How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
To Father Kleinsorge, an Occidental, the silence in the grove by the river, where hundreds of gruesomely wounded suffered together, was one of the most dreadful and awesome phenomena of his whole experience. (2.47)
Hersey describes Father Kleinsorge being kind of overwhelmed by the sheer number of really injured people that surrounded him after the bombing. The book returns repeatedly to the masses of injured people walking the streets, trapped, or fallen/laying on the ground, unable to help themselves or seek help. Ugh.
Quote #2
Mr. Tanimoto found about twenty men and women on the sandspit. He drove the boat onto the bank and urged them to get aboard. They did not move and he realized that they were too weak to lift themselves. He reached down and took a woman by the hands, but her skin slipped off in huge, glovelike pieces. He was so sickened by this that he had to sit down for a moment. (3.7)
In one of the more disturbing images from the entire book (which is saying something), Hersey describes Mr. Tanimoto's memories of trying to get some injured people to come aboard his boat before realizing they were just completely unable to move. Then, to boot, some people were losing skin to such a severe degree that it could come off in an entire glove from their hands… As you can see, by simply sticking to facts like these, Hersey has no trouble conveying the intense suffering of these residents.
Quote #3
On the other side, at a higher spit, he lifted the slimy living bodies out and carried them up the slope away from the tide. He had to keep consciously repeating to himself, These are human beings. (3.7)
Hersey describes people who were so overcome with injuries/illness that Mr. Tanimoto had trouble thinking of them as people… that's some pretty intense suffering.