"I'll search you out; put my lips to your tender ear; and tell you. . . . I'll tell you the real story--I swear I will."--from Little One by Toge Sankichi Three Japanese authors of note--Hara Tamiki; Ota Yoko; and Toge Sankichi--survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima only to shoulder an appalling burden: bearing witness to ultimate horror. Between 1945 and 1952; in prose and in poetry; they published the premier first-person accounts of the atomic holocaust. Forty-five years have passed since August 6; 1945; yet this volume contains the first complete English translation of Hara's Summer Flowers; the first English translation of Ota's City of Corpses; and a new translation of Toge's Poems of the Atomic Bomb. No reader will emerge unchanged from reading these works. Different from each other in their politics; their writing; and their styles of life and death; Hara; Ota; and Toge were alike in feeling compelled to set down in writing what they experienced. Within forty-eight hours of August 6; before fleeing the city for shelter in the hills west of Hiroshima; Hara jotted down this note: "Miraculously unhurt; must be Heaven's will that I survive and report what happened." Ota recorded her own remarks to her half-sister as they walked down a street littered with corpses: "I'm looking with two sets of eyesthe eyes of a human being and the eyes of a writer." And the memorable words of Toge quoted above come from a poem addressed to a child whose father was killed in the South Pacific and whose mother died on August 6th--who would tell of that day? The works of these three authors convey as much of the "real story" as can be put into words.
#2027375 in Books Hans Kippenberg 2001-01-01 2002-03-03Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.21 x .64 x 6.14l; .87 #File Name: 0691009090296 pagesDiscovering Religious History in the Modern Age
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