Hiroshima in the Morning [Paperback]

Rahna Reiko Rizzuto (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 14, 2010

In June 2001 Rahna Reiko Rizzuto went to Hiroshima in search of a deeper understanding of her war-torn heritage. She planned to spend six months there, interviewing the few remaining survivors of the atomic bomb. A mother of two young boys, she was encouraged to go by her husband, who quickly became disenchanted by her absence.
It is her first solo life adventure, immediately exhilarating for her, but her research starts off badly. Interviews with the hibakusha feel rehearsed, and the survivors reveal little beyond published accounts. Then the attacks on September 11 change everything. The survivors' carefully constructed memories are shattered, causing them to relive their agonizing experiences and to open up to Rizzuto in astonishing ways.
Separated from family and country while the world seems to fall apart, Rizzuto's marriage begins to crumble as she wrestles with her ambivalence about being a wife and mother. Woven into the story of her own awakening are the stories of Hiroshima in the survivors' own words. The parallel narratives explore the role of memory in our lives and show how memory is not history but a story we tell ourselves to explain who we are.
Rahna Reiko Rizzuto's highly acclaimed first novel, Why She Left Us, won an American Book Award in 2000. She is a faculty member in the MFA in creative writing program at Goddard College, and lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“A brave compassionate, and heart-wrenching memoir, of one woman’s quest to redeem the past while learning to live fully in the present.”

—Kate Moses, author of Cakewalk, A Memoir and Wintering: A Novel of Sylvia Plath

"This searing and redemptive memoir is an explosive account of motherhood reconstructed."

—Ayelet Waldman, author of Red Hook Road

"This book is an important contribution to the growing understanding that we are all part of history, and we all make history. A moving account of a contemporary voyage, which is also a voyage back in time, reckoning with and bearing witness to one of the great tragedies of the last century."

—Susan Griffin, author of A Chorus of Stones

"If remembering lies at the heart of all memoir, the best memoir goes far deeper, asking questions about the propulsive nature of time, the consequences of forgetting, and the treacherous liberations of solitude. Hiroshima in the Morning is a memoir of the most sophisticated kind, a lyric, a quest, a universal poem."

—Beth Kephart, author of A Slant of Sun, a National Book Award finalist

"Rahna Reiko Rizzuto's new book is intimate and global, lyrical and clear-eyed, a compelling personal narrative, and an important social document. Here past and present, Hiroshima and 9/11, interweave to tell a story of unendurable loss and tragedy but also of tenacity, survival, and rebirth"

—Lauren Kessler, author of Stubborn Twig: Three Generations in the Life of a Japanese American Family

About the Author

Rahna Reiko Rizzuto: Rahna Reiko Rizzuto’s highly acclaimed first novel, Why She Left Us, won an American Book Award in 2000, and was praised by the New York Times as “ambitious, lyrical, and intriguing.” She is a recipient of the US/Japan Creative Artist Fellowship, funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, which inspired her memoir, Hiroshima in the Morning; she is also the associate editor of The NuyorAsian Anthology: Asian American Writings About New York City; and she is a faculty member in the MFA in creative writing program at Goddard College where she teaches fiction and nonfiction. Her essays and short stories have appeared in journals and newspapers including the Los Angeles Times, Salon, and the Crab Creek Review, and in anthologies including Mothers Who Think, Because I Said So, and Topography of War. Rizzuto is half-Japanese/half-Caucasian. She grew up on the Big Island of Hawaii and now lives in Brooklyn.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: The Feminist Press at CUNY (September 14, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558616675
• ISBN-13: 978-1558616677
• Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 0.7 x 7.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #679,422 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Rahna Reiko Rizzuto's memoir, Hiroshima in the Morning, is a finalist for the 2010 National Book Critics Circle Award, and is the winner of the Grub Street National Book Award in Nonfiction. It is published by the Feminist Press. Her first novel, Why She Left Us, won an American Book Award in 2000. She is also a recipient of the U.S./Japan Creative Artist Fellowship, funded by the National Endowment for the Arts. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, including the L.A. Times and Salon. She was Associate Editor of The NuyorAsian Anthology: Asian American Writings About New York City, and teaches in the MFA program for creative writing at Goddard College.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 24 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Very real, honest account January 30, 2011

By mika

Format:Paperback

I am Japanese who lives in Japan. I teach English to adult Japanese and I also have done many translations of the testimonies of the atomic bomb survivors, and taken English speakers on tours of the Peace Park in Hiroshima. This book, which is aiming to tell people about one of the most horrific historical war events in history, Hiroshima, is clearly a very well-written and well-arranged one. I especially like the way that each testimony is NOT too long, but very decisive and truthful. And what is even better is that each story comes with backed-up stories and events which the author has experienced during her residency in Hiroshima.

What, I think, is "VERY UNIQUE" about this book is that there are a lot of facts that can be used as excerpts in my classes. Many of my students are to become professional translators or travel guides. And those facts include many of those little things we Japanese need to know when we want to explain HIROSHIMA, JAPANESE CULTURE, and JAPANESE PEOPLE in English. They are described in very colorful and enjoyable-to-read ways.

As a wife, a mother, and a daughter myself, I can also totally understand all the agonies, frustrations, and the sorrows that the author went through. I believe that THAT can be one other big attraction that this book has to a lot of people.

I highly recommend this book to anybody, but especially to those who are teaching English to Japanese, those non-Japanese who are learning anything about Japanese culture and Hiroshima.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars One story line too many January 23, 2012

By Minerva9544

Format:Paperback

This book had so much potential, but either the author or the editor let it slip away. The premise of the story is that the author has recived a fellowship to interview survivors of the bombing of Hiroshima, she packs up her life, leaving behind two small children and her husband, to live in Japan for six months gathering information. After the initial "stranger in a strage land" bit it starts to unravel by becoming three narratives that are clumsily interwoven leaving each without the attention it deserves. First, this is the story of a women solely defined as a wife and mother who has never been on her own. It is her great moment of autonomy and self discovery that ultimatley leads to uncomfortable revalations. Secondly, it is the story of a researcher who is having trouble connecting to her subjects until the tragedy of 9/11 draws them together in commiseration over events that are both a private and public trauma. And finally it is the story of a woman metaphorically searching for the mother she is slowly losing to dimentia/alzheimers. These are pretty ambitious topics to cover individually, but trying to bring them together to form a cohesive story was far beyond the scope and ability of the author/editor. Is it worth a read, yes. Is it a great book that will change your life, no.

12 of 17 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Best I've read in a long time September 6, 2010

By M. Tinoco-Babcock

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I just finished it today and I loved it. The writing is breathtaking, moving, and very honest. Hiroshima in the Morning deals on serious topics without getting stuck being heavy. It's a beautiful that helps us think about the unthinkable: war, peace, memory, love, and loss. I highly recommend it.