Statement

75 Years in Hiroshima

On August 6, 1945 at 8:15 in the morning, the atomic bomb dropped by the U.S. Army on Hiroshima detonated at about 600 meters above the city and took the lives of countless citizens. 75 years have passed from that day. According to Hiroshima city officials, casualties related to the atomic bomb was upwards of 320,000 people. As A-bomb survivors grow old, their average age is now over 83 years old. The most inhumane thing about the atomic bombs is that it continues to inflict physical and emotional pain and suffering on its survivors, decades after the bombing. A-bomb survivors suffer from leukemia and multiple cancers and are always worried about the genetic impacts it may leave on their descendants. Let us look at the portraits of 5 survivors of this war.

Profile

Naohiro YAMADA

I am currently working in Mainichi Shinbun Photography Department. From 2015 to 2018, I was deployed in Hiroshima. Thereafter, I regularly visited Hiroshima to interview nuclear bomb survivors to convey the calamity of the nuclear explosion through words, image, and film. Last year, I organized ‘Manazashi’ (Japanese for look, gaze) at Hiroshima and Nara, an art exhibition displaying the portraits of the survivors.

Jury selection

In these sensitive portraits of hibakusha, photographer Naohiro YAMADA reminds us of the resilience of the human spirit in the wake of disaster. Survivors of the bombing of Hiroshima in 1945 represent how life continues in spite of catastrophic moments when death and illness seem pervasive.

Links

• Instagram：＠naohiro7076