This diary was written daily for almost two months by Hiroshima doctor, Michihiko Hachiya, after the atomic bomb was dropped. Severely injured by flying debris from the blast, Hachiya drags himself to a nearby hospital and begins to see the destruction, fatalities, and injuries all around him. He recounts his experiences in his journal as he slowly recovers and sees many patients in the hospital die of strange conditions (strange because the effects of radiation sickness were unknown at the time). He also describes visitors that come to the hospital and the doctors’ eventual realization that the bomb is causing the strange afflictions.