Camera used by Mitsuo Matushige to photograph mushroom cloud to be displayed at Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall for Atomic Bomb Victims starting March 7
Mar. 5, 2022
by Junji Akechi, Staff Writer
A camera used to photograph the mushroom cloud that arose immediately after the atomic bombing on August 6, 1945, from about seven kilometers northeast of the hypocenter in the area of Furuichi-cho in Asa-gun (now part of Asaminami Ward in Hiroshima City), is set to be displayed in a special exhibit. The exhibit will open on March 7 in the Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims in the city’s Naka Ward. “We hope people will have a more realistic sense of the devastation by coming into contact with one of the few actual cameras that captured the reality of the atomic bombing,” said staff members at the hall.
The camera is composed of a wooden frame measuring about 25 centimeters in height and width on which is affixed a lens whose focal range is changed with an expandable bellows. Mitsuo Matsushige, an employee of the Hiroshima Prefectural government and a radiographer who died at the age of 78 in 1989, used the camera to take photographs. Later, in 1978, he donated the camera to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, located in the city’s Naka Ward. Mr. Matsushige appears to have borrowed the camera from a photography studio with the assistance of a co-worker, but because the co-worker was killed in the atomic bombing, the identity of the camera’s original owner is unclear.
On that day, August 6, Mr. Matsushige, who had been ill and undergoing medical treatment at his home, witnessed “an orange ball” rising above Hiroshima following the flash and blast from the atomic bombing. He hurried to leave his home with camera in hand and took three photos of the mushroom cloud and smoke covering the sky over the city, among other images, starting immediately after detonation of the atomic bomb until around noon.
Mr. Matsushige took one of the photos from his home. It captured a truck loaded with the wounded heading north. He wrote in his account, “I didn’t have the heart to take photos of the people on the truck. One time, though, I snapped the shutter simply as a way to record the scene.”
The special exhibit, titled “Trembling gazes: Messages left behind by A-bomb photographers,” will introduce to the public photographers who left behind documentary photos just as they themselves were experiencing the atomic bombing. Among them was the late Yoshito Matsushige, a former photojournalist for the Chugoku Shimbun, who photographed citizens of Hiroshima on the day of the atomic bombing. A video at the exhibit introduces each of the photographer’s circumstances at the time of the atomic bombing and the dilemmas faced when taking the photos. Panels explaining the photos that were taken of the mushroom cloud from areas in and around the city are also part of the display. The exhibit, admission for which is free of charge, will be held through December 29. “We hope people will look at the photos and accounts left by the photographers with observant eyes and learn about the reality of the atomic bombing,” said hall staff.
(Originally published on March 5, 2022)
A camera used to photograph the mushroom cloud that arose immediately after the atomic bombing on August 6, 1945, from about seven kilometers northeast of the hypocenter in the area of Furuichi-cho in Asa-gun (now part of Asaminami Ward in Hiroshima City), is set to be displayed in a special exhibit. The exhibit will open on March 7 in the Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims in the city’s Naka Ward. “We hope people will have a more realistic sense of the devastation by coming into contact with one of the few actual cameras that captured the reality of the atomic bombing,” said staff members at the hall.
The camera is composed of a wooden frame measuring about 25 centimeters in height and width on which is affixed a lens whose focal range is changed with an expandable bellows. Mitsuo Matsushige, an employee of the Hiroshima Prefectural government and a radiographer who died at the age of 78 in 1989, used the camera to take photographs. Later, in 1978, he donated the camera to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, located in the city’s Naka Ward. Mr. Matsushige appears to have borrowed the camera from a photography studio with the assistance of a co-worker, but because the co-worker was killed in the atomic bombing, the identity of the camera’s original owner is unclear.
On that day, August 6, Mr. Matsushige, who had been ill and undergoing medical treatment at his home, witnessed “an orange ball” rising above Hiroshima following the flash and blast from the atomic bombing. He hurried to leave his home with camera in hand and took three photos of the mushroom cloud and smoke covering the sky over the city, among other images, starting immediately after detonation of the atomic bomb until around noon.
Mr. Matsushige took one of the photos from his home. It captured a truck loaded with the wounded heading north. He wrote in his account, “I didn’t have the heart to take photos of the people on the truck. One time, though, I snapped the shutter simply as a way to record the scene.”
The special exhibit, titled “Trembling gazes: Messages left behind by A-bomb photographers,” will introduce to the public photographers who left behind documentary photos just as they themselves were experiencing the atomic bombing. Among them was the late Yoshito Matsushige, a former photojournalist for the Chugoku Shimbun, who photographed citizens of Hiroshima on the day of the atomic bombing. A video at the exhibit introduces each of the photographer’s circumstances at the time of the atomic bombing and the dilemmas faced when taking the photos. Panels explaining the photos that were taken of the mushroom cloud from areas in and around the city are also part of the display. The exhibit, admission for which is free of charge, will be held through December 29. “We hope people will look at the photos and accounts left by the photographers with observant eyes and learn about the reality of the atomic bombing,” said hall staff.
(Originally published on March 5, 2022)
