ひろしまの満月（読みもの）
Full Moon in Hiroshima
カテゴリー: Japanese Children's Books、おすすめ！日本の子どもの本、読みもの／chapter books and novels
『ひろしまの満月』
広島に引っ越してきたかえでは、庭の池で言葉が話せるカメの「まめ」に出会う。「いつからここにいるの。どうして、まめは、まめっていうの？」というかえでの問いに、まめは、過去の思い出を語る。お寺の大きな池で暮らしていたまめは、中学生のみのるに釣り上げられ、お弁当箱に入れられる。みのるは、妹のまつこが引っ越しばかりで友だちがいないのを心配して、まめを連れて帰った。それから、まつことまめは友だちになる。
原爆が落ちた日、みのるは、川岸での作業のために、朝早くからお弁当を持って、ちょっと欠けた陶器のボタンがついた制服を着て出かけていた。みのるがいつまでたっても帰ってこないため、おかあさんはまつことまめを置いて町にみのるを探しに行く。おかあさんは、町に通い続け、原爆投下から17 日目に、みのるのお弁当箱とボタンだけを持って帰ってくる。おかあさんとまつことまめは満月を見ながらみのるを思って涙を流し続け、涙がかれた時、まめは「みのるくん」と声を発した。
カメの語りによって、かえでがまつこの視点で、兄の死や母の悲しみを追体験できるように描かれ、戦争のむごさが伝わってくる。柔らかなタッチで描かれた挿し絵からも情景を思い浮かべることができる。（土居）
| 出版社 | 小峰書店 |
|---|---|
| 初版年 | 2022年 |
| ISBN | 978-4-338-19243-9 |
| ページ数 | 64頁 |
| サイズ | 22x16cm |
| 対象年齢 | 7歳から |
| キーワード | 広島、原爆、亀、満月 |
Full Moon in Hiroshima
Kaede moves to a house in Hiroshima that has a pond in the garden. Here she meets Mame, a turtle that is able to speak human language since one full moon night. Mame tells Kaede about its past experiences, including its memories of when Kaede’s great-grandmother was a child. Mame used to live in a large pond at a temple, but had been caught by Minoru, a junior high school student, who put it in his lunch box and took it home with him for his little sister Matsuko, since he was worried that she didn’t have any friends after moving to their new place. Their father had gone to war as a soldier, and food was scarce in those days.
On the day the atomic bomb was dropped, Minoru had left early in the morning with his lunchbox and wearing his uniform with a slightly chipped ceramic button to clear away some lumber near the riverbank in town. Back home, the ground shook soon after 8:00 a.m., and when the neighbors started talking about something terrible having happened to the town, their mom went to look for Minoru. She went to town every day to search for him, and on the seventeenth day after the big bomb hit Hiroshima, she returned with nothing but Minoru’s lunchbox and a button. Gazing at the full moon, Mom, Matsuko and Mame wept for Minoru. Then, just when they thought they couldn’t cry any more, Mame uttered Minoru’s name.
Through Mame’s story, Kaede vicariously relives Matsuko’s experience of her brother’s death and her mother’s grief, bringing home the cruelty of war. The soft-touch illustrations also bring the various scenes to life for the reader. (Doi)
- Text: NAKAZAWA Shoko | Ill. SASAMEYA Yuki
- Komine Shoten
- 2022
- 64 pages
- 22x16cm
- ISBN 978-4-338-19243-9
- Ages 7 +
Hiroshima, Atomic bomb, Turtles, Full moon