Hiroshima Foreignness Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #4

The woman's gentleness made Father Kleinsorge suddenly want to cry. For weeks, he had been feeling oppressed by the hatred of foreigners that the Japanese seemed increasingly to show, and he had been uneasy even with his Japanese friends. This stranger's gesture made him a little hysterical. (3.35)

Father Kleinsorge had apparently been dealing with a lot of xenophobia/anti-foreigner sentiment leading up to the blast, even though the Germans and Japanese were war allies.

Quote #5

While he was at work, a Miss Tanaka came and said that her father had been asking for him. Mr. Tanimoto had reason to hate her father, the retired shipping-company official who, though he made a great show of his charity, was notoriously selfish and cruel, and who, just a few days before the bombing, had said openly to several people that Mr. Tanimoto was a spy for the Americans. Several times he had derided Christianity and called it anti-Japanese. […] Now he was very weak and knew he was going to die. He was willing to be comforted by any religion. (3.46)

Despite the fact that Mr. Tanaka had been spreading all kinds of rumors about Mr. Tanimoto, claiming that he/his religion were anti-Japanese, he ended up asking for Mr. Tanimoto's help when he found out he was dying.

Quote #6

For ten days after the flood, Dr. Fujii lived in the peasant's house on the mountain above the Ota. Then he heard about a vacant private clinic in Kaitaichi, a suburb to the east of Hiroshima. He bought it at once, moved there, and hung out a sign inscribed in English, in honor of the conquerors:
M. FUJII, M.D. MEDICAL & VENEREAL (4.19)

Like Mr. Tanimoto, Dr. Fujii had some distinct pro-Western sentiments, and Hersey makes several references to how much he loved entertaining the "conquerors" and keeping up his foreign languages. He also ended up having a big fun (no, really, it sounds like it was awesome) trip to the States later in life.