Among its carefully selected exhibits are the books in a variety of genres, written by Russian, Japanese and Czech authors. And in each of them, the atomic tragedy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki reveals itself from a new perspective.

For example, "Hiroshima Accuses" is a collection of extracts from the diaries of Japanese A-bomb survivors, put together by Professor Takeshi Ito, himself a witness of the atomic explosion over Hiroshima, who devoted his whole life to protecting the other hibakushas – "those scorched by the bomb". In his book, the author bravely speaks about many things that did not often find their way into print, including the disturbing glimpses of life immediately after the war (any accounts of which would be heavily censored under the US occupation), and the ubiquitous fear of the radiation which would often lead make the A-bomb victims into outcasts in their own cities and families.

Another book, "Hiroshima in the Consciousness of Mankind", is a chilling essay on the devastating effects of the atomic bomb, laid out with medical precision by the Czech professor Dienstbier. A member of an international expert commission, he took part in the World Conference against the Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs held in 1977 in Japan and, following its results, firmly decided that nuclear weapons should never be used again.

Ms. Natalya Kozichuk, Head of the Department of External Communications and Project Activities, has kindly agreed to guide us through the exhibition.

Natalya Nikolaevna, what "exhibit" would you especially recommend to our readers?

We have here a very interesting magazine – a special reporter of the "Istoriya Otechestva" foundation. One of its articles is dedicated to the Russian victims of the bombing, because in 1945, there would be migrants from the Tsarist Russia living and working in Hiroshima. For example, the Parashutins family, who had a manufacturing shop, former Colonel Borzhensky – he was a retail merchant, Vladimir Ilyin who left us many written recollections of those days... 14 people overall... In those days, Russian emigrants made up the majority of Hiroshima's foreign residents. After the bombing, they were all escorted to the city of Kobe, known for its large emigrant colony. Many of these people lived into an old age: for example, the Parashutins rebuilt their enterprise and even bought a large two-story house in the prestigious Kitano-cho area, where foreigners used to live. The Parashutin House has survived to this day and is now a part of the museum exposition dedicated to the history of the Foreign Settlement.

Could you tell us a bit about how some of these exhibits found their way to the Library?

"Here, for example, we have a newspaper from the city of Kobe about which we have just spoken. In the 70s, we had our Department of literature in foreign languages managed by a lady who spoke Japanese. At her invitation, as far as I was able to find out, we once received at the Library a delegation of Kobe residents – most likely, they were the workers of some factory with joint Soviet-Japanese production line. They even attended a meeting of the Russian-Japanese club. 

"Before their departure from the city, they gave us with a red flag, or rather a red banner, with dozens of hand-written messages all over it. Their translations have, sadly, been lost over the years, but here, for example, it says "Peace to the world!" in Russian, and here, below, we have "Masuki Komatsu – an artist for peace", and, immediately, next to it, the "Japan – USSR" Society is mentioned. After coming home, the Japanese delegation also sent us this newspaper about their city. Not because it had an article about their visit to Volgograd, rather as a word of greeting from the friends far-away."

Some of the publications presented at the exhibition, are available for the readers to take home, others - to leaf through in the reading room, and only a few will only be carefully stored in the Library's funds.