Masako's Story
Surviving the Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima
by
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After crossing the Aioi Bridge, I walked diagonally across the grounds of the Gokoku Shrine To take a short cut. Oh. That ground was filled with hundreds of people with horrible burns Scattered everywhere. Many of them were dead. But those that still lived, Begged, “Mizu! Mizu o kudasai,” in faint whispers. Soon my way was blocked by their outstretched arms. One of them even grabbed my ankle, though feebly, To stop me from running past him. His burnt skin sloughed off his fingers, As I pulled from his grip.
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About the Book
On August 6, 1945, when the world's first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, the Furuta family was living one mile away from the hypocenter. Five year old Kikuko, her mother, Masako, and her two brothers barely escaped with their lives. However, their soldier father was not so fortunate. Masako never talked about her family's experiences on that day and the grim days following the bombing. Then one day, Masako started to talk about what happened—breaking a silence of nearly fifty years. Written by Kikuko (Furuta) Otake, now a retired assistant professor of Japanese in the United States, Masako's story is a collection of prose-poetry, based on the true story of her family's tragedy. It is written with an "Objectivist" lineation similar in its understated power to Charles Reznikoff's Testimony. Kikuko Otake's Masako's Story is a powerful addition to the literature of the Atomic Bomb, and yet more evidence that we should all work together to stop the Nuclear madness.
About the Author
Kikuko Otake (maiden name, Furuta) was born in Osaka, Japan. Her family moved to Hiroshima, her parents’ hometown, just a few months before the explosion of the atomic bomb there. At the time of the attack, she lived just over a mile away from the hypocenter. She barely escaped death and sustained a wound to her head. She also suffered greatly from the “atomic bomb syndrome.” Her father, most of her uncles, and a number of cousins perished during the bombing. After graduating from Tsuda College in Tokyo, she came to the United States in 1968. She received her M. A. in education from California State University at Los Angeles. She is now a naturalized U. S. citizen. Based on her mother’s account of the atomic bombing, she wrote an autobiographical book, Amerika e Hiroshima kara (To America from Hiroshima) in Japanese, and published it in 2003 in Japan. Masako’s Story is the English adaptation of her original book. She published its first edition through the publisher Ahadada Books in 2007, and this book is the revised second edition. Kikuko Otake, an award-winning haiku, tanka and senryu poet, is a retired assistant professor of Japanese language. She lives with her husband in the suburbs of Los Angeles, California.