Daikon

A Novel

By: Samuel Hawley

Narrated by: Brian Nishii

“A riveting tale about war, intrigue, love, and perseverance.” —John Grisham

“Absorbing...Unfolds like a detective novel...The story barrels ahead urgently...Duty, anger, sorrow, conscience and even hope mix together to form the novel’s bracingly intimate ending.” —The Wall Street Journal

“What if not two but three atomic bombs wound up in the Pacific theater?...Hawley’s impeccably detailed narrative offers an unnerving fictional answer...The novel’s tension mounts in highly cinematic fashion, despite our awareness of what the history books tell us.” —The New York Times

“Thrilling...Builds to a pulse-pounding climax. The result is the most imaginative take on Hiroshima since Edwin Corley’s The Jesus Factor.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

A sweeping and suspenseful novel of love and war, set in Japan during the final days of World War II, with a shocking historical premise: three atomic bombs were actually delivered to the Pacific—not two—and when one of them falls into the hands of the Japanese, the fate of a couple that has been separated from one another becomes entangled with the fate of this terrifying new device.

War has taken everything from physicist Keizo Kan. His young daughter was killed in the Great Tokyo Air Raid, and now his Japanese American wife, Noriko, has been imprisoned by the brutal Thought Police. An American bomber, downed over Japan on the first day of August 1945, offers the scientist a surprising chance at salvation. The Imperial Army dispatches him to examine an unusual device recovered from the plane’s wreckage—a bomb containing uranium—and tells him that if he can unlock its mysteries, his wife will be released.

Working in secrecy under crushing pressure, Kan begins to disassemble the bomb and study its components. One of his assistants falls ill after mishandling the uranium, but his alarming deterioration, and Kan’s own symptoms, are ignored by the commanding officer demanding results. Desperate to stave off Japan’s surrender to the Allies, the army will stop at nothing to harness the weapon’s unimaginable power. They order Kan to prepare the bomb for manual detonation over a target—a suicide mission that will strike a devastating blow against the Americans. Kan is soon confronted with a series of agonizing decisions that will test his courage, his loyalty, and his very humanity.

An extraordinary debut novel that is the result of twenty-seven years of work by its author, Daikon is a gripping and powerfully moving saga that calls to mind such classics as Cold Mountain. It is set amid the chaos and despair of the world’s third largest city lying in ruins, its population starving and its leadership under escalating assault from without and within. Here is a haunting epic of love, survival, and impossible choices that introduces a singular new voice on the literary landscape.

Critic reviews

"Brian Nishii is the perfect narrator for this outstanding alternate history. A U.S. bomber carrying an atomic bomb heads for Japan in early August 1945, but the B-29 crashes and the undetonated bomb falls into the hands of the Japanese. Nishii’s performance is riveting as he delivers the events that follow. The Japanese don’t know what the bomb resembling a “big, black daikon radish” is, but they soon discover it contains uranium. Nishii’s Japanese accents deliver unquestionably real characters, including U.S.-educated scientist Kan; his imprisoned Japanese–American wife, Noriko; and vicious Army Lt. Col. Sagara. After Sagara witnesses the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, he becomes obsessed with using their “daikon” against the U.S. in retribution. Irresistible storytelling and Nishii’s exceptional performance offer superb listening."

Awesome, truly well researched

Great care and detail on the accuracy of the facts (don’t miss the end credits!), and a very realistic and emotional group of characters

Relentless Tension Draws You In

A masterclass in suspense, Daikon draws you in by chapter six and doesn't let go until the end. Just when things seem dire, Hawley finds a way to ratchet up the stakes. Just when one tense scene resolves, another takes its place. Hawley has some experience as a writer of screenplays and it shows: the climax of the book feels right out of a movie.

Although readers might be expecting alternative history à la Man in the High Castle, the story arc falls more in line with the stuff of legends: without spoiling too much, I will say that the surprise comes with how subtle the changes are in the grand scheme of things.

Come to the story for a WW2 piece centered on Japan (in a role reversal, the US and it's people figure only incidentally into the book's plot). Stay for an exploration of just how fraught this period was. The most important event in modern history, the beginning of the nuclear age, only happened as it did due to the most random events. in hindsight, we look back and everything feels obvious and certain. Daikon brings us back into the action, and with it, the uneasy sense that anything could happen

The book also deals sensitively with the unimaginable suffering of war, valuable reminder as we moved further and further from memories of it.

if I could offer two points of critique, they would be firstly that Hawley occasionally indulges in the technical aspects of nuclear weaponry a bit too freely. I found myself wishing for a diagram to aid these sections as I listened during my commute. Similarly, I think it would be quite interesting, if not helpful, to see a map of the towns referenced in the book and their relation to each other geographically. The second piece of critique is that the ending felt more written for North American rather than Japanese reader. In the words of a colleague, "he puts too neat of a bow on it in the epilogue." If you are the type who likes a clearly resolved story, this should be unobjectionable, and the book's merits decidedly outweigh these issues.

With regards to narration, Brian Nishii shines here. I have quite a few titles read by him and, while I found him slightly grating in those works, he handles action and drama quite well. I was impressed. Characters are clearly delineated and rising action comes through in this read. One of his best, in my opinion.

Attractive story line compromised by weaknesses in character and plot development.

The author misses some obvious opportunities: For example, how did the main protagonists deal with the wife's infidelity and resulting pregnancy? More importantly, we are forced to wonder from the beginning why the US command made so little effort to locate the crashed bomber and/or the atom bomb it carried. Surely, alarms would have been blaring from DC to Tinian... And the US already had virtual air supremacy over the entire theatre.

Daikon

An interesting, thrilling, and unique alternative history of the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan in WWII. What would have occurred if the United States had three atomic bombs available to drop on Japan, and had lost one of them when the plane carrying it was shot down, with the Japanese recovering it? This is one hell of a story, with fully developed characters, and a narrator who tells the story with a great performance and understanding. The sources and acknowledgment section is well worth the time, with interesting facts and theories. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in WWII, and especially the war against Japan.

Historical novel providing a Japanese perspective of the atomic bomb

I was swept up in this fictional account of the critical days before and after the dropping of atomic bombs on Japan. My interest swelled after learning that the author drew on the historical record to craft his account. I highly recommend reading it.