Toshiko Sasaki Character Analysis in Hiroshima

A clerk in the East Asia Tin Works corporation, and one of the six central characters of Hiroshima, Toshiko Sasaki is the character whose life is arguably most overtly changed by the Hiroshima bombing. Sasaki endures a horrific injury to her leg after the explosion throws a heavy bookcase on top of her. She is engaged to be married, but (largely because of her injury, it’s implied), her fiancé abandons her. In the hospital, Dr. Terufumi Sasaki (no relation to her) operates on her leg, and later on, she regains the ability to walk normally. Father Wilhelm Kleinsorge visits her in the hospital and inspires her to embrace Catholicism, with the result that she becomes a nun. In the aftermath of an unspeakable tragedy, in other words, Sasaki copes with misery and pain by turning to religion. She ultimately finds the spiritual strength to live a long, rewarding life spent helping other people.

Toshiko Sasaki Quotes in Hiroshima

The Hiroshima quotes below are all either spoken by Toshiko Sasaki or refer to Toshiko Sasaki. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

The Atomic Age, Politics, and Morality Theme Icon

At exactly fifteen minutes past eight in the morning, on August 6, 1945, Japanese time, at the moment when the atomic bomb flashed above Hiroshima, Miss Toshiko Sasaki, a clerk in the personnel department of the East Asia Tin Works, had just sat down at her place in the plant office and was turning her head to speak to the girl at the next desk.

Related Characters: Toshiko Sasaki

Page Number and Citation: 1

Explanation and Analysis:

In the famous opening sentence of Hiroshima, John Hersey conveys the shock of the bombing on August 6, 1945. Thousands of Hiroshimans were waking up, going to work, and beginning a normal day, when the U.S. military dropped an atomic bomb on their city, causing the instantaneous deaths of more than one hundred thousand people. When Hersey’s writings on Hiroshima were first published in The New Yorker in August 1946, readers weren’t expecting an entire issue devoted to the Hiroshima bombing—thus, Hersey’s first sentence must have felt like a slap on the face. Before Hersey’s article, no American journalist had Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima por

There, in the tin factory, in the first moment of the atomic age, a human being was crushed by books.

Related Characters: Toshiko Sasaki

Related Symbols: The Bookcase

Page Number and Citation: 16

Explanation and Analysis:

The concluding sentence of the book’s first chapter is nearly as famous as its opening sentence. Where the opening sentence is fiercely literal, and hits the reader like a gut-punch, this final sentence is more abstract and poetic, resting on a heavily symbolic interpretation of the nuclear age. As Hersey sees it, the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima is the product of hundreds of years of cutting-edge science and mathematics. And yet all of that human learning didn’t add up to anything positive—instead, the U.S. military used it to build the deadliest weapon in human history. Thus, the Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia.

"My child," Father Kleinsorge said, "man is not now in the condition God intended. He has fallen from grace through sin." And he went on to explain all the reasons for everything.

Related Characters: Father Wilhelm Kleinsorge (speaker), Toshiko Sasaki

Page Number and Citation: 83

Explanation and Analysis:

Father Kleinsorge visits Toshiko Sasaki in the hospital, where she’s undergoing serious surgery to repair her mangled leg. Sasaki is understandably overcome with despair and sadness, and in the depths of her despair, she turns to Kleinsorge as a friend, a confidante, and even a father figure. Here, she poses a profound and arguably unanswerable question about Hiroshima—how could a just God allow such a tragedy to occur? Kleinsorge begins to answer this question with a traditional Christian idea: that man lives in a state of imperfection, as a result of the sins of Adam and Eve. However, Hersey “cuts Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae.

Her greatest gift, she found, was her ability to help inmates to die in peace. She had seen so much death in Hiroshima after the bombing, and had seen what strange things so many people did when they were cornered by death, that nothing now surprised or frightened her

Related Characters: Toshiko Sasaki

Page Number and Citation: 124

Explanation and Analysis:

In the fourth part of Chapter Five, Hersey studies the later life of Toshiko Sasaki, the woman whose leg was injured in the Hiroshima bombing. Sasaki spent long, miserable months in the hospital as a result of her injury. Furthermore, her fiancé walked out on her, and her entire family died. In her depression, Sasaki turned to the power of religion. She converted to Catholicism, became a nun, and eventually became a highly respected religious figure. As the passage makes clear, Sasaki excelled as a nun partly because of her traumatizing experiences during Hiroshima. Having lived through so much destruction, Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusan

Toshiko Sasaki Character Timeline in Hiroshima

The timeline below shows where the character Toshiko Sasaki appears in Hiroshima. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

...and an atomic bomb explodes over the city. At this precise moment, a clerk named Miss Toshiko Sasaki is sitting down to her job at the East Asia Tin Works. Also at the... (full context)

Toshiko Sasaki , aged twenty, isn’t related to Dr. Sasaki—she is a clerk for East Asia Tin... (full context)

In the East Asia Tin Works office, Toshiko Sasaki lies on the floor, crushed by books. After about three hours she regains consciousness and... (full context)

Toshiko Sasaki hears voices crying out for help. She begins calling back to them—the closest person to... (full context)

Toshiko Sasaki spends two days and nights in the courtyard. Her leg becomes swollen, and she has... (full context)

...11, radios broadcast the news that civilian patients are to be evacuated from Hiroshima immediately. Toshiko Sasaki is taken to a hospital in a nearby town. At the Novitiate, Father Cieslik tries... (full context)

Toshiko Sasaki has a horrible infection in her left leg. In the hospital, the doctors conclude that... (full context)

...medicine; he even treats Allied soldiers, with whom he practices his English. Dr. Sasaki treats Toshiko Sasaki on October 23. Her bones heal very slowly, but her leg is going to be... (full context)

In February 1946, Father Kleinsorge is summoned to Toshiko Sasaki ’s hospital bed. He speaks sympathetically about her condition, and he doesn’t even mention religion.... (full context)

By April of 1946, Toshiko Sasaki ’s wounds have healed. Her fiancé has abandoned her, but she takes comfort in her... (full context)

One year after the bombing of Hiroshima, “ Toshiko Sasaki was a cripple, Mrs. Nakamura was destitute, Father Kleinsorge was back in the hospital,” and... (full context)

In 1946, Toshiko Sasaki is beginning to recover from her injuries. Then, very suddenly, “a new blow came.” She’d... (full context)

By 1947, Toshiko Sasaki has taught herself to walk without crutches. She sends her children to live in an... (full context)

Toshiko Sasaki loves working at the orphanage, and she feels tremendous compassion for the children. Many of... (full context)

Toshiko Sasaki keeps in touch with her family in Hiroshima; during one of her visits, she runs... (full context)

Toshiko Sasaki is assigned to work at a home for the elderly in Kyushu, where she wins... (full context)

Toshiko Sasaki Character Analysis

Toshiko Sasaki Quotes in Hiroshima

Chapter 1 Quotes

Chapter 4 Quotes

Chapter 5 Quotes

Toshiko Sasaki Character Timeline in Hiroshima