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This week, I'm going to recommend Hiroshima Diary by Hacia Michiko.

Hachia was a medical doctor working at a hospital in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and this is the story of his work after the bomb.

It's a horrible tale, yet one laced through with compassion and tenderness, and a fascinating

account of life after the bomb.

Go to audibletrial.com slash Japan to claim your copy. Hello and welcome to the History of Japan podcast, Episode 112, Reign of Ruin, Part 5.

Quote, at 8.15 a.m. on August 6, 1945, the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima City, and I was right under that atomic cloud.

I was six years and ten months old, and was walking to my elementary school.

It was 2.3 kilometers from Ground Zero.

There was a warning that American bomber planes, B-29s, were coming.

And at the moment that I looked up to the sky, I was attacked by the high heat rays and blinded by the flash.

At once I covered my face with my right arm, so I got severe burns on my right arm, head, and left neck.

I could not understand what had happened.

It was pitch dark around me.

After a while, I saw a great number of mortally injured people staggering towards the direction of my house.

They were trying to escape.

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