Hiroshima, 8

Name: Hiroshima, 8
Price: 45 AUD
Availability: PreOrder
ISBN: 9781529992731

15: The Lost Memoir

Kiyoshi Tanimoto, Koko Tanimoto Kondo

$45

Hardback

Forthcoming
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English

Ebury Press
06 August 2026

History

The recently discovered and remarkable memoir of a Hiroshima survivor and hero, Kiyoshi Tanimoto, one of the 6 characters in John Hersey's seminal 1946 book Hiroshima

A newly discovered firsthand account of the Hiroshima bombing and its aftermath from one of the survivors-a lost classic that brings unprecedented immediacy to our understanding of this world-changing event.

The whole city was covered with dark clouds, and conflagrations were breaking out in various directions. Could all of this have happened at once? It was then that black drops of rain, as big as blackberries, began to fall - rain caused by the atomic bomb. I wondered what had happened to my home and church. With a pale face, I ran down the Koi highway...

When the atomic bomb fell on Hiroshima at 8.15am on 6 August 1945, Methodist minister Kiyoshi Tanimoto was just beginning his day by helping a neighbour on the outskirts of the city. Unbeknownst to him at that moment, the events that await him over the following days and weeks are full of horror, but through his courageous determination to save his family, church and city from total devastation, Tanimoto would become internationally recognised as a hero of Hiroshima. In 1946, he featured in American journalist John Hersey's seminal book Hiroshima which catapulted Tanimoto into global fame - but it is only now that we have discovered the manuscript that he wrote in his own words.

With a powerful introduction from Tanimoto's daughter, Koko Kondo, a renowned peace activist in her own right, Hiroshima, 8-15 is a remarkable eyewitness account of this devastating moment of history. Written in the immediate aftermath of the bomb, the manuscript had been lost for many decades and was only recently discovered in a university archive.

Today, over eighty years later in a world fraught with conflict, Tanimoto's story is a moving and powerful reminder of how the strength, love and resilience of the human spirit will always triumph over the things that divide us.

PRAISE FOR HIROSHIMA, 8-15

\""We have apparently spent eighty years forgetting what atomic warfare actually looks like. This intensely moving book is also an unsparing chronicle of the reality of mass destruction. Pray God it will restore some sense of urgency to our commitment to a nuclear-free world.\"" - Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury

\""A stunning historical discovery and a heartrending testimony.\"" - Kai Bird, Pulitzer Prize-winning coauthor of American Prometheus, the book behind Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer

\""More urgent today than at any time since the end of the Cold War.\"" - Serhii Plokhy, author of The Nuclear Age and Chernobyl

\""A rare and important addition to history.\"" - Susan Southard, author of Nagasaki- Life After Nuclear War

By: Kiyoshi Tanimoto
Foreword by: Koko Tanimoto Kondo
Imprint: Ebury Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 222mm, Width: 138mm, Spine: 25mm
Weight: 400g
ISBN: 9781529992731
ISBN 10: 1529992737
Pages: 256
Publication Date: 06 August 2026
Audience: General/trade , College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , ELT Advanced , Primary
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Kiyoshi Tanimoto (Author) Kiyoshi Tanimoto (1909-1986) was a Methodist minister from Hiroshima, who become known globally for his heroic actions in the aftermath of the atomic bomb of 1945. He was one of the six characters featured in John Hersey's Hiroshima (1946) and dedicated his life to helping those impacted by the bomb for decades after, the most notable example being his support of the Hiroshima Maidens. He was married to Chisa Tanimoto, and they had five children, including Koko Kondo, the anti-nuclear peace activist. Koko Tanimoto Kondo (Foreword By) Koko Tanimoto Kondo was born in Hiroshima, Japan, and was just eight months old when the atomic bomb was dropped in 1945. Her father, Kiyoshi Tanimoto, became globally known for his work helping victims of the bomb. She is now a prominent peace activist, and has campaigned against the use of nuclear weapons for most of her life. Through her work over the years, she has met with political and religious figures, including Pope Leo XIV, Desmond Tutu, Jimmy Carter, and Pearl Buck.

Reviews for Hiroshima, 8:15: The Lost Memoir

Kiyoshi Tanimoto’s eyewitness account of the Hiroshima atomic bombing is both a stunning historical discovery and a heartrending testimony of human suffering. It echoes John Hersey’s groundbreaking 1946 New Yorker essay—but Tanimoto’s Japanese voice is equally powerful, and a poignant reminder that in the nuclear age, humanity always lives on the brink of extinction. -- KAI BIRD, Pulitzer Prize–winning coauthor of American Prometheus, the biography that inspired Christopher Nolan’s film Oppenheimer The Methodist minister Kiyoshi Tanimoto, known as the ‘rescuing angel’ in nuclear-bombed Hiroshima, left a powerful eyewitness account and a stark warning about the savagery of the nuclear age for generations to come. It feels more urgent today than at any time since the end of the Cold War. -- Serhii Plokhy, author of The Nuclear Age and Chernobyl