HIROSHIMA — A 230-page memoir written in 1947 by Kiyoshi Tanimoto, a Methodist priest in Hiroshima, will be published in the U.S. by Random House on August 6. Penguin will publish the memoir worldwide. Tanimoto's memoir was discovered in a U.S. archive.

Takehiro Hira is cast to portray Kiyoshi Tanimoto in a feature film. Donald Rosenfeld, a former president of Merchant Ivory Productions, is producing the film. Pre-production for the movie is scheduled to begin in November, with filming slated for February 2027.

The memoir details the impact of the atomic bomb, which the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. An estimated 120,000 people died within the first four days following the Hiroshima blast. Three days later, the U.S. dropped a plutonium bomb on Nagasaki, killing approximately 73,000 people. Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945.

Kiyoshi Tanimoto survived the atomic bomb because he was transporting a wardrobe to another town on August 6, 1945. He died in 1986 at the age of 77. Donald Rosenfeld described the memoir as "beautifully written." Rosenfeld commented on the contemporary relevance of the subject matter, stating, "It is so topical now with the Iran situation and North Korea." He added, "You can't imagine anything worse than Hiroshima, but it could be worse – supposedly 10,000 times stronger today."

Koko Tanimoto Kondo, Kiyoshi Tanimoto's 81-year-old daughter, wrote a 9,000-word foreword for the memoir. She was eight months old on the day the atomic bomb dropped. Kondo stated that it took 40 years for her mother to describe her survival. "On the day the atomic bomb dropped I was eight months old, a baby in the arms of my mother," Kondo wrote. She also noted that few people would discuss that period, stating, "Few people would talk about that time. Their memories kept them quiet."