INTRODUCTI

ON
The poem, A Doctor’s Journal Entry for August 6, 1945 is penned down in the form of an entry in a
journal by a doctor for keeping records. The entry gave the readers a vivid picture of how the people
were taken aback when atomic bombs were dropped on their city of Hiroshima in 1945 during the
Second World War.

The poem revolves around the theme of war and the cause of mass destruction which completely
disrupts the normal life and economy of the countries involved. The poem begins on a calm note and

Vikram Seth has depicted the gruesome reality of first-ever nuclear explosion that was dropped on the
city of Hiroshima by the US. The bomb was named ‘Little Boy’ and it was dropped because the
government of Japan refused to surrender unconditionally in the Second World War. Three days later,
another was dropped onto the city of Nagasaki. The cities turned into a living hell with the survivors
running with molten skin dripping off their bodies. The smell of charred bodies and painful screams
were heard everywhere

Background
of the poet
 Vikram Seth was born on 20 June 1952 to Leila and Prem Seth in Calcutta
(now Kolkata). He spent part of his childhood in Patna since his parents were posted there for
a while. He attended St. Xavier's High School.[2]

Seth spent part of his youth in London and returned to India in 1957. He received primary
education at Welham Boys' School and then moved to The Doon School. While at Doon,
Seth was the editor-in-chief of The Doon School Weekly.[3] After graduating from The Doon
School in India, Seth went to Tonbridge School, England to complete his A-levels,[4][5][6] where
he developed an interest in poetry and learned Chinese. After obtaining a degree from Corpus
Christi College, Oxford, Seth moved to California to work on a graduate degree in economics
at Stanford University. He then went on to study creative writing at Stanford and classical
Chinese poetry at Nanjing University in China.

Having lived in London for many years, Seth now maintains residences near Salisbury,
England, where he is a participant in local literary and cultural events, having bought and
renovated the house of the Anglican poet George Herbert in 1996,[7] and in Jaipur, India.

In 2006, he became a leader of the campaign against Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, a
law against homosexuality.[8] Leila Seth, his mother wrote about Seth's sexuality and her
coming to terms with it in her memoir.[9]

Background of the poem

The poem A Doctor’s Journal Entry for August 6, 1945 by Vikram Seth is very poignant. The poem
brings out the extremely painful and tragic circumstances surrounding the dropping of the atom
bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. As one reads the poem, we need to silently pray that all such
violence on human beings should end and peace should prevail. In all wars, it is the innocent and
common citizenry who suffer the most and are caught in conflicts kindled by sinister forces. The
poem Doctor’s Journal Entry for August 6, 1945 is an anti-war poem. It is also a poem against
nuclear weapons and other monstrous modern technological war machinery.

Vikram Seth is a famous and brilliant best-selling novelist and poet. His poems are very vivid and
delve into varied themes, especially delving into the human condition.

The poem revolves around the theme of

war and the cause of mass destruction which completely
disrupts the normal life and economy of the countries involved.
The poem begins on a calm note and ends on a horrific tale of
blood and destruction.

Vikram Seth has depicted the gruesome reality of first-ever

nuclear explosion that was dropped on the city of Hiroshima by
the US. The bomb was named ‘Little Boy’ and it was dropped
because the government of Japan refused to surrender
unconditionally in the Second World War. Three days later,
another was dropped onto the city of Nagasaki. The cities
turned into a living hell with the survivors running with molten
skin dripping off their bodies. The smell of charred bodies and
painful screams were heard everywhere.

However, the Japanese withstood the calamity and with

undefeated spirit, they rose and rebuilt their shattered cities
and revived their world.
The main theme of A Doctor’s Journal Entry for August 6,
1945 is the destruction caused by the atomic bombs on
Hiroshima. The poem depicts both mental and physical agony.
The poet has described the gruesome reality of the first nuclear
explosion and its power to destroy the whole human race. This
bombing wiped out two cities and millions died. However, Japan
endured the calamity, rose up, (bit by bit my strength/Seemed
to revive) and rebuilt their shattered city and their world.

Thus, we can conclude that “A Doctor’s Journal Entry for August

6, 1945” is an anti-war poem. It talks about the humiliation and
the nakedness caused by the bombing, it also shows the moral
nakedness of those who perpetrated such a brutal act on their
fellow humans.

