The atomic bomb made the prospect of future war unendurable.

It had led us up those last few steps to the mountain pass; and beyond is a different country J. Robert Oppenheimer Discuss how Herseys reportage reveals aspects of the different world. What do you think characterizes this world? In your response analyse his depiction of character and suffering; address the effect of the 1985 Aftermath on your understanding of the previous sections. Julius Robert Oppenheimer, one of the minds behind the atomic bomb, once predicted the social and psychological effects of his own creation and how its very existence would create a different world. This different world is explored in John Herseys 1985 Aftermath article, which details the lives of six atomic bomb survivors 40 years after the dropping of Little Boy on Hiroshima in 1945. In this section, Hersey covers the effects on the survivors, and how their lives, philosophies and societies have changed in the years after the bombings. On the other hand, author Kurt Vonnegut uses his 1969 meta-narrative Slaughterhouse 5 to showcase the values and ways of thinking that the post Hiroshima world held, and how much of the world had become extremely nihilistic and bleak. In the Aftermath section, Hersey maintains much of his reportage style of writing, but adds a sense of empathy and emotion to the series of vignettes that cover the life of the hibakusha (literally: explosion-affected persons) and covers much more of their psychological and social aspects of their life. The first vignette of Hatsuyo Nakamura shows her struggles after the bombings, not just in terms of her health, but her economic welfare. Hersey states: to sell her husbands sewing machine marking the lowest and saddest moment of her whole life showing how the bomb, having already destroyed her city, continues to make lose more symbols of her life before the bomb, just so that she has a source of income. The bomb, whilst giving her a nagging weakness and weariness, dizziness and digestive troubles is not simply physically debilitating, but also psychologically oppressive, ad the looming threat of the bomb plunges her into a feeling of oppression and a sense of doom. The hopelessness of her situation is summarized by the phrase Shikata ga-nai (meaning it cant be helped), as well as Herseys own statement about the attitudes of the other hibakusha She shared with other citizens, a deep feeling of powerlessness. Also, until 1975, the survivors of the bomb were not given any sort of support by the government, leading to very tough socioeconomic times for many people who still lived in Hiroshima. Hersey covers the effects of this as well in Nakamuras vignette, as she is described as being used to the habit of coping alone in a bitter struggle. However, Hersey shows hope for the survivors, showing how not only how the government began to provide monetary support, but also how the society had begun to forget about the bomb, and celebrate their lives afterwards. Hersey uses the example of the music and the dance of the Hiroshima flower festival to symbolise a new beginning for the survivors. The song that says to tell a story of your hard times and laugh twice represents a belief of the Japanese to inject humour into the lives of the survivors, which Hersey follows with the line: The bombing had been four decades ago. How far away it seemed! Kurt Vonneguts Slaughterhouse 5 offers a glimpse into the ways of thinking in the post atomic bomb world, with the novel showing a largely nihilistic and fatalistic

The atomic bomb made the prospect of future war unendurable. It had led us up those last few steps to the mountain pass; and beyond is a different country J. Robert Oppenheimer Discuss how Herseys reportage reveals aspects of the different world. What do you think characterizes this world? In your response analyse his depiction of character and suffering; address the effect of the 1985 Aftermath on your understanding of the previous sections.