Hiroshima Exit Poem

On the tragic day of August 6, 1945, US Air Force deployed the first atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. A few days later, the second atomic bomb devastated the city of Nagasaki. These bombs were thought to end the war between Japan and America before other countries could get involved. To this day, Hiroshima and Nagasaki are still a source of pain and shame for those afflicted and for those who survived. In the poem, “Hiroshima Exit” by Canadian Writer Joy Kogawa presents a flash back of these events that occurred during World War II.
Kogawa and her family, along with many other Japanese-Canadians were placed in internment camps because there was a fear that the Japanese would retaliate. They seized everything from them including; their jobs, vehicles, homes, and much more. They were sent to live in horrible living conditions and were never compensated for what they went through. She states that there are several other ways to solve the explosive problems. The poetic elements that enforce this theme are repetition, imagery, and illusions.

In the second line, “Victims and victimizers in circular flight” and in the third, “fact pursuing fact” suggests that the blame for the war is split evenly between the Japanese and Americans.
The use of Imagery in lines 5-10 heavily enforce the attitude of moving forward when times get