"From a compelling female perspective, her poems take on death, nuclear annihilation, the Japanese role as a victimizer during the war, U.S. foreign policy, and issues of survival in a violent world."
--New York Theatre Wire, www.nytheatre-wire.com
— New York Theatre Wire
"Kurihara practices a vivid style of imagery, recreating the disgusting wounds, anguish and death of the atomic bombing. . . .Kurihara's poems are so devastatingly raw that the reader cannot escape from the feelings of empathy and even anger for those who were victimized by the war that took place over a half a century ago. . . . Just as is about remembering death and war, When We Say Hiroshima is also about hope, humanity, and our ability to live. . . . Kurihara makes sure that the reader understands that where death occurs, so does life and with life, there is always hope for a better future. The poems are about pain, sorrow, war and death. But at its core, the book teaches about living."
--Vanessa Pascua, Hawaii Pacific Review, Volume 15
— Vanessa Pascua, Hawaii Pacific Review
“One of Japan’s greatest 20th-century poets, and one of Japan’s bravest and most honest social and literary writers.”
—Japanophile
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“What more heartbreaking description of the bomb could anyone fashion? Fascinating reading.”
—The International Examiner’s Pacific Reader
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“This poetic voice reveals the horrors of the world for which she dreams only of peace. At times it weeps in despair; at other times, it sings of hope and promise. It is a treatise of intellectual and social history . . . worthy of the highest recommendation.”
—Education about Asia
“Moving and powerful poems offering an image of Japan and the Japanese that is all too rarely available.”
—Friends Journal
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"Kurihara practices a vivid style of imagery, recreating the disgusting wounds, anguish and death of the atomic bombing. . . .Kurihara's poems are so devastatingly raw that the reader cannot escape from the feelings of empathy and even anger for those who were victimized by the war that took place over a half a century ago. . . . Just as is about remembering death and war, When We Say Hiroshima is also about hope, humanity, and our ability to live. . . . Kurihara makes sure that the reader understands that where death occurs, so does life and with life, there is always hope for a better future. The poems are about pain, sorrow, war and death. But at its core, the book teaches about living."
--Vanessa Pascua, Hawaii Pacific Review, Volume 15
— Vanessa Pascua, Hawaii Pacific Review
"From a compelling female perspective, her poems take on death, nuclear annihilation, the Japanese role as a victimizer during the war, U.S. foreign policy, and issues of survival in a violent world."
--New York Theatre Wire, www.nytheatre-wire.com
— New York Theatre Wire