Journal 6- Annie Wheeler

The most interesting character to me so far is Dr. Sasaki.  I think that Dr. Sasaki is a hard working man that wants the least amount of casualties as possible.  This is apparent when he worked 3 days straight.   He is the only uninjured doctor in the hospital and with 10,000 victims in the Red Cross Hospital, it is near impossible for him to help everybody, but he still tries.  At one point it is wrote that "Dr. Sasaki lost all sense of profession and stopped working as a skillful surgeon and sympathetic man; he became an automaton, mechanically wiping, daubing, winding, wiping, daubing, winding" (26).  This shows that although he wants to help the most people he can, he sacrifices giving quality care to help as many people as he can. 

The "black rain" also stained skin, clothing and buildings. 

In chapter 3, I was struck with the question did the water get contaminated with radiation after the bombing and is that what made Mrs. Nakamuro's family get sick shortly after drinking from the river in Asono Park? On AtomicBombMuseum.org it was said that close to a half hour to forty minutes after the atomic bomb exploded there was "mixing of enormous amounts of airborne irradiated materials combined with heat and thermal currents from the firestorms led to rainfall."  This rainfall is referred to as "black rain".  The "black rain" reached ground as "sticky, dark, dangerously radioactive water."  This website also says that the "black rain" was ingested by the Japanese from being in the air and it infected food and surrounding water which could have made the Nakamuro's nauseous and vomit almost instantly after consumption.