Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms
Discovering the impact and the ripple effects that the bombing in Hiroshima had through the eyes of average women.
While I was exploring the Bonita-Sunnyside Library, I stumbled upon Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms by Fumiyo Kouno. I was unfamiliar with both the title and cover, but upon reading the synopsis on the back I immediately picked it up and grabbed a chair. It’s not too often you come across a series regarding the tragic dropping of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima so I prepped myself for an emotional read.
Genre: Drama
Age Rating: Teens
Publisher: Last Gasp of San Francisco
Status: Complete, one volume (out of print)
Synopsis:
In the short story “Town of Evening Calm” which is set in 1955, we meet a young woman named Minami who lives in Hiroshima. She is one of the survivors of the atomic bomb and despite being one of the fortunate ones that survived, Minami is surrounded with the tragic reminders of the war and the people close to her that sadly lost their lives. Minami lives a very humble life with her mother in a shanty town, with barely a roof to cover their head. During the day, Minami works as a seamstress trying to save up money to visit her estranged younger brother who evacuated to Mito and was adopted by his aunt. Despite Minami trying her best to move on from the bomb, she constantly relives the horrors of the attacks and then finds that the radiation poisoning is slowly taking away her will to live.
The second story titled “Country of Cherry Blossoms” follows fifth grader, Nanami, who’s the daughter of Minami’s brother Asahi. Nanami is a tomboy who enjoys playing baseball and marches to the beat of her own drum. She’s often seen as a free spirited and a troublemaker by her grandmother, especially when compared to her close friend named Tojo who’s a very calm and caring girl. In part one of the story, we see how both girls bring cherry blossom petals to Nanami’s brother, Nagio, who’s hospitalized because of his asthma. Unfortunately for the family, the consequences of losing yet another family member makes Nanami and Asahi move closer to the hospital where Nagio is receiving treatment causing Nanami and Toko to lose touch with each other.
The second part of this story takes place 17 years later in 2004. Nanami is now an adult working in an office but still living at home with her father. One day Nagio informs Namami that he’s seen Toko at the hospital where he’s interning because she’s one of the nurses there. This is when we learn that Asahi (the father) has been acting strange and leaving home for days at a time without explaining anything to Nanami. Nanami being free-spirited even as a young woman, decides to follow her father and along the way runs into Toko who joins Nanami on this adventure to investigate what is going on with her father. Soon enough Nanami discovers that her father has been making a pilgrimage to Hiroshima to visit the family grave and also reminisce about meeting his diseased wife.
Despite feeling disconnected to Hiroshima as a second generation survivor, Nanami learns that she is not as detached from the tragedy as she once thought.
Favorite Things:
Artwork: The art by Fumiyo Kouno was simple yet poignant. While some of the panels were very busy, it was often the ones with the characters standing alone that really evoked how isolating it must be to be a survivor of such a tragic event.
The female characters: I really enjoyed reading about the events of Hiroshima from the perspective of a survivor and then a second-generation survivor. Minami’s story was truly heartbreaking because of all the trauma she had to live through as a survivor of the atomic bomb. Nanami’s story was also heartbreaking in as well because we saw how she slowly made realizations that the bombing wasn’t just this historical event that took place so far in the past. The events affected her family first hand and continued to affect their lives even as she reached adulthood.
Notable Things:
Afterword: I know a lot of people tend to skip the afterwords, but this one you should definitely read. The creator, Fumiyo Kouno, is from Hiroshima herself so there was a personal connection to the story she wrote. Although this story is fictional, the experiences people in her community went through were captured in the two short stories she wrote. She notes that many modern Japanese people feel disconnected from the bombings, although this event happened not that long ago. People have failed to realize that 1945 wasn’t that long ago, and you can still see the effects that the bombings had on Hiroshima till this day.
Rating: ★★★★★ / 5
Amazing! Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms was such a beautiful and tragic story. It captured the delicate yet strong people of Hiroshima, some who sadly lost their lives and the ones who survived that had to endure the trauma and mourn those who lost their lives. This manga is an absolute masterpiece and if you can find a copy in your library, I highly suggest you read it. It really makes me wish this title wasn’t out of print because I feel like more young teens should read works like this one which encourage people to nurture their empathy and understanding of survivors of tragic historical events.
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