Black Rain

Black Rain is a 1965 historical novel by Japanese author Masuji Ibuse. The novel blends authentic accounts and information with a fictional plot to describe the aftermath of the destruction of the Japanese city of Hiroshima by an American atomic bomb in 1945. Black Rain was adapted into a film in 1989. This guide uses an eBook version of the 1979 edition of Black Rain, translated into English by John Bester.

Plot Summary

Shigematsu Shizuma is a Japanese man who lives near Hiroshima with his wife Shigeko and his niece Yasuko. During World War II, the city of Hiroshima was bombed by the United States using a brand-new technology. This mysterious atomic bomb fell on August 6, 1945, and killed tens of thousands of people. Many others, such as Shigematsu, were near enough to the bomb site to be affected by the nuclear fallout, which lingered for a long time. As the Japanese people had no idea about the existence of the atomic bomb or the nature of this new weapon, many people travelled to the site of the bombing to search for loved ones or to return to their homes. As a result, they became sick.