KUROI AME

When author Ibuse Masuji was asked about how he created his atomic bomb novel Kuroi ame (1965; tr. Black Rain, 1968), he replied that he took actual documentation, such as letters, journals, and reports, and then raked them together into a fictional story. Kuroi ame is a novel about the physical struggles and later social discrimination suffered by atomic bomb survivors. Written in journal form, the novel details the conditions in Hiroshima immediately after the bombing and a number of years later using the characters of Shigematsu Shizuma, his wife, and his niece Yasuko. The niece, orphaned and of marriageable age, finds herself unable to conclude an arranged marriage even several years later owing to rumors of her having been in Hiroshima when the bomb was dropped and the fear of radiation sickness affecting possible offspring. Shigematsu and his wife begin copying their journals from the days surrounding the bombing in an attempt to prove that Yasuko was not exposed to radiation. Another suitor’s prospect falls through just as Yasuko reveals that she does, indeed, have radiation sickness. Though somber in plot, the story is filled with Ibuse’s characteristic humor and hope for humanity.