The Bombing of Hiroshima, Part 2
Photographing the incomprehensible, from the ground.
“You had to weave through the streets avoiding the bodies. Their skin, burst open, was hanging down in rags. Their faces were burnt black. I put my hand on my camera, but it was such a hellish apparition that I couldn’t press the shutter. I hesitated about twenty minutes before I finally pushed it and took the first picture.”1
On the morning of August 6, 1945, Hiroshima daily newspaper photographer Yoshito Matsushige captured hell on Earth — one of only a handful of people to photograph the nuclear attack from the ground.
Matsushige made only five photos on August 6. He recounted his experience in the 1995 book, Japan At War: An Oral History.
“I approached and took this second shot. It was such a cruel sight. The viewfinder was clouded with tears when I took it.”2