Through the lives of three siblings living in Hiroshima, Japan, Terry Watada explores the sweep of history during the years 1930 to 1945, known in Japan as the Fifteen Year War. The youngest, Chisato Akamatsu, travels to Canada looking for a new life and runs into unexpected brutalities in immigration, a troubled marriage and the humiliation of the internment in her new home during World War Two. Hideki, the only brother, joins the military to fight for the Emperor and find "glory" in China. What he finds is the fallacy of patriotism, the brutality of war, and the futility of existence. Chiemi, the oldest, was in the city when to the atom bomb hit. She then desperately searches for her twin babies. The three encapsulate the hopes, fears, dreams, the inhumanity of the period and resiliency of humans caught in historic eventsThe bomb money, a mass of melted coins found after the bomb blast, stands as a symbol of the fate of the family. In his fourth novel, Canadian poet, dramatist, and novelist Terry Watada delves into the Pacific War, looking at WWII from a Japanese perspective, unique in Canadian literature.

Terry Watada is a well-published author living in Toronto, Ontario. He has three novels, five poetry books, and a short story collection in print. Hiroshima Bomb Money, his fourth novel, is the culmination of his exploration of the Japanese and Japanese Canadian experience. Hiroshima Bomb Money comes from the heart, more so than any other, since at its core, the novel encompasses the Japanese experience during World War II. The book illuminates the events, incidents and atrocities of the Hiroshima bomb, the invasion of China and the Canadian Internment.

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"A born storyteller, Terry Watada has devoted his creative career to chronicling the Japanese Canadian experience in all its facets. In Hiroshima Bomb Money, he turns his eye toward Japan during the years leading up to the Second World War to introduce three siblings-one who comes to Canada and two who remain in Japan-whose fates are indelibly shaped in different ways by the merciless trajectory of war. Rich in historical detail, this is a sweeping family tale of endurance and connection and of the importance of never forgetting." -Lynne Kutsukake, author of The Art of Vanishing

"This masterful novel combines the clear-eyed directness of the best journalism with a poetic sensitivity for the intimate moments of joy and grief in the lives of its characters. Weaving together the stories of three Hiroshima siblings separated by war and migration, Watada offers a seldom-told perspective on Japanese and Canadian life during the Second World War and the resilience of those caught in its wake. I was deeply moved." -Thomas Wharton,award-winning author of The Book of Rain