Thursday, March 31, 2016

Journal 7

Part One: The profile of Mr. Tanimoto seems to be the most interesting to me so far. he seems to be the most collected out of the bunch, but he also seems to be portrayed as a very angry man during this time of panic. He really surprised me because he was such a small guy and when he saw men and women laying on the bank he tried to help them in his boat to get them across the river despite how gruesome and injured the people were. The passage reads, "He drove the boat onto the bank and urged them to get aboard. They did not move and he reached down and he realized that they were too weak to lift themselves. He reached down and took a women 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 the men and women, who were naked, into his boat. Their backs and breasts were clammy, and he remembered uneasily what the great burns he had seen during the day had been like: yellow at first, then red and swollen, with the skin sloughed off, and finally, in the evening, suppurated and smelly... he lifted the slimy living bodies out and carried them up he slope away from the tide...It took him three trips to get them all across the river." We talked about this passage in class, but it really made me realize the affects this bomb had and how survivors were trying to help at all costs. Mr. Tanimoto didn't have to help any of those people, in fact, most of them probably didn't make it, but it shows his character and how he will do whatever he could to help others. I'd love to think I could be that collected and do something that brave if I were in his shoes, but I honestly don't think I could do it.
Emperor Hirohito giving
surrender speech.
Part Two: I have heard plenty about the bombing itself and what it did to the soldiers and civilians involved, but until it was mentioned in class I had no real knowledge about Japan's Emperor. I don't recall ever learning about the speech he gave or what had happened after the bombings, other than the fact that they had surrendered. Emperor Hirohito gave his speech over the radio on August 15, 1945. From what I had read from his translated speech, he basically told Japan that if they continued to be at war it would lead to the complete destruction of their land and people and that it was best to surrender and focus on reconstruction.

2 comments:

  1. I also looked into emperor Hirohito. His speech was a shock as well because the "living god" (their emperor) was actually addressing the common people of Japan, which was unheard of. It shows the vast differences in our cultures and how the Japanese did things.

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  2. I think it was really noble of the emperor to surrender the way he did. If you think about it, it must have been one of the hardest decisions to make. Japanese culture is so noble and has such a "win or die" attitude, he must have had a lot of blow back from making such a huge move and accepting defeat.

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