John Richard Hersey - Hiroshima (1946)

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The second stage set in ten or fifteen days after the bombing. Its first symptom was falling hair. Diarrhea and fever, which in some cases went as high as 106, came next.

John Richard Hersey

There, in the tin factory, in the first moment of the atomic age, a human being was crushed by books.

John Richard Hersey

There was no sound of planes. The morning was still; the place was cool and pleasant. Then a tremendous flash of light cut across the sky. Mr. Tanimoto has a distinct recollection that it traveled from east to west, from the city toward the hills. It seemed a sheet of sun. Both he and Mr. Matsuo reacted in terror.... Under what seemed to be a local dust cloud, the day grew darker and darker.

John Richard Hersey

The third stage was the reaction that came when the body struggled to compensate for its ills - when, for instance, the white count not only returned to normal but increased to much higher than normal levels.

John Richard Hersey