Black Rain Essay, Research Paper

BLACK RAIN by Masuji

Ibuse The main character in the novel is in some ways like

myself. Mr. Shizuma is a person that is intrigued by many

things and likes to see what reaction people have from any

action. Throughout the novel he feels the need to go to

different parts of the city and surrounding communities in

order to see the effects of the unknown bomb. Mr. Shizuma

was not only interested in what happened to the people of

the community but he was also interested in finding out what

the weapon used was called and made out of. There were

different names given to the bomb throughout the book and

he sums up the names in one paragraph, The name of the

bomb had already undergone a number of changes, from the

initial ?new weapon? through ?new-type bomb,? ?secret

weapon,? ?special new-type bomb,? to ?special

high-capacity bomb.? That day, I learned for the first time to

call it an ?atomic bomb.? (Black Rain 282) The importance

of the name of the bomb may seem ineffectual, but he seems

to dwell on finding out what caused this type of destruction.

Something else that Mr. Shizuma wants to do is remember

every little detail about what happens to everything from

what angle the house was on after the bomb to what his wife

cooked for dinner with the food rationing. He even likes to

write how people cured themselves of radiation sickness and

what the burns and other injuries look and act like. These

things are like myself in the fact that he does not like to

forget what things are like, wants to see first hand what the

effects are, and is very interested in finding information about

new things that he has never seen before. He also likes to

help people greatly such as his constant wanderings looking

for coal for his community. If you were depended on would

you help your community? I think so. The theme that is very

meaningful to me is that war hurts two different parts of a

country. The first is the military, which was not really talked

about, and then there is the civilians. The civilians must ration

food so that the military can eat, and then they must also

suffer because the bomb that was dropped was not meant

for any military base but to destroy and kill a city. The theme

is clear in meaning that it hurts the civilians much more than it

hurts the military and that war is very, very cruel. The people

that were rationing had very little to eat and that amount

became smaller as the war continued. People were forced to

grow carp in small, and search for mussels in ponds in order

to get any type of meat. By the end of the war there were no

mussels left in any of the many streams and there were also

no fish in any of the ponds. The only thing that survived were

the eels who were seen swimming up the river a day before

the surrender was given. This was a sign of rebirth. It only

took a year after the Hiroshima bombing for the surrender

and during that time the government did not help any of the

people that really were hurt by the war, the civilians. It was

strange that the people felt any remorse at all for losing the

war when the government that they were supposed to

believe in left them homeless and without any food.

Innocent, unarmed people killed and mangled by a weapon

that could kill the entire planet. For what purpose was the

bomb dropped? Mr. Shizuma made many remarks about

how if the opposition would have only waited a while longer

they would not have had to drop the bomb because the

country was internally falling apart. This seems to me that the

dropping of the bomb was nothing but a science experiment

to the ?opposition?. That is the hidden theme to this novel.

The only type of person that could possibly read this book is

a person that is very open minded to other ideas. To most

people from the United States the bomb was necessary in

order to stop the war. In the eyes of the Japanese the bomb

was not needed to stop the war. Which side is true? The

answer is both sides. To have an open mind and to be able

to accept new ideas is crucial when you look at people from

a different type of background and way of thinking. To read

this novel you must also have a pretty solid stomach because

there are many detailed entries about wounds and the way

that the skin starts to melt right off the living body. The

whole story is told from the eyes and thoughts of the main

character Mr. Shizuma is different than any first hand

account that I have ever read and a reader must be willing to

get into that character in order to get the message, feelings,

and pictures that Mr. Shizuma is trying to put forth. The

novel is written extremely clear but one of the problems is

that it gets slow every once in a while if Mr. Shizuma gets

something into his mind so he decides to get it done. The

pond that his friend is growing carp in is traveled to what

seems to be about a thousand times. What is good about the

many travels to these same places is that each time the scene

changes slightly with someone becoming sick or the carp

growing. What a person needs to read this book is careful

thought because of the slight changes and also a map seems

to grow inside your head of the different places that he goes

to. These places are described in so much detail that it does

not take very much imagination to see what is going on and

what he is seeing. The title has a lot to do with the book

because the title is how the whole thing started, with Mr.

Shizuma?s daughter coming home with black spots on her

skin where the black rain had hit her. It could not be washed

off and it burnt through clothing. The ending to the novel was

satisfactory because the end of the war was a good place to

end the novel. The only problem that I can see with this type

of ending is that the reader wants to know what has

happened to the community after a few years but what the

writer is trying to say is very clear and enforced with people

crying because they lost the war. The crying was not only

because the war was lost but also for the people that died,

or are dyeing, in the community. Also the crying was also

from fear of what was going to happen to them now that

another country had control of them. The men mostly feared

that they were going to be castrated but they knew that the

country would never be the same but they would be able to

eat. The eels that were viewed in the river were still in the

larvae stage and they were swimming upriver. This gives the

man in the story hope that things will be all right and that they

have the power to build a new community and help his

family deal with the sickness that his daughter has. The

overall meaning of the novel is that war makes things hard

for the people that have to stay at home and support their

soldiers. The heart of any country is with the general

population and when that general population was hit with

something unknown it did not only shock the rest of the

country but it made the country wonder if they were strong

enough. People will pull through for themselves and family

before they think about what is going to happen to the way

that they live. This novel shows the power and curiosity of

the human spirit. It does accomplish what it set out to do,

show the effect on the losing side of war.