Masako's Story; Surviving the Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima
by Kikuko Otake
Ahadada Books, 96 pages,
Perfect bound Paperback, $12.50
ISBN 978-0-9781414-6-2
Soon to be available from SPD.

For a downloadable PDF of this Press Release, click here.

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. Masakonever 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 an assistant professor of Japanese in the United States, Masako's story is a bilingual collection of prose-poetry, based on the true story of her family's tragedy. The appendix presents the original Japanese poetry written to capture the story as her mother said it in Hiroshima dialect. Moreover, the English translation is written with an "Objectivist" lineation similar in its understated power to Charles Reznikoff's "Testimony":

After crossing the Aoi 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.

(pg. 23).

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.

Coming soon from Ahadada Books — Masako’s Story: Surviving the Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima

On August 6, 1945, when the world’s first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, the Furuta family was living about 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 days following the bombing. Then one day, Masako started to talk about what happened — breaking a silence of nearly fifty years . . .

Kikuko (Kay) Otake was five years old when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, August 6, 1945. In her book Masako's Story (forthcoming from Ahadada), she offers a survivor's perspective.

Professor Kikuko (Kay) Otake was born on February 22, 1940 in Osaka, Japan. She earned her B.A. from Tsuda College of Tokyo, Japan in 1962 in English Literature. In August of 1968, she came to the US and in September 1987 earned her M.A. in Education from California State University in Los Angeles.

Professor Otake is an award-winning poet who regularly publishes tanka and haiku.

Mark Leyner is one of my favourite authors, but I've never read anyting non-fictional from him. Until now that is. A friend lent me Why Do Men Have Nipples?

Here's Vintage's (the publisher) description:

Compiled by Billy Goldberg, an emergency medicine physician, and Mark Leyner, bestselling author and well-known satirist, Why Do Men Have Nipples? offers real factual and really funny answers to some of the big questions about the oddities of our bodies.

Finally, answers to all those strange questions you'd like to ask your own doctor but haven't had the guts to do so. If you've ever wanted to ask a doctor . . .

• How do people in wheelchairs have sex?
• Why do I get a killer headache when I suck down my milkshake too fast?
• Can I lose my contact lens inside my head forever?
• Why does asparagus make my pee smell?
• Why do old people grow hair on their ears?
• Is the old adage "beer before liquor, never sicker, liquor before beer. . .," really true?

I was seeking a fast, uncomplicated read to offer my evening to and this tiny tome captured my heart. It is alot of fun to leaf through and I especially liked being able to shatter some of the preconceptions that I harboured. This is one of those tomes which is great for reading/quoting to friends, etc.

I have seen a number of reviews go after this book for not providing enough education. Personally I think there are more than enough earnest books out there and I love that this one is written in a satirical and is worded in such a way that everyone can understand -- it just doesn't take itself too seriously! The anecdotes contained herein are often pretty funny and it definitely reminds us all what a strange world we live in. That said, I still came away from this little gem with many new things learned and I am sure you will too.