Luke Taicher

Mr. Padgett
English 101
9/8/15
A World of Hidden Evil
Throughout the history of our existence there have been many examples of good and evil.
It is easy to remember and celebrate all the good that has happened. It is even easier to look past
and forget all the bad and evil that has gone on throughout our history. John Berger analyzes this
hidden evil in his essay Hiroshima. He believes as a society, we tend to look past the evils that
have occurred and try to justify and defend them. He chose to look at the devastating events that
took place in Hiroshima, when the United States dropped an atomic bomb and killed 90,000.
Though there are plenty of more times throughout history where this evil rises from the shadows
and comes out. We see this in the Holocaust, World War I, the Armenian Genocide, and today
with the terrorists organizations in the Middle East. The article Hiroshima is ultimately about the
evil in the world that people look past, the tragedy of the events at Hiroshima, and whether
people can justify the evil.
There is so much bad in the world, some believe it is just easier to ignore it and throw it
in the back of our mind where it will never be accessed. The author goes into great detail about
this issue. He provides the audience with survivors stories to make the audience aware of the
evil that occurred on that day. One of the examples the author uses to achieve this is the story
about the mother and daughter. The daughter fetches the dead mother water, and as a women
walks by she sees this and walks over to the daughter and has to tell the little girl that her mother
is dead. I agree with the author on this subject, all over the world we see people go on with their
everyday lives, without any acknowledgement of the evils and troubles that are occurring. There

are many different factors that account for this though that the author did not go into. As a
society we are uneducated about a lot of these evils. Some are not as fortunate to be able to have
proper education and in many cases this leads to them committing evil acts. In Africa with child
soldiers this occurs unfortunately a lot, they are told that what they are doing is good when it
obviously is not. The author though realizes this and seems to be reaching out to the people with
an education who dont acknowledge these problems in the world. Another prime example of this
is what is going on with Isis, people tend to turn their heads and or not bother being educated
about what is going on. When they are informed many times people will maybe feel some sense
of worry or care for a short period and then return to their daily problems like picking up a kid
from work. The author relates this to the events of Hiroshima, which is another perfect example
of people not engaging the evil.
The events that took place on August 6, 1945 was one of the grimmest days on the history
of mankind. Berger describes the event as hell, the Japanese refer to the survivors as hibaskuska,
which means those who have seen hell. It is easy to agree with Berger here who believes that
this truly was a pure evil act. The pictures Berger brings up are to present the audience with an
idea of how horrible it was. Berger wants the audience to put aside their bias and sympathize
with the survivors who went through hell and back. No matter where the viewer comes from,
America, Japan, and or Russia Berger is concerned with raising awareness not just for Hiroshima
survivors, but all these evil acts. After reading this, the Holocaust as well as some of the battles
in WWI came to mind as such cruel and evil events. Growing up half Jewish I have learned a lot
of the horrors and evils of the Holocaust, though still many people have not and remain antisematic as still some Americans have hatred toward Japan. August 6, 1945 was a tragic day with
horrors that still follow people today.

As an American it is easy to say that the United States were justified in their actions.
Berger argues that there is no justification for the events that took place. He compares this events
as terrorism. Though I cannot completely agree with him entirely of this point. The deliberate
meaning of absolute no justification in this circumstance is unfair. The act of dropping the bomb
may have been evil and killed innocent. Though at the same time the Japanese army showed
relentless efforts of taking over the world with Nazi Germany. The Japanese bombed an
American naval base to provoke war. There is evil on both sides and while it is still questionable
whether this act is justifiable, I do not believe that the Americans necessarily had a choice. The
war was so evil in itself and needed to put to an end. One of the messages Berger sets to
accomplish is that every justification comes back to the military, and political systems. They
make their people believe it was okay to do this. Hitler did this with the Holocaust, the United
States with the atomic bomb, the Armenian government, and countless other acts. On this matter
it is easier to agree with because in the end it is the politicians that make these decisions and
execute the actions of these evils. Though where it understandable to disagree with the author is
that the politicians and military are trying to protect their people. The issue of justification is
difficult because of bias, moral beliefs, and past experiences. Berger says this was an act of
terrorism. Looking today at the terrorism in the Middle East, the viewer may not agree with the
author. As an act of terrorism is in fact targeting innocent people, innocent peoples lives were at
risk had the Americans not of dropped the bomb. The author is trying to argue that there is no
justification for the evil acts that occur, though viewers may believe differently, as this is a more
controversial subject matter.
This hidden evil that causes humans to act in extreme measures and often very cruel takes
away many of the good that occurs in the world. The author is ultimately trying to say that

people look past the evil, that the events in Hiroshima were a true testament of this evil, and that
there is no justification for this kind of evil. History unfortunately does repeat itself as we are
still seeing this evil in the world 20 years after the article was written. The importance of being
aware of this evil is something that may separate the good against the evil.