Q1 of 26 Page 117

What event do you think is being described in the poem? Pick out a few words/ expressions to support your answer.

The event being described in the poem is the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the World War – II. During the last stage of the war, the US detonated a bomb named ‘little boy’ over the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6 1945. The poem describes the chaos and havoc in the city caused by the bombing. The poet uses some phrases like, ‘A strong flash, then another’, ’Magnesium flakes’, ‘the world collapsed in timber and debris’ to describe the nuclear explosion.


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1

Read the following and discuss:

• "How can I forget that stillness prevailing over the city of 300,000 amidst that calm


How can I forget the entreaties of the departed wife and child through their orbs of eyes Cutting through our minds and souls."


- Toge-Sankichi : Hibakusha (A-bomb survivor)



1. Read the following extracts and discuss in groups of four.


On August 6, 1945, the Enda Gay, a USA bomber, dropped a bomb called "Little Boy" on Hiroshima.


• 80,000 people were killed instantly.


• Out of the city's 55 hospitals, only 3 were usable after the blast.


• 90% of all doctors and nurses in Hiroshima were killed or injured.


• Radiation claimed many more lives after the bomb was dropped.


• The intial heat blast was 900 times hotter than the sun.


• Bodies were vapourised underneath the bomb blast.


• By 1950, 200,000 people had died as a result of the bomb.


• Between 1950 and 1980, a further 97,000 people died from cancers associated with the radiation: "Little Boy".


J. Garrison, a press reporter wrote:


"The people exposed within that doomed section (the area directly underneath the bomb blast) neither knew or felt anything, and their blackened unrecognisable forms dropped silently where they stood."


• Make a list of possible disasters that can completely change your life, if you are one of the lucky survivors.


1. Earthquakes fires


2. floods


3. _____________


_______________ _______________


_______________ _______________


_______________ _______________


2

Who do you think is the narrator of the poem?

3

What kind of a morning greeted the doctor moments before the disaster?

4

What startled the doctor within minutes?