Masuji Ibuse

(1898 - 1993)

The Japanese novelist Masuji Ibuse majored in French in college, and initially wanted to be a painter. He was best known for his longest work, Black Rain, a 1996 book about various people dealing with the aftermath of the bombing of Hiroshima. John Hersey called the book “painful and very beautiful,” and said it gave two messages: “of drastic warning, yet also of affirmation of life.”