Tōge was a survivor who died in 1957, at the age of 36, from leukemia caused by exposure to the bomb's radiation. His poem is titled "Give Back the Human."
I felt that this poem was touching because of how it highlights what matters most in life. When a tragedy like this happens, people quickly realize what matters most in their own lives and in this case it would be the poet's family and other meaningful people.
His naked figure, standing there before the flames with that rice ball looked to me like a symbol of the modest hope of human beings."
I thought that the rice ball symbolizing a sense of hope is interesting. It seems as if everything had been taken away from this person in an instant and all he had left was this small piece of his life before everything changed.
Although the weather was clear when the bomb was dropped, the explosion changed the atmosphere and rain began to fall soon afterwards.
In my opinion, this shows how powerful the bomb really was. Coming in contact with something that is capable of altering and changing the atmosphere and causing rainfall is very telling of the power of this bomb.
Water also became an abiding symbol of what we speak of clinically as the guilt of the survivor.
This stood out to me because how it references guilt. This shift of focus to the survivors and what they had to deal with mentally is a huge part of the effect of the event. We focus a lot on the physical effects but the mental effects and guilt were just as impactful.
Many were already injured, and few survived. The rivers became choked with bodies—carrying them out to sea and then, when the tide turned, bringing some of them back again
We have seen pictures of bodies that were left on land but I felt that this picture of bodies being carried out to sea provides a new perspective. I think it shows the lasting effects of this event because it says that the bodies would resurface as the tide turned.