Three generations later, and still World War II looms large in the daily lives of a Japanese family. Japan's dual role as a perpetrator of war violence and also as a victim of the absolute devastation caused by the dropping of atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima complicate ideas of loyalty and identity even to this day. As Naoko Fujimoto's speaker navigates the troubling history of air raids, destruction, and crises, she also struggles with her own ambivalence in bringing a child into that world. Mother Said, I Want Your Pain is a testimony against war, weighing the unhealed wounds that echo through generations.
