The usual and customary way for an author to end a book is to pull together the themes of his story and explain their significance. Hersey never does that. As with his earlier chapters, Hersey remains true to a strict accounting of the factual lives of the six survivors during the forty years from 1945 to 1985. Because he does not interpret their lives for his own purposes, Hersey leaves many thoughtful questions for his readers. It is interesting to note, however, that he spends more time on the life of the Reverend Tanimoto and places his story last, intertwining it with landmarks in the production and testing of nuclear weapons.
The lives of the six survivors all took varying directions, just as they had prior to the bombing. Some struggled to keep their families together, some lost themselves in good works, and others found respite from the memories of the bombing in the pursuit of pleasure and wealth. Most of the survivors continued to have frustrating and debilitating illnesses due to the radiation poisoning or the wounds they received the day of the bombing.
Hersey first considered the life of Mrs. Nakamura. Following 1945, all of her life was a struggle filled with pain, uncertainty, and disability. However, her travail said a great deal about her resilience and her quiet human dignity. She adopted the philosophy of shikatata ga-nai, which is a fatalistic phrase meaning "it can't be helped." Instead of giving in to her disabilities and her pain, she forged a new life depending on herself and providing for her children.
