Ota Yoko

Ota Yoko (1906–1963) was a romance novelist before Hiroshima was struck with an atomic bomb. Thereafter, she dedicated her life to documenting her experience as a surviving victim, carving out the field in which she is renowned as one of the most significant Japanese writers. ‘Like light on the sea floor’ (1,700 words) was the first long-form biographical account of the bomb ever published (in Japan’s national newspaper The Yomiuri Shimbun), and is out of copyright and in the public domain. It has never been translated to English before.

Articles by Ota Yoko:

23 November 201827 February 2019 · translation

Like light on the sea floor

Ota Yoko and Marissa Skeels

Ota Yoko (1903-1963) was the only prominent novelist to survive the bombing of Hiroshima. After it, she wrote only essays and fictional stories, which documented the experiences of victims, carving out the field of atomic literature in which she is renowned. Her obsessive dedication to realistically relating what happened was driven by her conviction that she was the only one left to do so. Burdened by survivor responsibility, she wrote on tranquilisers to dull the visceral trauma triggered by remembering, and struggled to find the right words, saying new vocabulary was needed to render ‘the reality of Hiroshima’.