The novel Kuroi Ame (Black Rain) was written in 1966 by the highly respected author Ibuse Masuji…. It might be expected that, for a man whose tastes and attitudes were formed in the earlier part of this century, his literary style and philosophical outlook would remain somewhat more traditional than those of younger authors. Such, in certain ways at least, is the case; yet Ibuse was among the first major writers to face up to the meaning of the word "victim," in the largest sense, for in Black Rain, he was able to treat the horrors of atomic war—the bombing of Hiroshima—in an artistic way. For such purposes, he required a certain objectivity toward his theme. This he provided by giving himself a period of twenty years before composing the novel. That perspective permitted Ibuse to write what seems incontestably his masterpiece.

The story of the novel...