Hiroshima il giorno zero dell'essere umano

In August 2025 falls the eightieth anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki This volume contains the speeches delivered on the occasion of the awarding of the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize to the hibakusha, the victims who “despite everything choose not to take their own lives.” It also presents three short stories by renowned authors, Ibuse Masuji (Kakitsubata), Hara Tamiki (Natsu no hana), and Ōta Yōko (Hotaru). The literature of the atomic bomb, like that produced in the aftermath of Fukushima, teaches us that in the face of catastrophe writing itself becomes a vehicle for a renewed moral consciousness. The 2024 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations (Nihon Hidankyō) “for its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again.” The award has brought renewed attention to the condition of the hibakusha — the survivors of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and of the effects of radiation. Founded in 1956 through the efforts of survivors’ associations, the Confederation is now the main representative body for these groups in Japan. Its work focuses above all on defending the social and economic rights of the hibakusha worldwide and on safeguarding humanity from the risk that such tragedies could occur again. The recognition therefore carries a particularly significant weight at a historical moment when the possibility of using nuclear weapons has re-emerged — not only as a deterrent, but as a realistic instrument of destruction in a war of aggression. The volume includes an afterword on atomic bomb literature, and the entire volume has been curated by me.