This week, we start on a somber note, examining the tragic aftermath of the Atomic Bombings on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by U.S. military forces. For Japanese survivors, the subsequent years saw untold physical horrors in the form of strange ailments and ghastly mutations, as the effects of the Atomic Bomb were still being studied (or information withheld).

Processing the aftermath of the blast, Masuji Ibuse’s Black Rain stands out as perhaps the most celebrated and insightful novel about this evolving tragedy of the Japanese populace. Based on real life detailed accounts of survivors, Ibuse uses a diaristic framing device to evoke a level of intimate horror that makes the novel linger on in your mind long after you’ve finished reading.

Set twelve years after the bombings, the novel follows a young woman named Yasuko, whose aunt and uncle (the character writing the diary) raised her and are now trying to find her a suitable husband. However, she is the object of great anxiety and disgust from suitors as she displays symptoms of the misunderstood ‘radiation sickness’ caused by the radioactive black rain that fell from the noxiously-seeded clouds in the days following the blast. A book as grotesquely devastating as it is grimly hopeful, Ibuse imbues the writing with dark humor and an indomitable spirit that will leave your broken heart hopeful enough to mend.

Write Brain TV is proud to present this monumentally important and darkly therapeutic novel commemorating the most tragic day in human history.