Yoko Ota (1903-1963) was born in Hiroshima to a troubled marriage that ended in divorce seven years later. It was during this turbulent period of her childhood that Ota came into contact with both Japanese and international literature. Later, in high school, she began to write and even managed to publish her first works in the newspaper Chugoku Shinbun. From 1929, she contributed to the influential feminist literary magazine Nyonin Geijutsu (Art and Women), where she debuted as an author with Seibo no iru tasogare (Sunset with a Saintly Mother), the novella that took her to Tokyo in 1930. In the capital, she befriended the leading female writers of her generation and was able to dedicate herself fully to writing.

However, the event that would most profoundly mark her career was World War II and, specifically, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. In the following years, the need to narrate the trauma crystallized in numerous works, among which City of Corpses (Shikabane no machi) stands out, incomprehensibly unpublished in Spain until now.