The Life And Times Of Harriet Jacobs And Hatsuyo Nakamura

How lucky were we to be born chthonian the circumstances which we were? How happy are we to depart in the current conditions in which we live? All too often these are questions that are non pondered, quieten are aspects of life that are taken for granted. Harriet Jacobs and Hatsuyo Nakamura lived lives under conditions we can non begin to imagine or even comprehend the realities they go about with individually new daytime. Harriet and Hatsuyo were two strong willight-emitting diode women that were victims of circumstance, they had all the card stacked against them, yet through perseverance they raised vast children and chose to be positive elements in a society which laden them.

        Harriet Jacobs lived a life as a slave in constant disquietude and uncertainty. From the clipping that Harriet was born she was owned. She was a will power of someone else and therefore raised with the mentality she was not in possession of her own destiny. Fear is something that Harriet became accustomed to. With to each one cream that Harriet made came the consequence that it was not the right one in the eyes of her owner. She had to take into account her children and their salubrious being with each decision she made. She feared for them more than than she feared for her own salvation. Harriet went to sleep each wickedness with a fear of what the next day would bring and awoke each morning to live through another day in her nightmarish existence. With uncertainty and the unk promptlyn comes fear, whether it is the fear of an un only if and beastly slave owner or the attack of a impertinent military.

        The air raid sirens rang each day. The people of Hiroshima knew their time would come, they just didnt know when. Hatsuyo Nakamura, a widow, with three children often awoke to the sound of the sirens, fearing that this time might their time. The constant sound of the radio reports in the background, the planes humming overhead, the conversations of people in the streets, all added to and excited this intense fear imbedded within the residents of Hiroshima. Hatsuyos fear was a little more extreme. Her instincts and tender-hearted nature as a get under ones skin of three led her to vex less for herself, scarcely instead, concentrating all her fear towards the well being and procurement of the lives of her children. Like Harriet, she valued the best for her children, but their financial situations and uncontrollable events made their struggle much more difficult.

        Harriet desired a better life than she had lived for her children. Parents in general, but more so the mother, worry about the development and rearing of their children. Harriets dilemma was the fact that her children were hers biologically, but they were not her stead. They became the natural property of her owner. In the cruel world of thraldom, children were to unfortunately, inherit the fate of their mother (Brent x). Harriet was thus destined to excite no impact on the lives of her children. They would be raised by her owner and then eventually be sold off. Harriet was determined to not let her children get victims of an unjust society,she stated that, ¦I must fight my dispute alone. I had a womans pride, and a mothers love for my children; and out of the dimness of this hour a brighter dawn should arise for them (Brent 94,95). The bond amongst mother and child is strong. It is a bond that even the perils of slavery and the trials of war struggle to break.

        The debris did not cover her deeply. She rosaceous up and freed herself. She heard a child cry, ?Mother, help me! relates Hersey in telling Nakamuras story (Hersey 9). Her children were in pain and this was something Hatsuyo hated to witness. miniature did she know the pain and suffering caused by the initial cut down of the bomb would be insignificant compared to the aft(prenominal)math. No one could have prepared her for her post war lifestyle and living conditions. Her family was left field without a home, forced to live in a hut, on a fifty- cent a day income. How would she provide for the children she so dearly loved? The war left scars on Hatsuyo, however, none were visible. She suffered from scars of fatigue, constant sickness, poverty, and prejudice. She was determined to overcome each of these, her children were too all-important(prenominal) to her to think any(prenominal) antitheticly.

        Oppression ruled Harriet Jacobs life. She couldnt take it any longer and decided to make her escape. She was in constant worry of being caught and having her cover blown. She had escaped her owner, but she was quiet a black person living in a innocence person prevail world. Even though she had escaped she was still the property of someone else, she did not belong to herself. Being owned by someone else is a concept that seems so exotic in todays world but was a harsh earthly concern for Harriet even after her escape. Her original owner had died but she was still the property of his daughter and this daughter felt she was entitled to what was really hers. Harriet neer came to grasps with this concept. She lived in a liberty driven, Christian dominated society, but was still considered to be a sub-human piece of property, ladened because of the color of her skin.

        ?Hibakusha, explosion-affected person, was the label that Mrs. Nakamura and her family were forced to wear the rest of their lives. She didnt absorb that the nightmare hadnt ended with the explosion and the short time thereafter. She could neer escape the unwanted prejudices that haunted her following that fateful day in August, 1945.



Non-hibakusha employers developed a prejudice against the survivors as discourse got around that they were prone to all sorts of ailments, stated Mrs. Nakamura concerning her quest for trade (Hersey 92,93). Surviving the bomb had now become the easy part, living the cruel realities of the world became the challenge.                  Those words struck me like a blow. So I was sold at last! A human being sold in the free urban center of New York! rejoiced Harriet after receiving word of her newly attained independence (Brent 225). Harriet was no longer a possession; she was her own person who realized her own destiny. She was no longer confined and undermined by a corrupt owner. Freedom had also wrapped its fly around her children as they began to realize their dreams in pursuing trades and education. The septet years of hell she spent in the box were now starting to become worthwhile. She had endured and conquered one of the toughest paths that life has to offer.

Years after the bomb Nakamura sans life began to blossom much as the flowers had in the flower festival that she was now dancing in. The bombing had been quatern decades ago. How far away it seemed! They danced to Oiwai ?Ondo, a song of happiness, lifting their arms in gestures of joy¦ (Hersey 100). Hatsuyo had made great strides in her life. Her children had gone on and married and lead successful lives of their own. Japan, a country that at first gave no support to the victims of the A-bomb was now realizing its function and compensating victims like Hatsuyo and her family. The Nakamura family had come a long way since the bombing. They never chose to associate themselves with antinuclear groups or pro-hibakusha movements. They chose to be silent but approbative examples of life after war and did not see themselves as unfortunate victims, but rather as fancyful survivors.

        Harriet Jacobs and Hatsuyo Nakamura lived in very different time periods under very different conditions. Harriet lived the life of a slave, Hatsuyo lived the life of a bomb victim. though their circumstances seem entirely different, they are mysteriously coupled in the paths that their lives followed and the dilemmas each faced. They were focused on living a normal life. The life of fear was not one they enjoyed. They wanted their children to have what they never did, to grow up with the normal comforts of life. They wanted to be treated as a everyone else was, not as abnormal ?things in society. Harriet Jacobs and Hatsuyo Nakamura overcame the dilemmas which plagued them. They beat the odds in a society which told them they wouldnt. They are living examples of perseverance and hope for us all.

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