Images In Masuji Ibuse's Black Rain

Masuji Ibuse’s novel Black Rain about the aftereffects of Hiroshima uses many images to convey the reaction and the mindset of survivors. I will be focusing on three particular images; that of the stunned fish (86-87), the burnt rock (103-104), and the bodies at First Prefectural Middle School (154). When discussed alongside aspects of the plot and descriptions of survivors and their actions, these images suggest that the survivors reacted in such a way where they were changed mentally— so much so that they seemed to be devoid of hope (181-182) in a burnt-out city (18) reminiscent of hell (98, 160) that was ruined with death and destruction (18). First, the image of the stunned fish suggests that the survivors were stupefied by the bomb,
The constant exposure to death and illness caused survivors to be “apprehensive of the next [U.S.] air raid” because that would mean more death, desolation, and destruction (125), so they lived in fear and were just as desolate mentally as the land around them actually was. When Shigeko’s older brother, Watanabe, and Yasuko’s father (181), Takamura, encountered Shigematsu and the others, Watanabe said that “the most [the family] hoped was to find the spot where [Shigematsu and Yasuko] had died” (181-182). Therefore, the images of death and destruction around Hiroshima (such as the burnt rock) made the survivors react in despair, guilt, and shame, and attempt to deny the death and destruction around
Just by Shigematsu’s wording alone with the word ‘stupefying’, he connected the image of the stunned fish and the image of the bodies at FPMS. From this connection, Shigematsu meant to infer that the sight of images such at the bodies at FPMS made the survivors act like the stunned fish. This horror at the site of FPMS also connects (through use of the word ‘horror’) with the scene where Shigematsu, blinded by the bomb’s black smoke, was tripping over bodies (98). Because of this smoke, survivors were blinded and could not see in front of them. Instances such as this particular one in chapter six made Shigematsu become “petrified with horror,” thus influencing the belief that the smoke was hell incarnate and inciting fear, horror, pain, and rage in survivors. With these three images of the stunned fish, burnt rock, and bodies at FPMS in mind, it is clear that these images suggest (through direct parallels and symbolism) that the survivors of the Hiroshima bombing were changed not only physically through injuries, but also mentally as shown by their despair, lack of sociality, seemingly mindless walking, guilt, shame, and denial of the death and images of hell in the demolished city around