This is an omnibus of six stories about junior high school students
and their experience of war and the atomic bomb.
The first story is "Dakedo Sûgaku wa Kiraida: Yamashita Kazuo no Hanashi" [But I Hate Mathematics: A Tale of Yamashita Kazuo]. When Kazuo becomes second grader at a junior high, a new classroom teacher, Yamada Hinako, came from Tokyo. She is a teacher of mathematics, and is given a nickname "Hiyoko" [Miss. Chick] because her name, Hinako sounds like Hiyoko. One day, Kazuo's mother goes to the hospital. Kazuo is told by his father that his mother is ill with cancer, probably because of the effects of the atomic bomb. Kazuo gradually comes to know about the war. In the second story "Hiroshima no Odetto: Miki Kumiko no Hanashi" [Odette in Hiroshima: A Tale of Miki Kumiko], "Watashi" [I = Miki Kumiko], a girl who wants to be a ballet dancer, has to be a principal in a modern ballet about Hiroshima and the atomic bomb. She does not know how to express the emotion of the heroin of the ballet. She talks about it to her classmates. As the story goes, Miss. Yamada tells her students why she came to Hiroshima from Tokyo; her first boyfriend is from Hiroshima, and now he is in hospital.
Yamashita Yumiko (1940 -) was born in Tokyo. She came to Hiroshima
after the war and lived there, like Ms. Yamada. The viewpoint of one with
no experience of the atomic bomb successfully made up this story of finding
the past, which has influences us today. Humorous illustrations by Chô
Shinta add a soft atmosphere to this story.
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