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. However, Ibuse does not refer to social or political considerations that led to the atomic holocaust. Sometimes his characters criticize the wartime government, but Ibuse generally focuses more on an everyday level. In the depiction of ultimate act of violence, Ibuse uses contrasts between horror and humor, destruction and beauty, the state and the individual. The narration alters between Kobatake, a rural hamlet some distance from Hiroshima, at a time several years after the end of the war, and Hiroshima itself in the days immediately after the bombing. The protagonist, Shizuma Shigematsu, a real-life person, tries to find a husband for his niece, Yasuko. Shigematsu, his wife Shigeko and Yasuko reassure prospective husbands that Yasuko was not affected by the radiation, although she was under the black rain that followed the destruction. Shigematsu reads his wartime diary to understand his own life. Yasuko gives up all hopes of marrying and falls ill with radiation sickness.^[1]

Plot [link]

This section requires expansion.

The book alternates between Shizuma Shigematsu's journal entries and other characters from August 6–15, 1945, Hiroshima, and the present, several years later, when he and his wife Shigeko become the guardians their niece, Yasuko, and liable to find a suitable husband for her. At the start of the novel, three earlier attempts to arrange a match have already failed due to health concerns over her having been exposed to the "Black Rain" fallout of the atomic bomb. The radiation sickness is one of the main causes of concern throughout the story. Shigematsu's journal entries attempts to disprove her sickness, but in the end Yasuko was affected by the "Black Rain".

Adaptations [link]

Director Shohei Imamura directed a film adaptation of the novel in 1989.

References [link]

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