Mizuki can see something is wrong. Her grandfather (Ichiro), now living in Mizuki’s home after his cherished wife passed away, is nothing like the grandfather of her childhood. He used to read to her, discuss and debate with her as she got older. He was vibrant and still had a sense of wonder.

Now, he seems as if something heavy sits on his shoulders. Not the grief of when he lost his wife. Something more. As if he suddenly can’t bear it any longer, he begins to reveal a secret from his childhood. A secret that must be told and always remembered.

Mizuki steps back in time as her grandfather speaks. He takes her back to 6 August 1945. He is nearly 18. It is the day a nuclear bomb is dropped on his home of Hiroshima, Japan.

Ichiro is hanging out at his friend Hiro’s house. He’s reading the book his father left before he went to war, keen to finish The Tale of Genji before his father returns. From outside they both hear the air raid sirens but shrug it off. No bombs have been dropped on Hiroshima before. They’ll be fine. Hiro watches out the window and comments that it’s only one plane….

What follows is the nuclear blast that eviserated Hiroshima and its citizens, and then the immediate aftermath of shock, confusion and pain. Hiro and Ichiro survive the blast to recover enough to search for Hiro’s 5 year old sister Keiko. Nothing is left. Chaos and destruction lay before them, and they both have terrible burns, but their quest to find Keiko drives them on.

In this quest a promise is made. This promise brings kindness, courage, limitless searches where a single paper crane is left behind with contact details – just in case, and a terrible all-consuming guilt. This is Ichiro’s secret. He made a promise and didn’t keep it. A life lost and he blames himself.

Wow! There are so many books about WWII, and rightly so, but this is from another perspective. The bomb that annihilated Hiroshima killed up to 80,000 people instantly, then more through fires and radiation. A second and even larger bomb was dropped on the port of Nagasaki, 3 days later on the 9 August.

This evocative story begins and ends with Haiku (Japanese poem style), the middle being normal prose format. It was initially like a punch to the gut, followed by a desperate search, finishing with an almost painful need to take in the words fast enough to learn the conclusion. The Haiku is beautiful and spare, just what I needed to be introduced to the characters and story, and what I gobbled up as I flew through the pages to the end.

Traditional Japanese paper cranes link it all together, and there is also a special coloured page at the end of the book to be carefully torn out, with origami instructions for a paper crane. Illustrations in soft reds and greys   portray parts of the story, the first being the bright flash of light that started it all.  Again…Wow.

Author – Kerry Drewery

Illustrations – Natsko Seki

Age – 10+

(WWII, World War Two, Japan, Hiroshima, Guilt, Loss, Friendship, Responsibility, Radiation, Love, Family, Memories, Memory, Bombing, War, Nuclear, Honour, Origami, Courage, Destruction, Secret, Grief)