Suggestions
Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select.Please wait while we process your payment
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
Please wait while we process your payment
By signing up you agree to our terms and privacy policy.
Don’t have an account? Subscribe now
Create Your Account
Sign up for your FREE 7-day trial
Already have an account? Log in
Your Email
Choose Your Plan
Save over 50% with a SparkNotes PLUS Annual Plan!
Purchasing SparkNotes PLUS for a group?
Get Annual Plans at a discount when you buy 2 or more!
Price
$24.99 $18.74 /subscription + tax
Subtotal $37.48 + tax
Save 25% on 2-49 accounts
Save 30% on 50-99 accounts
Want 100 or more? Contact us for a customized plan.
Your Plan
Payment Details
Payment Summary
SparkNotes Plus
You'll be billed after your free trial ends.
7-Day Free Trial
Not Applicable
Renews June 9, 2023 June 2, 2023
Discounts (applied to next billing)
DUE NOW
US $0.00
SNPLUSROCKS20 | 20% Discount
This is not a valid promo code.
Discount Code (one code per order)
SparkNotes Plus subscription is $4.99/month or $24.99/year as selected above. The free trial period is the first 7 days of your subscription. TO CANCEL YOUR SUBSCRIPTION AND AVOID BEING CHARGED, YOU MUST CANCEL BEFORE THE END OF THE FREE TRIAL PERIOD. You may cancel your subscription on your Subscription and Billing page or contact Customer Support at custserv@bn.com. Your subscription will continue automatically once the free trial period is over. Free trial is available to new customers only.
Choose Your Plan
For the next 7 days, you'll have access to awesome PLUS stuff like AP English test prep, No Fear Shakespeare translations and audio, a note-taking tool, personalized dashboard, & much more!
You’ve successfully purchased a group discount. Your group members can use the joining link below to redeem their group membership. You'll also receive an email with the link.
Members will be prompted to log in or create an account to redeem their group membership.
Thanks for creating a SparkNotes account! Continue to start your free trial.
Please wait while we process your payment
Your PLUS subscription has expired
Please wait while we process your payment
Please wait while we process your payment
A tailor’s widow living in Hiroshima. Mrs. Nakamura narrowly escapes disaster when the explosion destroys her house. She and her three children cope with illness and radiation poisoning for years after the bomb, and she faces tremendous difficulties finding work and housing in the years after the explosion.
A young surgeon at the Red Cross Hospital in Hiroshima. Dr. Sasaki treats thousands of the dying and wounded after the bomb, and eventually operates on Miss Sasaki’s fractured and infected leg. After the war, he studies radiation sickness and other effects of the bomb.
A German Jesuit priest living in Hiroshima. Father Kleinsorge comforts many of the dying and wounded, even as he falls prey to radiation sickness. He helps Miss Sasaki recover her will to live and eventually become a nun. In the years after the war, he becomes a Japanese citizen and takes the name Father Makoto Takakura.
A young clerk who works in a tin works factory. Miss Sasaki becomes trapped in the wreckage of a factory when a bookcase crashes onto her. For weeks she receives no real medical care for her leg, which is badly fractured and infected, and she remains crippled for the rest of her life. After the war, with the guidance of Father Kleinsorge, she becomes a nun, Sister Dominique Sasaki.
A physician whose clinic topples into the water when the bomb strikes. He, like other doctors in Hiroshima, is too badly injured to help anybody else. Though apparently unaffected by radiation, he falls victim to a sudden, mysterious illness years later.
A Methodist pastor living in Hiroshima. Mr. Kiyoshi helps bring many of the nameless dying and wounded to safety as fires rage around the city. In the years following the war, he becomes a staunch peace activist and tours America giving speeches and appearing on television.
Read an in-depth analysis of Reverend Mr. Kiyoshi Tanimoto .
The ten-year-old son of Mrs. Nakamura. Toshio has terrible dreams following the death of his friend in the explosion. He also delivers the final words of the original edition, a school report about the day the bomb dropped.
Two Jesuit priests who are badly injured in the blast and have to be evacuated, with the help of Father Kleinsorge and Mr. Tanimoto.
Another Jesuit priest who helps the others get medical attention. He also locates the mother of the Kataoka children.
The former head of the Nobori-cho Neighborhood Association. Mr. Yoshida once boasted that fire would never come to his neighborhood. He is pinned by the wreckage of his house but manages to free himself. His hair turns white two months later.
A man who hates all Christians and who accuses Mr. Tanimoto of being an American spy. Mr. Tanimoto reads Mr. Tanaka a psalm on his deathbed.
Mr. Tanimoto’s next-door neighbor. After the explosion, she walks around for days, clutching her dead baby in her arms and desperately pleading with Mr. Tanimoto to find her husband—a missing, presumably dead, soldier.
A young brother and sister who believe they have lost their family. They are comforted by Father Kleinsorge and Father Cieslik for weeks until they are finally reunited with their mother.
The secretary of the diocese at the Jesuit mission. Father Kleinsorge carries Mr. Fukai out of the mission on his back, but Mr. Fukai escapes and returns to throw himself into the flames.
A Jesuit priest who writes a report for the Holy See in Rome about the atomic bomb. He expresses mixed views about the morality of using such a powerful weapon.
A young woman who becomes Father Kleinsorge’s cook, nurse, and close friend in the years leading up to his death.
A group of young, unmarried women in Hiroshima whose faces are so badly burned from the explosion that many people, including Mr. Tanimoto, help them receive plastic surgery.
A prominent American editor. Mr. Cousins orchestrates many of Mr. Tanimoto’s speeches and appearances in America in the postwar years.
A prominent American author who befriends Mr. Tanimoto. She is the author of The Good Earth.
The daughter of Mr. Tanimoto. Koko is exposed to radiation as a baby during the explosion and is unable to have children when she grows up.
One of Dr. Fujii’s sons. Shigeyuki finds Dr. Fujii poisoned by gas leaking out of his heater in 1963.
Please wait while we process your payment