Vikram seths
Achievement: Won the WH Smith Literary Award and the Commonwealth Writers Prize for his
novel, A Suitable Boy. His travelogue "From Heaven Lake: Travels Through Sinkiang and Tibet"
won the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award.Read more at http://www.iloveindia.com/indian-
heroes/vikram-seth.html#y10d7qv0ucHCpH2E.99

Seth's first novel, "The Golden Gate" (1986), describes the experiences of a group of
friends living in California. His other novel, "A Suitable Boy" (1993) is an acclaimed epic of
Indian life. The novel won the WH Smith Literary Award and the Commonwealth Writers Prize
(Overall Winner, Best Book). Set in India in the early 1950s, it is the story of a young girl, Lata,
and her search for a husband. "An Equal Music" (1999), is the story of a violinist haunted by the
memory of a former lover.Vikram Seth has also written a travelogue "From Heaven Lake: Travels
Through Sinkiang and Tibet" (1983). The book is an account of a journey through Tibet, China
and Nepal that won the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award. He also wrote a libretto, Arion and the
Dolphin (1994), which was performed at the English National Opera in June 1994, with music by
Alec Roth. Vikram Seth is also an accomplished poet. His works in poetry include Mappings
(1980), The Humble Administrator's Garden (1985), which was a winner of the Commonwealth
Poetry Prize (Asia), and All You Who Sleep Tonight (1990). Vikram Seth has written a story book
for children Beastly Tales from Here and There (1992), which consists of ten stories about
animals told in verse.Read more at http://www.iloveindia.com/indian-heroes/vikram-
seth.html#KMOu0fZ0FyXU75tt.99

WhY did America bombed in japaan

Best Answer:  America was at war with Germany and JAPAN

Japan attacked without warning and without formal war declaration when they bombed Pearl
Harbor (in Hawaii). The Emperor of Japan then joined with Hitler to try and rule the world.
(They had Italy with them as well)

The USA joined with the United Kingdom (England) Canada, Australia, France (which was
already conquered by the Germans) and Russia to fight the two terrible dictators.

The Japanese and the USA fought all over the pacific. The japanese used suicide attacks,
kamakazi plane attacks, in general refused to surrender and had to be killed to the last man.
Japan told their civilians lies about what the Americans did to people it captured, so when the
American Army would invade an island to liberate it, the civilians were so frightened they
would kill their children and throw themselves off of cliffs to their deaths. (Note, the USA
treated all it's prisoners well, even Nazi prisoners. Japanese prisoners often killed themselves
to avoid dishonor. On the other hand Japan was notorious for torturing prisoners. Japan had
US prisoners dig a long pit as a place the prisoners could protect themselves during a
bombing raid. The jailers then set off the air-raid alarm, and when the US prisoners got into
the trench the japanese told them it was a trick...then poured gasoline on them and lit them all
on fire. In the chaos a few Americans managed to escape. Another favorite activity of the
Japanese prison guards was to take a captured american and tie him up, shove a garden hose
down his throat into his stomach, and turn on the water full blast. They'd then JUMP on the
belly of the American until his insides ruptured.)

Eventually the US Navy liberated most of the islands the Japanese had captured. The
Japanese Emperor told the people of Japan they had to fight to their death to defend the
Emperor because he was a god. Average citizens were to get bamboo poles and sharpen them
like spears and charge into the american army when it arrived (who would have of course just
shot and shot and shot until the charging mass of spearmen were all dead...they wouldn't have
just stood there allowing themselves to be stabbed to death)
The US military leaders knew that to attack Japan would require a huge army of US troops, it
would take a long time, and many US troops would die....probably more than had died in the
entire German half of the war. Also, the US leaders knew that the Emperor would throw the
average Japanese Civilians against the US army until all the average japanese people were
dead. The USA might loose 1 million people fighting to take Japan, but Japan under the
leadership of the Emperor would loose 10 million people in the fighting because they would
not be allowed to surrender but instead constantly sent on suicide missions. (like attacking
machineguns with spears)

So the USA decided to use the Atomic Bomb on Japan. They actually used two, seperated by
a long enough time that Japan could easily have surrendered after the first. I think the
Japanese thought 'they only have one of these bombs'

Many people died in the Atomic Bomb attacks. However, realize that the cities hit were
themselves military targets. The city of Nagasaki had a huge ship yard that built the biggest
and best battleship ever, a ship so big the US navy had nothing to compare to it. This
shipyard employed 50 thousand civilians. If your job is to make battleships, tanks,
ammunition, warplanes and the like, YOU are a valid military target.

However, even though a lot of people were killed by the Atomic Bombs including civilians,
most historians agree that at least ten times more Japanese would have been killed had an
invasion happened.

