Tamiki Hara (1901-1951) was a Japanese poet and writer, primarily of short stories. He is most widely known for his 1947 story, "Summer Flowers" (Natsu no Hana), which is based on his first hand experience of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Strangely, the stories published here manage to present despair and hope as complementary themes. The protagonist of the stories lives in a world where things will most certainly not 'turn out ok'. Everything is stacked against him. A devastating war, the overwhelming horror of an atomic bombing, the slow, grinding starvation and disease in post defeat Japan. At the same time, however, bright lights still manage to shine through the oppressive gloom of his stories. Recollections of his wife, of his elder sister, of his youth--before the world went mad.

Tamiki Hara's writings are an important reminder of the incalculable costs of war. In the lives that are needlessly destroyed, and in the destruction of all the potential those lives had to offer the world.