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A 2025 EUREKA! Nonfiction Children’s Book Awards Gold Winner!
Hiroshima survivor Setsuko Thurlow shares her memories of that horrific event and her resulting lifelong commitment to activism to ban nuclear arms.
When Setsuko Thurlow was thirteen, she witnessed one of history’s most horrific events. She experienced—and survived—the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945. Since then, she has worked tirelessly to educate people about the catastrophe and to ensure that it never happens again. As a leading member of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), she gave the acceptance speech when the organization won the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize.
Never Silent recounts Setsuko’s earliest memories of her happy life in Hiroshima, followed by the devastating firsthand impact she witnesses after the dropping of the atomic bomb, and finally traces the steps she takes to rebuild a life in the aftermath of her experiences. With informational text scattered throughout the book to give historical context for the places and events, readers are given a full and profoundly affecting picture of what it was like after the bomb dropped, the struggle to return to normalcy, and the plea for activism to ban nuclear weapons.
*A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection
“A moving and nuanced account of the impact of war—and an encouraging call to action.” —Kirkus Reviews, 07/15/25
Setsuko Thurlow was thireen years old when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, the city she grew up in. Setsuko survived the blast, but that event shaped her life, as she worked tirelessly to make sure that no one would ever again experience that horrific event.
Setsuko has devoted her adult life to campaigning for nuclear disarmament, working with the organization ICAN, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017. Setsuko lives in Toronto, Canada.
KATHY LOWINGER is an award-winning author whose books include Give Me Wings! How a Choir of Former Slaves Took on the World (2015), Turtle Island: The Story of North America’s First People (2017), and What the Eagle Sees: Indigenous Stories of Rebellion and Renewal (2019).
MICHELLE THEODORE is an illustrator born and raised under the prairie skies in Edmonton, Alberta. As a landlocked yonsei, she is often reminiscing about coastal summers with family, inspired by her times on beaches collecting sand dollars and eating homemade salmon jerky.
Introduction
Setsuko’s Message
Section One
The Before Time
Growing up in Hiroshima, my family was descended from the line of samurai
Our Life in Wartime
As a 13-year-old schoolgirl I received special training in decoding messages
A Visit to Hiroshima
A brief history of the city of Hiroshima with a visit to the Hiroshima Memorial Peace Park
The World Goes to War 1939-1945
Adolf Hitler and the Nazis bring on World War II
Japan in World War II
Japan allies itself with Germany as a military global power
Japan at War Timeline
Key dates of events in Japan’s military history
Section Two
The Living and the Dead
I look back at the impact of the bomb, and what it was like being trapped under rubble
The Next Days
Reunited with my parents who also survived, together we dealt with the devastating effects of the bomb
Aftermath
In the weeks and months that followed the bombing, I witnessed many people becoming sick and dying
Life Under Occupation
The rationale for the Americans deciding to drop the atomic bomb. American and British occupying forces bring much needed changes to Japan, but evidence of the destructive impact of the atomic bomb is hidden
Little Boy and Fat Man
The power and magnitude of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Section Three
The Silence Lifts
My move to the United States to study, my vow to never be silent, and my growing involvement with the peace movement
The Atomic Age is Born
The public’s fascination with the power of the atomic bomb from comic books to further nuclear testing
Section Four
Ban the Bomb!
A world movement to ban nuclear weapons begins in 1958
My Fight for Peace
I was determined that the world would know about the horrors of the atomic bomb so that calamity would never happen again
A Call to Action
You too can get involved!
Sources
Acknowledgements
Credits