Source(s):
akluis · 4 years ago

THE KINDS OF ATOM BOMB

The Hiroshima bomb was made from highly-enriched uranium-235. This was prepared by
diffusion enrichment techniques using the very small differences in mass of the two main
isotopes: U-235 (originally 0.7% in the uranium) and U-238, the majority. As UF6 , there is
about a one percent difference in mass between the molecules, and this enables
concentration of the less common isotope. About 64 kilograms of highly-enriched uranium
was used in the bomb which had a 16 kiloton yield (ie it was equivalent to 16,000 tonnes of
TNT). It was released over Hiroshima, Japan's seventh largest city, on 6 August 1945. Some
90% of the city was destroyed.

The 21 kiloton explosive charge for the bomb detonated over Nagasaki three days later was
provided by about 6.2 kilograms of plutonium-239 (>90% Pu-239), and its preparation
depended on the operation of special nuclear reactors built for the purpose.  During 1942,
under conditions of wartime secrecy, the first human-designed reactor* had
been constructed, in a squash court at the University of Chicago. It used highly purified
graphite to slow the neutrons released in fission to enable further fission. This paved the way
for more substantial production reactors at Hanford. The plutonium-239 generated in these
could be separated by simple chemical methods, with no need for the complexities of
isotope separation.

* Several natural nuclear reactors functioned about 2 billion years ago in Africa.

However, the design of a plutonium bomb is very much more complex than one using
enriched uranium. Hence the need to test it, and in fact the plutonium was first used for a
test explosion at Alamogordo in New Mexico on 16 July 1945, ushering in the nuclear age
with all its threat and promise.

THE CONSEQUENCES OF BOMBING

The bomb exploded slightly northwest of the center of the city. Because of this
accuracy and the flat terrain and circular shape of the city, Hiroshima was uniformly and
extensively devastated. Practically the entire densely or moderately built-up portion of the
city was leveled by blast and swept by fire. A "fire-storm," a phenomenon which has
occurred infrequently in other conflagrations, developed in Hiroshima: fires springing up
almost simultaneously over the wide flat area around the center of the city drew in air from
all directions. The inrush of air easily overcame the natural ground wind, which had a
velocity of only about 5 miles per hour. The "fire-wind" attained a maximum velocity of 30
to 40 miles per hour 2 to 3 hours after the explosion. The "fire-wind" and the symmetry of the
built-up center of the city gave a roughly circular shape to the 4.4 square miles which were
almost completely burned out.

The surprise, the collapse of many buildings, and the conflagration contributed to an
unprecedented casualty rate. Seventy to eighty thousand people were killed, or missing and
presumed dead, and an equal number were injured. The magnitude of casualties is set in relief
by a comparison with the Tokyo fire raid of 9-10 March 1945, in which, though nearly 16
square miles were destroyed, the number killed was no larger, and fewer people were injured.

At Nagasaki, 3 days later, the city was scarcely more prepared, though vague references to
the Hiroshima disaster had appeared in the newspaper of 8 August. From the Nagasaki
Prefectural Report on the bombing, something of the shock of the explosion can be inferred:

The day was clear with not very much wind--an ordinary midsummer's day. The strain of
continuous air attack on the city's population and the severity of the summer had vitiated
enthusiastic air raid precautions. Previously, a general alert had been sounded at 0748, with a
raid alert at 0750; this was canceled at 0830, and the alertness of the people was dissipated by
a great feeling of relief.

The city remained on the warning alert, but when two B-29's were again sighted coming in
the raid signal was not given immediately; the bomb was dropped at 1102 and the raid signal
was given a few minutes later, at 1109. Thus only about 400 people were in the city's tunnel
shelters, which were adequate for about 30 percent of the population.

When the atomic bomb exploded, an intense flash was observed first, as though a large
amount of magnesium had been ignited, and the scene grew hazy with white smoke. At the
same time at the center of the explosion, and a short while later in other areas, a tremendous
roaring sound was heard and a crushing blast wave and intense heat were felt.

The people of Nagasaki, even those who lived on the outer edge of the blast, all felt as though
they had sustained a direct hit, and the whole city suffered damage such as would have
resulted from direct hits everywhere by ordinary bombs.

The zero area, where the damage was most severe, was almost completely wiped out and for a short
while after the explosion no reports came out of that area. People who were in comparatively
damaged areas reported their condition under the impression that they had received a direct hit. If
such a great amount of damage could be wreaked by a near miss, then the powe
r of the atomic bomb is unbelievably great.
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