The atomic bombing in Hiroshima had left permanent shadows behind. Japanese physicists found everlasting shadows of people who were outside during the explosion. “One story told how a painter on a ladder was monumentalized in a kind of bas-relief on the stone façade of a bank building on which he was at work, in the act of dipping his brush into his paint can.” The each of the shadows left behind their own story. There were shadows of gas pumps on walls and even people riding in their carts pulled by horses going down the street. The image of Hiroshima that most affected me was when Hersey mentioned the shadows left behind of people who had completely evaporated. This image affected me because it gave me the feeling of impossibility. How could there be something so power that could make people evaporate in milliseconds? How could something so power leave behind permanent shadows? I had thought, disbelieving the truth. This image made me realize that although it seems terribly impossible, it truly did happen. The atomic bombing killed many, many people and there was proof, their bodies were forever outlined on the Earth.
Hiroshima by John Hersey
January 13, 2012