Japanese Author Explores War, Nuclear History Through Personal Stories

Author Kobayashi Erika connects personal and historical trauma through her writing, beginning with an early fascination with Anne Frank and her father’s wartime diary. Growing up in Tokyo, she was immersed in stories of Sherlock Holmes through her parents’ translation work, fostering a belief in the power of narratives to resurrect the past.

Discovering her father’s diary from World War II, written while he was building aircraft, revealed a complex perspective on wartime Japan and its alliance with Nazi Germany, prompting her to visit sites connected to Anne Frank’s life. Kobayashi extended this exploration to the invisible legacy of radioactivity, inspired by Marie Curie’s enduring presence in her laboratory notebooks.

She has since published works like Trinity, Trinity, Trinity and Seeing the Light, examining the human relationship with nuclear power and its consequences, most recently focusing on the experiences of women during wartime. In 2025, she launched Arbaro Books, a publisher dedicated to translating Japanese works on nuclear issues into English and other languages, starting with her own comic Seeing the Light and a short story by Hayashi Kyōko about the Nagasaki bombing. Kobayashi aims to present nuanced accounts of the past to inform present-day choices.