Children's Historical Fiction: Hiroshima No Pika

Maruki, T. (1980). Hiroshima no pika. New York: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books.

Reading level: AD620L

Interest level: Grades K - 2

  

I’m going to acknowledge immediately that this emotional, difficult work would be almost impossible to use in the classroom at any level. There’s a set of nipples right on the cover, and the naked mother in question is surrounded by orange fire. Inside, there is page after page has similarly upsetting imagery, and some is worse: burnt, nude bodies populate several frames (including presumably dead infants), and the reader isn’t sure sometimes what is blood and what is fire. Of course, this is absolutely and inarguably the only responsible way to illustrate the aftermath of a nuclear bomb; anything else is betrayal. Like a little baby, I cried when I read this book. The story follow Mii an her family as they attempt to survive Little Boy and its aftermath. As they enjoyed the rare treat of a sweet potato breakfast, the great Flash shot through their home. Mii’s mother carries her badly injured father on her back all the way to the beaches outside Hiroshima, where they collapse and lay spent for four days. Mii’s family survives the Flash, but her growth is permanently stunted and her father eventually grows sick from radiation poisoning and dies. While this book is just too much for most classrooms, it really drives home the devastation caused by Fat Man and Little Boy, and rightly tarnishes the Allie’s hero victory. I read it alongside “Sylvia and Aki,” so that’s probably why I blubbered so hard.