Chapter 3 begins in late afternoon on August 6 and ends on August 15, officially known as V-J Day or "Victory over Japan Day." There is irony in the title of the chapter, "Details Are Being Investigated." The grim fact is that the helpless survivors have no access to nor do they have time to think about official information, and their lives are a living hell of pain and suffering. The irony continues when we realize that "the details being investigated" have nothing to do with the survivors. No government is making any effort to help the survivors or understand what they have been through. It is the devastation and not the victims that are being investigated. The Japanese government is checking out the amount of damage and the scientific community is considering what kind of bomb this could have been. The government releases carefully censored news, but the ordinary citizen has no use for it. Throughout the chapter, there are official announcements by both the Japanese and American governments. And while those words go out over the airwaves, only hopelessness and catastrophic suffering dominate in Hiroshima. It is an uphill battle for those who are dying, those who are helping the wounded, and those who are alone. People are discovering that their family members are dead or they are being reunited with family members thought to be missing. And, over all these days, the few people who have a moment to think are trying to make sense out of death on such a vast scale.
Like omniscient stage managers dispensing factual tidbits, the Japanese and American governments come into this chapter in selected spots. The Japanese naval ship that promises hope never delivers. The reader senses that there will be no help. While the Japanese people look toward their government for relief — medical supplies, doctors, nurses, food, water — the reader realizes that the naval boat, though promising help, is simply assessing the overwhelming needs. Again, Hersey seems to be pushing the investigation of the damage to the forefront. The naval ship is checking on the extent of the bombing and forming theories about the cause. Rumors and theories abound concerning this strange bombing. The nature of the bombing raid is speculated upon by Japanese radio and finally announced by American shortwave broadcast. The "atomic" bomb's vastness cannot even be understood by the human mind, but its results are being felt throughout this city. Hersey uses these faceless announcements to emphasize the impersonal, scientific, and political nature of the bomb, juxtaposed against the total confusion and lack of organized help for the people's suffering.
