Kazuko: Sixth Grade in World War II Hiroshima

Kazuko is the memoir of a Hiroshima atomic bomb survivor. It is the story of a young Japanese girl's experience living through the world's first atomic bomb and its aftermath.

Kazuko Blake, now in her 90s, is one of the few remaining survivors of that event. The atomic bomb was dropped while she was in 6th grade, and she remembers the events clearly. Here she describes the relatively carefree days before the war, the increased tempo of war through her elementary school days, and August 6, 1945, the day the bomb fell. The chaos and disruption are palpable as she describes the following days of uncertainty and confusion during the evacuation, surrender, and occupation of her home country. In time, she met some of those victors, and she concludes her story with impressions of them and her eventual move to the country of her former enemy. It was a time of great change for Japan, and she shares her observations of it in this engaging memoir.