Shigematsu Shizuma's Black Rain

On August 6th, 1945, the atomic bomb dropped on the city of Hiroshima, Japan. The second world war ended only a year after with the surrender after the Hiroshima bombing. Black Rain is a novel that illustrates how the citizens of Hiroshima lived during the time of the war. Shigematsu Shizuma, the main character of the novel, is someone who didn’t think the opposition had to drop the bomb to end the war. He believes the country was already internally falling apart, the atomic bomb killed innocent citizens without reason, and it inflicted incalculable damage.

Shigematsu Shizuma, the main character of the novel, lives in Hiroshima, Japan with his wife Shigeko and his niece Yasuko. He is a devoted husband, and cares about the welfare of the family more than his own. During the time of the war, he recorded details precisely throughout his journals. Shizuma wrote about how they treated themselves, how they reacted, and how the war had a direct impact on the citizens’ lives before it dropped. “There was no particular pain, yet a mild horror prickled at the nape of my neck” (Ibuse, 46). The citizens suffered because it dropped to destroy and kill a city.
Shigematsu made many remarks on how the country was internally falling apart and that the opposition wouldn’t have needed to drop the bomb. This is because the country was already falling internally apart with the citizens having to ration food for the military. “In a long drawn out war, it’s a case of the larger the town, the shorter its inhabitants go out of food” (71). Shigematsu’s family along with the citizens of Hiroshima rationed with little to eat and had less and less as the war continued. “The number of people searching for bodies or cremated remains among the ruins was considerably greater that yesterday” (194). Therefore, he believes that the war would’ve ended soon, even if they hadn’t dropped the bomb on