Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Working for a
Nuclear Weapons-Free World
Throughout the month of February, the Central Square Library will host a display of photographs and paintings donated by Nihon Hidankyo, the Japan Confederation of A- & H- Bomb Sufferers’ Organizations. The photographs powerfully convey the devastation and human consequences of the first atomic bombings and people’s commitments to create a nuclear weapons-free world.
The paintings, created by A-bomb survivors, convey the nuclear Hell they witnessed and endured. In addition to the histories these unique resources document, they communicate the central message of the Hibakusha (A-Bomb witness/survivors) that “Human beings and nuclear weapons cannot coexist.”
Twenty-five years after the end of the Cold War, with nine nations possessing 11,000 nuclear weapons, the dangers of nuclear war persist. As former Secretary of Defense William Perry recently warned, with increased U.S.-Russian and Indian-Pakistani tensions, the dangers of nuclear war have actually increased. The history of nuclear weapons accidents, miscalculations and the possibility of non-state nuclear terrorist attacks add to the urgency of creating the nuclear weapons-free world envisioned by the Hibakusha, Presidents Kennedy and Obama, and many others.
A speakers series accompanies the exhibit:
February 1 – Exhibit opens
February 4 – Screening of the film “Containment” by Peter Galison and Robb Moss (http://containmentmovie.com/)
February 9 – Joseph Gerson: Hibakusha and their quest for a nuclear weapons-free world
February 16 – Ward Wilson: The Realist Case for Eliminating Nuclear Weapons
February 18 – Hillary Chute: Graphic novels and the trauma of Hiroshima & Nagasaki
February 25 – Elaine Scarry: Democracy and Nuclear Weapons Cannot Co-Exist
February 29 – Exhibit closes
Remembering Hiroshima is a project of the American Friends Service Committee and Massachusetts Peace Action. It is designed as an educational resource for our community with the hope that it will also provide inspiration for each of us to do what we can to eliminate the dangers of nuclear holocaust.
The photographs and paintings include:
“This was where our house was, the body may be that of my mother”
Ms. Chieko Ryu, Nagasaki
Photo: Yosuke Yamahata
At what remained of hospitals, the dead were placed with their heads facing the hospital, many with their hands outstretched in what were their last desperate appeals for help.
In front of the Red Cross Hospital, Hiroshima
Picture: Tomiko Ikeshoji
As many as 50,000 Koreans in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, many of them forced laborers and their families, suffered the A-bomb attacks. Suk Dok cries as she follows the corpse of her mother, Lee, in Seoul. Photo: Sodo Bunka Publishing
The people of Hiroshima were caught in a sea of flames from the A-bomb’s heat wave.
Kojin-machi, Hiroshima
Picture: Yoshiko Muchitsuji
The A-bombs’ blast wave demolished homes, pinning parents beneath unmovable beams. When the heat wave ignited fires, trapped and dying parents ordered their children to flee for their lives.
Hiroshima
Picture: Shoichi Furukawa
Despite strict censorship by the U.S. military occupation a Hibakusha secretly published a book about the devastation of the A-bombings.
Book Title: (left) “Sange” (Buddhist term for “death”);
(right) “The Bell of Nagasaki” (authored by Dr. Takashi Nagai, describing the tragic situation of the Hibakusha immediately after the A-bombing)
The mushroom clouds became radioactive black rain.
Near Koi, Hiroshima
Picture: Kishiro Nagara
A mother mad with the urgency of cremating her child and a soldier who committed suicide with his sword.
Hiroshima
Left Picture: Chieko Takeji
Right Picture: Kazuo Matsumuro
Miyuki Bridge, Hiroshima.
Photo: Yoshito Matsushige
The Blast by Yosuke Yamahata
Desperate to escape the fires and heat, people plunged into Hiroshima’s rivers, where thousands died. West End of Sakae Bridge, Hiroshima
Picture: Kanemitsu & Chieko Ikeda
Near Ground Zero, Nagasaki
Photo: Yosuke Yamahata
The memorial cenotaph is the central feature of the Hiroshima Peace Park on the site of the A-bomb’s ground zero. The names of the victims are deposited here, with additional names added each year on the anniversary of the A-bombing. In the background is the A-bomb dome, the remains of an exposition center adjacent to the epicenter. Hiroshima Cenotaph & A-Bomb Dome, Japan
Taniguchi Sumiteru miraculously survived after being hospitalized for four years. He went on to co-found Nihon Hidankyo and has become an iconic figure in Japanese political culture. To this day, he endures open wounds and seriously compromised health. Mr. Sumiteru Taniguchi, Nagasaki
Photo: from documents returned by the United States
Desperate for water to drink and to cool their burns people turned to cisterns, where many died. Temma-cho, Hiroshima
Picture: Akira
Hibakusha describe what they suffered and witnessed as Hell. The A-bombs’ fireballs had the heat of the sun. In the first second a radioactive wave poisoned people across a two mile radius. This was followed by a blast wave that destroyed nearly every building across the radius, and this was followed by a heat wave that ignited intense fires. Thousands who were not immediately killed staggered with what remained of their clothing with skin seared and dangling, often with body part sand internal organs exposed. A-bomb Peace Memorial Museum, Hiroshima
Photo: Shin’ichi Oki