On August 6, 1945, the United States of America dropped the world's first atomic bomb, on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, a decision that ushered in the nuclear age and marked the end of World War II. When the atomic bomb exploded at 8:15 A.M., 70,000 people were killed instantly. Thousands more were dead of radiation sickness within weeks. More still were sick, scarred, and deformed for the rest of their lives by the chemicals in the bomb. Three...

Hospitalized with the dreaded atom bomb disease, leukemia, a child in Hiroshima races against time to fold one thousand paper cranes to verify the legend that by doing so a sick person will become healthy.

Through narrative nonfiction, tells about the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki through the perspectives of American and Japanese leaders, scientists, U.S. Army officials, and Japanese citizens.