Hiroshima

The final chapter covers the lives of the six characters from 1946 to 1985, with an emphasis on how their lives were impacted by the bomb, especially the evolution of their thoughts and actions. Hersey intersperses their stories with later information about radiation sickness and the development of nuclear weapons worldwide. Hersey begins with Mrs. Nakamura, who had her sewing machine repaired to take on tailoring jobs. When medical expenses forced her to sell it, she delivered bread and sold fish door-to-door, collected fees for newspaper subscriptions, and finally took a job in a factory packaging mothballs. The last became a steady job at which she worked for 13 years; she became popular among the workers as a beloved “auntie” figure.

The survivors of the bomb were called hibakusha in Japanese, meaning “explosion-affected persons” (92). Hersey explains that survivors received no special health benefits until 1955. A law then passed that provided free health care to hibakusha, and later a monthly cash stipend. At first Nakamura did not take advantage of this, as she—like many hibakusha—avoided political aspects of the bombing, but later she acquiesced. She retired from her factory job in 1966 and took up folk dancing and embroidery as hobbies.