At 8.15am on August 6 1945, a single atomic bomb dropped by the US military obliterated Hiroshima, claiming an estimated 140,000 lives by the year’s end. Marking eight decades since the devastation, the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum’s ‘Hiroshima 1945’ consists of 160 haunting photographs and two films that document the A-bomb’s human cost: bodies shattered by radiation, survivors wandering in shock, the cityscape reduced to ashes.
These materials, many of which were preserved against the odds during the censorship regime imposed by the US occupation after the war, form part of the Visual Archives of the Hiroshima Atomic Bombing, which was submitted as a candidate for the Unesco Memory of the World register in 2023. The images were captured in the immediate aftermath of the bombing by survivors, photojournalists and photographers.
The exhibition – a collaborative effort bringing together major Japanese media organisations – marks the first time such a comprehensive visual record has been assembled for public viewing. As nuclear threats persist and conflicts rage around the world, ‘Hiroshima 1945’ is an urgent reminder of the devastating power of nuclear weapons, and amplifies the pleas of Japan’s nuclear survivors for the world to never repeat the tragedy of Hiroshima.
