Black Rain (novel)
 First US edition | |
| Author | Masuji Ibuse |
|---|---|
| Original title | 黒い雨 (Kuroi Ame) |
| Translator | John Bester |
| Language | Japanese |
| Genre | Historical, war novel |
Publication date | 1965 |
Published in English | 1966 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback and paperback) |
| ISBN | 0-87011-364-X |
| OCLC | 264049426 |
Black Rain (黒い雨, Kuroi Ame) is a novel by Japanese author Masuji Ibuse. Ibuse began serializing Black Rain in the magazine Shincho in January 1965. The novel is based on historical records of the devastation caused by the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.[1]
Plot[edit]
Black Rain is told through the diary entries of Shizuma Shigematsu and other characters during August 6–15, 1945, Hiroshima, and at the time of narration when Shigematsu and his wife Shigeko have become the guardians of their niece Yasuko, orphaned by the nuclear attack on the city. As such they are obligated to find a suitable husband for her. By the start of the novel, three earlier attempts to arrange a match had already failed because of rumors that she has radiation sickness from exposure to the "Black Rain," radioactive precipitation that fell when the immense firestorm caused by the nuclear explosion seeded the clouds over Hiroshima, causing the radioactive material to fall back in rain. Fear of radiation sickness, and disgust for and ostracism of those with radiation sickness is one of the main causes of concern throughout the story. Though Shigematsu's journal entries attempt to disprove his niece's sickness by demonstrating that she was not in Hiroshima during the blast, in the end it turns out that Yasuko had gone there immediately afterward to find her parents, and was indeed sickened by the "Black Rain".
Adaptations[edit]
Director Shohei Imamura directed a film adaptation of the Japanese novel in 1989.[2]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ "Black Rain | work by Ibuse Masuji | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2023-09-21.
- ^ Tachibana, Reiko (1998). "Seeing Between the Lines: Imamura Shōhei's "Kuroi Ame (Black Rain)"". Literature/Film Quarterly. 26 (4): 304–312. ISSN 0090-4260. JSTOR 43796865.
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