Wonderful Life with the Elements

AFTERWORD

I imagine many people remember which element they first heard about. Mine was ura-

nium. I was still in primary school when I saw the movie Barefoot Gen with my mother at

the local community center. As some of you may know, the movie is about the bombing of

Hiroshima during World War II. I still remember the intensity of the movie, and by the end

of the show, it had rendered my young self completely speechless. The following weeks I

had trouble sleeping, and the scene where the bomb explodes haunted me day and night. I

convinced myself that I had to learn more about the bomb, not because I had some passing

interest in it, but because ...