Hiroshima: The Lost Photographs

by Panda • 12 Nov 2008, 12:16 • Journals
Just came across this great little article on another board. Thought I'd share it with you folks:
image: hiro_8
image: hiro_1
One rainy night eight years ago, in Watertown, Massachusetts, a man was taking his dog for a walk. On the curb, in front of a neighbor’s house, he spotted a pile of trash: old mattresses, cardboard boxes, a few broken lamps. Amidst the garbage he caught sight of a battered suitcase. He bent down, turned the case on its side and popped the clasps.

He was surprised to discover that the suitcase was full of black-and-white photographs. He was even more astonished by their subject matter: devastated buildings, twisted girders, broken bridges — snapshots from an annihilated city. He quickly closed the case and made his way back home.

Link to the full thing

Fuck off with any tl;dr fagz <3
Comments
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Trevize 12 Nov 2008, 12:34
very interesting article. btw:

QuoteThe use of atomic weapons for the first time on Earth by the U.S. against the Japanese Empire and its civilian cities has always been a frustrating horror for me. I am alive because of it.

My father was an 18 year old kid (on a "great adventure") and unaware of the potential fate that would await him as he sailed with thousands of other soldiers in late October on a troop ship steaming across the South Pacific to invade Japan in Operation Olympic for "X-Day", as it was called.

Instead of probably being wounded or more likely killed while landing on the heavily defended mountains and beaches of &#332;sumi Province &#22823;&#65533;&#65533;...&#22269; or Satsuma &#65533;-&#65533;&#25705;&#22269; on the island of Ky&#363;sh&#363; &#20061;&#24030; in a massive invasion that was to make D-Day look like a skirmish — he helped rebuild Japan.

Names like Miyazaki, Ariake, and Kushikino, the three main invasion points, would be in our history books. The beaches of D-Day would be remembered with the beaches of X-Day, named after car brands: Austin, Buick, Cadillac, Stutz, Winton, Zephyr.

The Japanese had prepared an all out last stand defense of Japan, Operation Ketsugo, with no reserves.

Had the invasion happened, it is estimated that millions of American soldiers would have been killed or wounded and tens of millions of Japanese soldiers and civilians. The Pentagon ordered 500,000 Purple Hearts in preparation for the invasion of Japan and usually the military does not order enough of anything. Until just a few years ago, these unused invasion of Japan Purple Hearts were the Purple Hearts all recipients of all subsequent U.S. wars were given.

My father and countless other allied soldiers, Marines, and sailors never invaded Japan. He was switched to the Corp of Engineers after the Japanese Empire surrendered and promoted to sergeant so he could coordinate construction work for the Tokyo airport. After this, he went to college under the GI bill, got married, and raised a family. He helped run a number of companies, including a company founded by his brother (who was in the Navy during the war) which invented and sold, and still sells, important technology used in the manufacturing of microchips and later, LCD displays. (Your computer, its screen, your cell phone, ipod, et al could not have been made without it.)

He is alive, my family is alive, I am alive because the U.S. did not invade Japan. Many more U.S. and Japanese citizens and their families are alive too. The technology, medicines, and other inventions since WWII developed during or later by my father’s generation have saved and enriched billions of lives.
But if the U.S. had invaded Japan, would we have lost some crucial figures of that generation and the economic, technological, and creative prosperity of the late 20th Century?
These photos represent a visual legacy for all of us to prevent any war from happening.
A World War I soldier once said ‘War is a complete and total waste of time, money, and life and accomplishes nothing. Not having a war is the way to truly win a war.’

Posted by: Joseph Coates on 11.10.08 at 08:55


Fantastic article. The objective restraint from making a political statement is noticed and appreciated.

Posted by: BlueStreak on 11.10.08 at 09:34


tell me if i am wrong, but this guy is not just gambled his life for hiroshima's citizens lives?
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Deactivated5446 12 Nov 2008, 12:36
Many more U.S. and Japanese citizens and their families are alive too. The technology, medicines, and other inventions since WWII developed during or later by my father’s generation have saved and enriched billions of lives.
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Trevize 12 Nov 2008, 12:38
i would say yes, but in your country mainly.
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Deactivated5446 12 Nov 2008, 12:37
Thank you for sharing, there hasn't been a good journal in some time.
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huPoo 12 Nov 2008, 13:01
First time ever here I see a journal that is actually journal. On second thought, it's more like a link to journal after all.
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Panda 12 Nov 2008, 15:14
Yeah, unfortunately I couldn't really add much more input to what was already posted on there and my knowledge on the atomic bombs/ Hiroshima-Nagasaki etc aren't all that great :>
I studied more of the holocaust/Nazi Germany and other wars :F

Still, it seems a few people enjoyed reading it!
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RazZaH 12 Nov 2008, 13:35
tl;dr =

too long (d)o read
xD?

but why a DDDDDDDDDDDD
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baMs 12 Nov 2008, 13:42
too long; didnt read?
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Remishi 12 Nov 2008, 14:02
<3 Okonomiyaki in Hiroshima
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DoctorWho 12 Nov 2008, 14:25
second photo looks so fallout like
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vj7o 12 Nov 2008, 15:09
this is EVOLUTION!

tnx americans
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eXoz 12 Nov 2008, 16:01
IT'S FALLOUT3
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med1xza 12 Nov 2008, 16:27
A really nice find, thanks for sharing.

image: hiro_9
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