The retranslated and re-adapted version of "Mienai Bakudan", a picture book and youtube video produced by Yoshiko Takahashi who is the original author of the story.

1. The Invisible Bomb
Written by Yoshiko Takahashi
Illustrated by Hayato Kato
Retranslated, adapted, and created
by Takahiro Katsumi (Office BALÉS)

2. There was a time when we were at war.
The sky was crowded with warplanes,
and they dropped bombs on us, and we
dropped bombs on them.
Children evacuated as groups to a more
safer, countryside, because the grownups
wanted to at least protect their children.
So the children escaped to safer places in
the countryside.

3. Several decades later, the so-called
“Important People” built the ‘Thing’.
They built it on a spacious countryside,
because there were no spaces in the big
cities.
They said this ‘Thing’ can make life
better and much easier for people to live.
Urban people enjoyed the easy way of
life.
"What a great way to live!
We can use a lot of electricity!"
Rural people accepted that plan because
they though they can have more jobs,
more money, and just enjoy an easy way
of life!
So the Important People felt good about
“They all seem to be very happy. We it and built a whole lot more of these
should build more and produce more!“ ‘Things’ that make life much easier.

4. The Important People answered, "There
is no problem as long as you use it in a
normal way. It would never turn into a
bomb! Look how all people, urban and
rural, are enjoying their current way of
life!"
"You are enjoying it too, aren't you?"
This was true. The ‘Thing that may
become a bomb’ was useful. Rural
people had more jobs, and their daily life
was much better.
One day, a concerned person asked,
The ‘Things that may become a bomb’
"Yes, our life has become much easier, were built in the countryside. Urban
but I wonder... Isn't this ‘Thing’ people didn't even know WHY their life
something that could become a bomb?" has become so much easier.

5. But the time was approaching. The time
when ‘The Thing that could become a
bomb’ becomes a real Bomb.
A smart person warned, “The ’Thing that
could become a Bomb’ is very
dangerous!”
"No problem!" said the Important People,
“there is no problem as long as you use
it in a normal way. It would never The truth was that the Important People
become a real bomb! Look how all were very selfish. They only cared about
people, urban and rural, are enjoying themselves. When the ‘Thing that could
their current way of life!“ become a bomb’ became a real bomb,
and people suffered from it, they
completely ignored them!
They said this over and over again.
The Important People told the rural
They didn't bother to listen at all. So people that the ‘Thing that could
many people of this country believed in become a Bomb’ was safe. The rural
what the Important People said. people trusted the Important People.

6. Then one day…

8. The rural people were attacked by a big earthquake and a huge tsunami!
This was a "trigger" that made the ‘Thing that could become a Bomb’"
into a real bomb!
The selfish Important People were afraid because it was finally "triggered" as they
knew. They knew they were lying; lying that the ‘Thing’ would be safe.
And they were afraid for the truth to be revealed.
So the selfish Important People kept on saying, "No problem! No problem!"
They kept quiet about the danger. They didn't feel guilty about lying at all.
However.... some people started saying, "Something is wrong!"
And many people began to feel the same way.
People living near the dangerous Bomb could never return to their homes.
Workers who knew nothing about the danger worked very hard to try stopping the
Bomb from exploding!

9. But the real danger came
AFTER the Bomb blew up!

11. The damages were enormous!
You couldn't see anything falling out.
You couldn't see it, smell it, or sense it!
No one could notice what was going on!
The Bomb was harmful to people's health.
People living nearby will seriously suffer for next ten to twenty years.
Victims feared the invisible danger.
If the Bomb was visible, like the bombs falling from the sky,
people could have easily recognized it and decide to evacuate immediately!
But the selfish Important People never said anything about the risks!
So they kept saying, "No problem!“
So the people could not evacuate.

12. Some simply trusted the Important
People.
Some simply could not trust them at all.
Some simply gave up on them.
Some were confused between the two.
And some families were broken up.
Many people had many different feelings
and thoughts, but because the Important
People kept on saying, "No
problem!“ people could not move out on
their own.
People were not allowed to evacuate,
even as a group!

13. Drifting with the clouds and the winds,
the Invisible Bomb spread from the
countryside to urban areas, and beyond.
Without anyone ever noticing it!
No one can notice such an Invisible
Bomb.
People often get divided over what they
believe about invisible things.
Some believe it, some do not.
Some believe in God, some do not.
Some even believe their God is better.
But they are all invisible.
Some countries even go to war
to find their answers.
So no one could give a straight answer.

14. That is when the grownups and children
become sick.
That is why, it was the same.
The ‘Thing that could become a Bomb’
became a real Bomb by the “trigger” of
the earthquake and the tsunami.
It was the same as waiting ten years for
the bomb to slowly come down on us.
It's like the bombs' explosion occurring
ten years later!
It takes more than ten years for the
Bomb to complete the explosion. People
will only recognize it when all is over.

15. But even so….

16. The Important People still
kept saying, "No problem!"

17. The Invisible Bomb poisoned the land,
and the land will remain inhabitable
for hundreds of years.
In ten years, the Important People
would have all grown old and died away.
They only cared about their own
happiness, during their own lifetime!

19. Many children became sick while growing up!
A person who was then a child when
The ‘Thing that could become a Bomb“
became a real Bomb, gave birth twenty years later.
That baby had slightly strange-shaped hands,
but without any other sickness.
"Thank god!" said her mother with a relief.
But many other sick babies were born.
In that baby's garden,
there were many strange flowers,
like two-meter-long dandelions, or
flowers with different colors
on each side of their petal.

20. Then one day….

21. When the baby became an elementary
school student, she asked her grandma
and grandpa,
"Why are my hands different from the
others?"
"Why does my friend overseas tell me it
is because my country spread the
Invisible Bomb, when I am a Japanese
living in Japan?"

22. That grandma
or
that grandpa
reading this story
to your grandchild
could be YOU

23. The End

24. Based on
"The Invisible Bomb (Mienai Bakudan)"
Written by
Yoshiko Takahashi
Illustration by
Hayato Kato
Retranslated, adapted, and created by
Takahiro Katsumi (Office BALÉS)
Special thanks to
Moms to Save Children from Radiation