Is This Our Life?

All men are equal, only some are more equal than others. By the same token, man’s situation is always extreme, only sometimes it is more extreme. If we ever thought that, although human beings were individually mortal, the species itself was immortal, even this illusion has been shattered and taken from us.

This reflection is probably to be found on a subliminal level everywhere in the world, and it is brought to the foreground of our consciousness by a book like Michihiko Hachiyas’ Hiroshima Diary.

Judging from some of the reviews, Hiroshima Diary is being used rather widely as an anodyne to what might otherwise be guilt feelings. Dr, Hachiya, himself a victim—with no fewer than one hundred and fifty separa...