had imagined. The fact that he survived did not seem, at the time, to be much of a good thing. It left a burden of guilt upon everyone who survived and had to watch others suffer. Dr. Sasaki becoming so overwhelmed “lost all sense of profession and stopped working as a skillful surgeon and a sympathetic man; he became an automaton, mechanically wiping, daubling, winding, wiping, daubling, winding” (26). Dr. Sasaki overcame many things. Along with his overwhelemed feeling he had to deal with the fact that his glasses were gone and the mess that was of the storage room. To get supplies he had to go through “bottles of medicine thrown off shelves and broken, salves spattered on the walls, instruments strewn everywhere” (25). It did not help to make his job of taking car of so many injured people any easier. He had to deal with a lot of stress and emotion and instead take on the responsibility that he was forced into.
When the atomic bomb dropped, "the Reverend Mr. Kiyoshi Tanimoto...paused at the door of a rich man's house in Koi...and prepared to unload a handcart full of things he had evacuated from town..." (2). Mr. Tanimoto survived the bomb by hiding between rocks. He is relatively unharmed afterwards, and in a way, he feels regretful that he is not injured while everyone else is. "As a Christian he was filled with compassion for those who were trapped, and as a Japanese he was overwhelmed by the shame of being unhurt..." Hersey describes (29). So, he sets out to help as many people as he can.
ReplyDeleteTanimoto starts by delivering water to burned victims, but he soon realizes that he cannot help them all. Then, he begins to drive a ferry across the Koi River to help people escape the fires. He retrieves food and tries to care for the sick, too. Each time he must leave someone, he prays for them and appologizes.
In helping others and seeing so much death, Mr. Tanimoto has had to live other lives because he is the reason so many lived, but he could also be the reason some died. He is one of few who survived and one of fewer who was not severly hurt. Instead of only worrying about himself and his own family, he decides to care for as many people as he can in every way possible by overcoming fatigue, obstacles, and the overwhelming hopelessness that surrounds him. When he almost drowns in doing this, he prays, "Please, God, help me cross. It would be nonsense for me to be drowned when I am the only uninjured one," proving that he cares more about all of the people he can save than himself (30).
I believe that Miss Toshinki Sasaki, the clerk from the personnel department of the East Asia Tin Works, is one of the best examples of this quote. I say this because she was so close to dying so many times. She originally loses consciousness as the blast occurs, seemingly dying there. That is then followed by her zoning in and out of consciousness. This could simulate dying and being reborn time and time again. As she finally regains consciousness for good, she is overjoyed at the sound of footsteps above her, but they disappear as soon as they come. At last, with little hope left, something amazing happens: “Some time later, she again heard somebody walk overhead…” (32). The man she hears attempts to help her, but is unable to dig her out all the way and leaves her when he cannot find help. Once again, hope is restored when a group of men return and finally dig her all the way out. The last example of her various brushes with death is when she is left to die with two others. John Hersey describes her sudden change in emotion: “She was grateful until he brought two horribly wounded people… to share the simple shelter with her. No one came back [to help]” (33).
ReplyDeleteShe shows that in order to survive, one must make friends with the ones around them. If you do not spend the time to get to know people, you will only find yourself alone in the end. John Hersey displays this concept through this character, when he mentions Miss Sasaki’s conversation with the injured girl lying next to her in the rubble: “When Miss Sasaki heard the voices of the people caught along with her… she began speaking with them,” (32). Perhaps if the first man had not seen her, he would not have started to uncover Miss Sasaki.