Atomic bomb literature - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Literary genre

A literary genre is a category of literary composition. Genres may be determined by literary technique, tone, content, or even length. Genre should not be confused with age category, by which literature may be classified as either adult, young-adult, or children's. They also must not be confused...

in Japanese literature

Japanese literature

Early works of Japanese literature were heavily influenced by cultural contact with China and Chinese literature, often written in Classical Chinese. Indian literature also had an influence through the diffusion of Buddhism in Japan...

used to describe writing about the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This can include diaries, testimonial or documentary accounts, poetry, drama or fictional works based around the bombings.

There are several generations of atomic bomb writers. The first, made up of actual survivors of the bombings, who wrote of their own experiences, includes Yōko Ōta

Yōko Ōta

was a Japanese author of Atomic bomb literature.-Biography:Ōta was born as Fukuda, Hatsuko in Hiroshima city, her parents divorced when she was eight and she moved to live with the Fukuda family. As a young girl she read Takuboku Ishikawa and Shusei Tokuda, as well as Goethe and Heine. She also...

, Tamiki Hara, Shinoe Shoda

Shinoe Shoda

Shinoe Shoda was a Japanese poet and author known for her atomic bomb literature. Shoda was born in Hiroshima. She graduated from Aki Girls' High School in 1928. In 1947, evading Occupation censorship, she secretly published “Sange” , a tanka anthology...

, and Sadako Kurihara

Sadako Kurihara

was a Japanese poet who lived in Hiroshima and survived the atomic bombing during World War II. She is best known for her poem Umashimenkana .-Biography:...

. The second, who wrote about the bomb in order to invoke the wider social and political issues it raises, includes Yoshie Hotta, Momo Iida, Kenzaburō Ōe

Kenzaburo Oe

is a Japanese author and a major figure in contemporary Japanese literature. His works, strongly influenced by French and American literature and literary theory, deal with political, social and philosophical issues including nuclear weapons, social non-conformism and existentialism.Ōe was awarded...

, Masuji Ibuse

Masuji Ibuse

was a Japanese author.-Life and work:Ibuse was born in 1898 to a landowning family in the village of Kamo which is now part of Fukuyama, Hiroshima.At the age of 19 he started studying at Waseda University in Tokyo...

, Ineko Sata

Ineko Sata

was a Japanese communist and feminist author of proletarian literature.-Biography:Born in poverty in Nagasaki to young parents , the family moved to Tokyo when Sata was a child. Her first job was in a caramel factory, before working in restaurants where she befriended writers, including Ryūnosuke...

. The third, whose writing looks to the future in a post-nuclear world, includes Kōbō Abe

Kobo Abe

, pseudonym of was a Japanese writer, playwright, photographer and inventor. Abe has been often compared to Franz Kafka and Alberto Moravia for his surreal, often nightmarish explorations of individuals in contemporary society and his modernist sensibilities....

, Makoto Oda

Makoto Oda

was a Japanese novelist, peace activist, academic and Time Asian Hero.-Early life and career:Oda was born in Osaka in 1932 and graduated from the University of Tokyo's Faculty of Letters program, majoring in classical Greek philosophy and literature...

, and Mitsuharu Inoue.

Perhaps the best known work of atomic bomb literature is Black Rain
Black Rain
Black Rain may refer to:* Black rain, a term used by survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to describe the nuclear fallout from the bombs, which initially occurred in the form of precipitation- A film :...

by Masuji Ibuse.

Works by non-Japanese authors that could also be deemed as atomic bomb literature include John Hersey's Hiroshima.

Further reading