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The novel Hiroshima by John Hersey demonstrates the on-going issue of the inability to provide enough health care to those in need. Picture this: A young woman with a swollen, broken leg seeping pus on the grass, sitting there, awaiting help that may not come. Could you comprehend a person, being lifted from the ground by their hand as normal as it may seem, and the skin slips away like an ill-fitting glove. Imagine, thirst without clean water, and a mysterious sickness that kills seemingly healthy people in the night all around you. This is what Hiroshima saw after the atomic bomb in 1945. While other countries are not trying to heal from atomic bombs, they are, too, in need of help. The novel Hiroshima by John Hersey demonstrates the on-going issue of the inability to provide enough health care to those in need here in the United States and those in foreign countries (e.g. Japan). On August 6th, in the year of 1945, an atomic bomb exploded in Hiroshima. The Geneva Conventions made agreements in the year of 1864, a whole 81 years before Hiroshima happened, that warring countries were forbidden to harm citizens, hospitals, and their associated workers (Geneva Conventions). This was broken in 1945 with the dropping of the uranium atomic bomb at Hiroshima. “As a direct result, some 60,000 Japanese men, women and children were killed, and 100,000 injured” as said in the publisher’s note of John Hersey’s Hiroshima (7).This multitude of people all need to be taken care of, bodies living and dead. In the United States, many people lack health insurance, and die because of it. It is found that about 44,789 people pass away annually that have causes rooted with the destitute of health insurance, determined by an estimate in 2009 (Cecere). Many, if not all, of these people could have lived if they had health insurance, and therefore able to see a doctor and find illnesses in their early stages. David Himmelstein says that studies from the past “estimated that one American dies every 30 minutes from lack of health insurance… now one dies every 12 minutes.” (Cecere) With that said, we can realize that humans are fragile creatures, and that regular check-ups and vaccinations are no game; this is especially true when there is such an emergency like Hiroshima. With all said, we can see that Hiroshima and the US have a very different situation, but yet it is all the same to health. Hiroshima lost thousands of people to the bomb. Not only the initial explosion, but the effects of it caused massive health issues for generations to come. The United States is losing a multitude of people every year. This is all because they cannot go for a check-up every once in a while. Even with the strong contrast between Hiroshima and the United States, we can see that getting the health care we need is a struggle. We need to change that. Health care should be made easier to access. The novel Hiroshima reveals to us the massive health struggle the Japanese had to face, and we have to see that this could happen somewhere else. I do not mean another atomic bomb. I mean in Sub-Saharan Africa, were disease, poverty, and malnutrition are commonly found. I mean China, were overpopulation is causing pollution, then diseases, death, and more. Without health care, many who could change the world into a better place are dying away without a word. We need health care. Works Cited"Abolishing Nukes: Flicker of Hope to Global Cause, AS." FLVS. The Associated Press, 2010. Web. 12 Mar. 2015. ** "A Brief Look at Pertinent Articles of the Geneva Conventions on the Laws of Warfare." FLVS. The Associated Press, 2006. Web. 12 Mar. 2015. ** Cecere, David. "New Study Finds 45,000 Deaths Annually Linked to Lack of Health Coverage." Harvard Gazette. N.p., 17 Sept. 2009. Web. 12 Mar. 2015. ** These two articles were supplied by FLVS, my schooling program that prompted me to write this essay. For those who wish to read Hiroshima by John Hersey, the EFL Book Club has a PDF version posted on their website. Simply click the "pdf" link next to the title:
http://www.eflclub.com/10books/books.html
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AuthorZebraD is currently a high school senior in Florida. She is constantly writing essays for school and scholarships. Archives
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