Bun Hashizume

Bun Hashizume:

Poet, writer and atomic-bomb survivor Bun Hashizume was fourteen and only 1.5 kilometres from the hypocentre when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, seriously injuring her. In 1985, her first anthology of ‘atomic bomb’ poetry titled The Youth Who Turned into an Insect appeared. Other poetry collections include Like an Abandoned Swing (1990) and Returning to the Earth; Rising to the Heavens (2009). Many of her ‘atomic bomb’ poems have been set to music and performed in concerts in Japan and overseas. Essay collections and memoirs include Turkey – A Mysterious and Wonderful Land (1993), Memoirs of the Atomic Bomb: The Experiences of a Fourteen-Year-Old Girl (2001), and From Hiroshima (2014). Currently residing in Tokyo, Hashizume continues to write and give talks nationwide, and occasionally overseas.

Susan Bouterey:

Susan Bouterey (DPhil, Tokyo University) is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Global, Cultural and Language Studies, University of Canterbury, New Zealand. Key areas of research are contemporary Japanese literature including Japanese women writers’ fiction, atomic bomb literature, and Okinawan fiction. She also specializes in literary translation and has translated a number of Hashizume’s works to date. Monographs include Medoruma Shun’s World: History, Memory, Narrative (2011). Literary translations include Water’s Edge by Tsushima YÅ«ko in More Stories by Japanese Women Writers (2011), Fellow Humans! Let Us Foster Love & Wisdom – From Hiroshima (1997), Living Together and Little Brother in Australian Multicultural Book Review (1996).