Black Rain

Shigematsu continues to provide details of the patient's experiences at Hiroshima in an attempt to learn how to best help Yasuko. As more wounded appear after the bombing, the patient volunteers to be sent to Shobara. He is originally from Shobara, and he knows the doctor working at the hospital. As he travels on the train, he feels the immense pain of his wounds. He recognizes an old acquaintance when the train stops in a station, and the acquaintance agrees to travel with him to Shobara, where she contacts his family on his behalf. In the meantime, he goes with the other injured people to a hospital. His skin is peeling, and his back is so raw that his ribs are “all but poking through” (162). Due to the high number of injured people, however, the treatment offered is limited. The patient's wife finds him in the hospital and is relieved to see him. Her experiences are also included. She describes how she finds her husband after the bombing and then goes to the hospital to oversee his treatment. After August 15, when the war is officially over, the patient's condition varies wildly, so his wife takes him home from the hospital. The patient is so close to dying in the following days that he makes a will. He is in pain every day, and his body wastes away, “leaving only skin and bone” (168). Her descriptions of the slow and arduous recovery suggest to Shigematsu that “no proper treatment for radiation sickness” (170) yet exists. 

Shigematsu tries to ensure that Yasuko does not lose “her determination to survive” (171), though she grows weaker every day. He continues to read through the patient's experiences to derive inspiration. The patient remembers how his wife's “cry of anguish” (172) when he spoke about writing his will gave him the inspiration to live. While Shigeko takes the patient's story to show Yasuko's doctors, Shigematsu visits the pond where he is raising carp with his friends. As the anniversary of the Hiroshima bomb approaches, he remembers the need to continue transcribing his journal.

Shigematsu continues his journal entry from August 13. He wakes up and, even though he is unsure what to do, he travels again to Hiroshima to acquire coal for the factory. He tries to purchase coal from a village named Oda, but when he arrives he discovers the coal is gone. He walks away, passing a dying man and dead bodies. He passes many “makeshift crematoria” (177) as he returns to the factory. At his temporary home, he speaks to his manager about Shigeko's plans to return to the countryside to be with her family. Yasuko plans to join her, so the manager gives her an “honorable discharge” (178) from her responsibilities with the firm. They share a meal together and toast their health with the alcohol brought as a gift by the manager. The manager reveals the true nature of the atomic bomb that detonated in Hiroshima and left behind a “terrific radiation” (180), which is now affecting them all. Nothing will grow in Hiroshima or Nagasaki, he explains, for 75 years. The realization of the true power of the atomic bomb makes Shigematsu reconsider his perspective on the war. He and the manager become drunk and discuss the changing nature of bird calls.

Shigematsu continues his diary entry from August 14. Shigeko and Yasuko leave for the family home in Jinseki county. As Shigematsu wakes in the temporary house, he hears air raid sirens. He sees no planes in the sky and people approach him and ask what is happening. Shigematsu insists he knows nothing out of the ordinary. He goes again to try to acquire coal for the factory. As he reaches the train station, he sees a white rainbow in the sky. He asks the station master about the availability of coal; the man agrees to make inquiries on Shigematsu's behalf, but the man is not optimistic. Shigematsu returns to the factory through the paddy fields as bodies are burned all around him. At the factory, the manager tells Shigematsu about a mysterious “special broadcast” (185) that has been announced for the following day. Rumors spread that the war is over in some capacity. The manager mentions he also once saw a white rainbow. He believes that such a sight is “an omen of something unpleasant” (186).

On August 15, Shigematsu wakes too early. He waits until an appropriate time to go to the canteen, and while he waits, he thinks ahead to the special announcement. He talks to the landlord of his temporary home, who reveals the animals and people who spent time in Hiroshima after the bombing are now becoming sick or dying. Later, Shigematsu works until the time of the special broadcast. Everything in the factory stops as people listen to the radio in the canteen. Feeling an urge not to listen, Shigematsu wanders the empty factory alone in silence. He watches baby eels swim along a clear canal. Walking back to the factory, he sees a man running and feels the sense that something is “very wrong” (189). He passes other workers with grim expressions while others cry. Shigematsu feels the need to cry “tears of relief” (190) but suppresses the urge. He talks to the manager, correctly surmising that the broadcast announced Japan's official surrender in the war. The manager calls for everyone to eat and, after a glum meal and an attempt to reinterpret the broadcast, everyone agrees that “Japan had really been defeated” (190) by “a new and savage bomb” (191). If Japan were to fight on, the emperor’s message says, they would bring about “not only the annihilation of the Japanese race, but the destruction of human civilization as a whole” (191). Given the clothes factory produced goods for the military, Shigematsu can see no reason they should remain open.

Shigematsu finishes the transcription of his journal at this moment. The next day, he inspects the carp rearing ponds. He hopes to see a rainbow in the sky as a sign that “Yasuko will be cured” (191), but he knows that such a sign will never come.