Aftermath

John Hersey's "Hiroshima"

An Atomic Reconstruction of Journalism

AFTERMATH

Following the publication of "Hiroshima", journalists, newspapers and the general public scrambled to get their hands on this essay, taking in the horror stories of survivors who bear the weight of living through the destruction. Stories told by six survivors opened the eyes of many to the reality of atomic weapons and its effects on countries and their people. 

"It sold out immediately. There were even black market going for, you know, astronomical sums."

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~ Lesley Blume, "Reporter's Role In Exposing Hiroshima Cover-Up Explored In 'Fallout'"

Various Book Covers of "Hiroshima", BBC

Hersey's publishing was like a wakeup call to the general public, especially in America and Europe. Many people began to question what else the U.S. Government was hiding, not just about the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, but all other war related events.

“The authorial anonymity—the humility—in ‘Hiroshima’ made it the most respectful way to present the people Hersey encountered in a post-nuclear city, and the clearest way to show Americans what they had done.”

~ Russel Shorto, "John Hersey, the Writer Who Let 'Hiroshima' Speak for Itself"

In the days following the bombings, majority of the American public looked favourably upon atomic bombs, as they had no idea the mass chaos and destruction it brought to cities and families. However, as talks about nuclear power and it's abilities began to spread, people realized its future possibilities. Especially with the imminent Cold War, tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union began to increase. Hersey's publishing of 'Hiroshima' would only promote unrest in regards to the usage of nuclear weapons. 

The first copy of "Hiroshima" in Russia, Getty Images

Around the world, people raced to get their hands on the essay. Printed and sold in a variety of languages, there were few places in the world where "Hiroshima" was banned. In Russia, Hersey faced severe backlash from politicians and from the Russian newspaper Pravda, which denounced the bombings and claimed that Hersey was using this as a means to acheive fame. 

"Archived communications among John Hersey and his editors, Harold Ross and William Shawn, show that The New Yorker realized that his reporting on Hiroshima and on the true nature of nuclear arms — namely that they were radioactive weapons that continued to kill long after detonation — would be taken by the Soviets as a propagandistic threat."


~ Lesley M. M. Blume and Anastasiya Osipova, "Long After the Bomb, Its Story Finds a New Audience"

Effects of the Bombing of Hiroshima, Getty Images 

The aftermath in the scholarly world seemed to be just as large. Hersey’s use of what we now call “New Journalism” seemed to change the landscape of reporting (Lemann).

"Hersey’s report, “Hiroshima,” marked a radical departure from the conventional journalism of the day. In clear and supple prose, he described incomprehensible destruction on a human level."


~ David Remnick, The New Yorker

John Hersey Sitting at His Desk at TIME, Getty Images

The New York Times Cover on March 18, 1939, The New Yorker

"Still, “Hiroshima” was a hinge moment. Before it, New Yorker pieces usually used some device—the editorial “we,” or a generalizing preamble—that put a measure of distance between the reader and the material. Hersey obliterated that."


~ Nicholas Lemann, The New Yorker

So what happened to John Hersey?

Like many other novelist-journalists, he considered himself more of the former than the latter. Having made a large amount of money from some of his novel works, he spent the rest of his life dedicated to writing. He released many more books and spent some time as a professor at Yale (Lemann). 

Typescript of "My Petition for More Space" by John Hersey, Yale Archives

Although his other works are noteworthy, “Hiroshima” was arguably the most influential book of his career.