NEVER SILENT

An activist and survivor of the bomb that devastated Hiroshima looks back on her youth—and ahead to the work still to be done.

Born into a privileged samurai family, Setsuko was an honors student and the treasured youngest of seven, but her idyllic childhood came to an end on December 8, 1941, after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. Years later, Setsuko, now an eighth grader, and several other girls from her school were trained to decode messages from the front lines. On August 6, 1945, she had just arrived at the decoding office for her first day of work when a blinding white flash appeared in the window. When she awoke, she was buried under the building, yet she had survived; many others were not as fortunate. As time went by, angered by what had happened to her—and by the U.S. government’s refusal to apologize—she began raising awareness of the bombings and fighting for bans on nuclear weapons. Written in short chapters, Thurlow’s firsthand account is interspersed with maps, drawings, photos, and information on the war, daily life in Japan at the time, the atomic bombs, and more. This compelling tale reveals often untold truths, highlighting experiences that the U.S. sought to conceal and making a tragic event feel deeply personal. Thurlow and co-author Lowinger leave readers with words of hope as they suggest steps they can take to help achieve peace. Final art not seen.

A moving and nuanced account of the impact of war—and an encouraging call to action.