In White Flash/Black Rain—hailed as “tough-minded and urgent” by the New York Times— women survivors of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki write of the attack’s cause, effects, and aftermath. Their voices refute the idea that the devastation unleashed ended with the war; their words echo the refrain that its ravages live on in body and soul, in victim and victor.

In potent prose and poetry, these women bear witness to the shared responsibility for bringing about war, any war. They retell the unspeakable mass destruction inflicted by the United States when it dropped the bomb; they recall the disastrous path Japan followed with its policy of conquest and Emperorism in Korea and China; they recount the abuse of the “comfort women” used by Japanese soldiers.

Throughout this powerful anthology, their message is clear: this must never happen again.