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Hiroshima follows six individuals--Ms. Sasaki, a factory clerk; Doctor Fujii and Doctor Sasaki; Mrs. Nakamura, a tailor's widow, and her children; Reverend Tanimoto, a Methodist pastor; and Father Kleinsorge, a German priest--during and after the dropping of the world's first atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima. The result was obviously immediate death and destruction but this was soon followed by fire as well as months of what is today known as radiation sickness. Would WWII have ended when it did had the bomb not been dropped? Was it justified? Strange as it is to say, in the context of this book this is all completely beside the point. The book is written with such empathy that the occasional mention of the Japanese people's blind loyalty to their Emperor is almost jarring, along with the German priest's 'we are allies' comment to a Japanese soldier--in the story being told the terms 'enemy' and 'ally' have lost all relevance. Although nonfiction, Hiroshima is written in a narrative style that no doubt paved the way for books such as Barbara Demick's Nothing to Envy.