Every year on 6 August, the victims of the atomic bombing are commemorated in Hiroshima. In the evening people gather at dusk on the riverbank and place coloured paper lanterns on the water in memory of the victims.
Nozomi is familiar with this annual ritual since early childhood. She is twelve years old when she asked herself for the first time what exactly happened on 6 August 1945. When a short time later Nozomi hears what the art teacher from her school experienced on that day, she definitely wants to know more. As Nozomi and her friends start asking relatives and neighbours about their memories of this day when the unthinkable became reality, a conversation between generations begins – and lead into a powerful art project.
What they learn in these conversations shocks the young people, while at the same time they begin to understand how far-reaching the consequences of the bombing are and how strongly their lives as survivors have been shaped by it. In the course of the project, Nozomi learns, among other things, what her mother's unlabelled white lantern is all about.

With this book, Japanese author Shaw Kuzki presents a story that is as timeless as it is profound, and a powerful plea against forgetting: «6 August 1945 is a day in the past that will never be over. A day that reminds us of our obligation to never allow such folly to happen again.»

The author

Shaw Kuzki, born in Hiroshima in 1957, belongs to the second generation of survivors of the atomic bombing on 6 August 1945. Shaw studied at Sophia University in Japan and Trinity College in Dublin. She is one of the most successful children's and young adult authors in Japan and has received numerous awards for her work. Die weiße Laterne is her first book to be published in German translation.