The book begins with the telling of what the main six characters were doing before, during, and shortly after the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. The book goes on to show how the people believed that it only affected the general area, and how they realized that it affected the entire city. Many people were injured and scorn. Some people were even trapped under buildings. It continues to show when the Japanese Emperor announced on the radio that Japan was going to surrender to the U.S. In the few days, survivors, Japanese scientists, and government leaders discovered that the weapon was actually a new type of bomb. The government was very careful and indistinct in reporting details to the public. The fates of the main characters were described, and they all suffered from some form of radiation sickness. The Japanese were able to figure out from analyzing the people and the remains of the bomb what is was made of. The last chapters tell you about the atom bomb victims a year to forty years after the bomb. It also tells how the city rebuilt itself and recovered from being attacked by a nuclear weapon. Even though the six main characters went through the same situation in a different way they all fought to overcome the damage left behind by the bombing.
Through reading this booking two characters that stood out to me were Father Wilhelm Kleinsorge and Dr. Terufumi Sasaki. These two stood out because I felt they helped a lot of people even when they could not help themselves. I have much admiration for Dr. Sasaki because he when called stood up to the plate, and was able to go on with his life. Father Wilhelm is a thirty-eight year old German priest. Father Wilhelm was in his room reading and got scared when he saw the flash. He somehow ended up outside in vegetable garden pacing around. The only physical marks he had were cuts. He helped a man escaped, but the man ended up running back into the fire. He went to a park called Asano Park where he helped