Photo/Illutration A doctor at Hiroshima Red Cross Hospital examines a child on Aug. 10, 1945. This photograph taken by Hajime Miyatake, an Asahi Shimbun photographer, was published in the Sept. 4, 1945, edition of The Asahi Shimbun, becoming one of the first to show the injuries caused by the atomic bomb. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

A trove of over 1,500 photographs taken in the months following the atomic bombing of Hiroshima has been nominated for inclusion in UNESCO’s Memory of the World register.

The education ministry on Nov. 28 announced the 1,532 photos and two videos taken between Aug. 6, 1945, when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, and December 1945 would be recommended.

20231129-hiroshima2-L
A rescue worker provides food to a young girl injured in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. The photo was taken by Hajime Miyatake, an Asahi Shimbun photographer, on Aug. 10, 1945. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

The visual documents related to the Hiroshima atomic bombing were jointly submitted for approval to the education ministry by The Asahi Shimbun, The Chugoku Shimbun, The Mainichi Shimbun, the Hiroshima city government, Hiroshima-based RCC Broadcasting Co. and Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK).

One organization and 27 individuals took the photographs.

A total of 126 photographs were taken by photographers working for The Asahi Shimbun, including Hajime Miyatake and Eiichi Matsumoto.

Only one of the 27 individuals is still alive.

Seiso Yamada, 95, was a 17-year-old enjoying a day off when he saw what looked like a camera flash going off, and he heard a large explosion. He fell to the ground to protect himself.

When he stood again, Yamada saw a fireball rising in the distance and a huge cloud of red and black.

20231129-hiroshima3-L
A man transports his wife and child from a temporary care center in Hiroshima after all three were injured in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. The photo was taken by Hajime Miyatake, an Asahi Shimbun photographer. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

About two minutes after the bomb exploded, Yamada became the first person on the ground to photograph the mushroom cloud that rose over the skies of Hiroshima.

While he was still attending high school then, Yamada worked part time at The Chugoku Shimbun, which he would join as a reporter after the end of the war. He retired in 1995.

“If I had not taken the day off, I would have been in the area around Hiroshima Station and would likely have been hit by the atomic bomb,” Yamada said. “I want many people to know how horrifying the atomic bomb is, and I hope something like that never happens again.”

When the initial application was submitted to the education ministry in August, only photographs were included. However, the assessment committee suggested that videos be added to the package.

Thus, a news video taken by Nihon Eigasha, which produced propaganda movies during World War II, and another taken during scholarly research were added to the package.

The organizations that submitted the application released the joint statement: “With the atomic bomb survivors getting on in years, we expect primary documents that transmit the horrors of war and the use of atomic weapons will be recognized throughout the world and used by various governments and citizens as they work toward never repeating such a mistake.”

The education ministry also approved a set of three types of Buddhist documents in the possession of Zojoji temple in Tokyo that were collected at the behest of Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616), the first shogun of the Tokugawa Shogunate.

The UNESCO executive board will decide whether the visual documents should be included in the Memory of the World register in 2025, which would mark the 80th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb.

(This article was compiled from reports by Takuya Hiraga and Hayashi Yanagawa.)

Related News