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Book Salon
Black Rain

  • This month we're reading Black Rain by Masuji Ibuse. Our faculty host is Steven Carter.

    Listen to an interview with our Book Salon host.

    "Any encyclopedia can give the reader a statistical view of what happened when the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Ibuse Masuji's novel gives us a more human view of the event, through a series of interlocking stories that ironically bring a day of death to life."

    Steven Carter, professor of Japanese literature

How to Participate

Read the audio interview with Professor Steven Carter

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About this quarter's book selection

Tailored from real-life diaries and interviews with bombing victims of Hiroshima comes Black Rain, by Masuji Ibuse. In delicate frankness Ibuse describes the emotional, spiritual, and physical suffering of the Japanese people both immediately and years after this historical event.

The story unfolds a few years after the bombing with Shigematsu Shizuma, pondering the marriage prospects of his niece, Yasuko. Rumors placing Yasuko near the explosion site on August 6, 1945 have since kept her from finding a suitable marriage prospect. With rumors running rampant regarding the health of Yasuko, Shigematsu Shizuma is desperate to disprove these rumors while recalling his own experience in Hiroshima on that dreadful day.

Named after the dark cloud of radioactive particles falling after the explosion, Black Rain, depicts the atrocities the Japanese people suffered.  Ibuse’s insight into the intense degree of human suffering has led Black Rain to being saluted as one of the most accurate depictions of the Hiroshima story.

The Stanford Book Salon [Seriously Unstuffy]