, also translated as ''Summer Flowers'', is a short story by Japanese writer

Tamiki Hara was a Japanese writer and survivor of the bombing of Hiroshima, known for his works in the atomic bomb literature genre. Biography Hara was born in Hiroshima in 1905. In his early years, he was an introverted personality who suffered from anx ...

first published in 1947. It depicts the

bombing of Hiroshima On 6 and 9 August 1945, the United States detonated two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively, during World War II. The aerial bombings killed between 150,000 and 246,000 people, most of whom were civili ...

and its immediate aftermath, which Hara had experienced in person. It is regarded as one of the most influential exponents of the Atomic bomb literature genre.

Plot

On August 6, 1945, the first person narrator witnesses the bombing of Hiroshima from his parents' house, to which he has returned after visiting his wife's gravesite in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

. Only slightly hurt like his sister, he flees from the spreading fires to the river, confronted with a growing number of casualties and horribly wounded survivors. He meets his two brothers, who are looking for their families, and hears various witnesses' accounts of the moment of the explosion. The narrator and his relatives manage to escape on a horse cart, except for one of his older brother's sons, whose corpse the family discovers on its way out of the city. The story closes with the account of a man called N., who searches the destroyed city for three days and nights, looking for his missing wife, but to no avail.

Background

Hara's autobiographical story emerged from a memoir which he had begun in 1945. Like the nameless narrator, Hara had lost his wife the previous year and was residing at his parents' house in Hiroshima when the atomic bomb was dropped.

Publishing history and legacy

''Summer Flower'' was first published in June 1947 in the literary magazine ''

Mita Bungaku ''Mita Bungaku'' (三田文学) is a Japanese literary magazine established in 1910 at Keio University that published early works by young Japanese authors such as Yōjirō Ishizaka, Kyōka Izumi, Hakushū Kitahara, Jun'ichirō Tanizaki,Dawn t ...

'' and in book form in 1949 by Nogaku Shorin. It received the first Takitaro Minakami Award in 1948. Hara followed ''Summer Flower'' with two subsequent sections, ''From the Ruins'' (''Haikyou kara'') in November 1947, and ''Prelude to Annihilation'' (''Kaimetsu no joukyoku'') in January 1949. Hara's original memoir, on which the story was based, was published posthumously under the title ''Genbaku hisai-ji no nōto'' (lit. "Notes on the atomic bomb disaster victims") in 1953.

Translations

Hara's story has been translated into numerous languages. English translations were provided by George Saito in 1953 (abridged, expanded in 1985) and by Richard H. Minear in 1990.

References

External links

Bibliography

* * * * * {{cite book, title=Hiroshima: Three Witnesses , last=Hara , first=Tamiki , chapter=Summer Flowers (Summer Flowers, From the Ruins, Prelude to Annihilation) , year=1990 , publisher=Princeton University Press , location=Princeton , editor-first=Richard H. , editor-last=Minear 1947 short stories Japanese short stories Works by Japanese writers 20th-century Japanese literature Books about the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Works originally published in Japanese magazines Shōwa era in fiction