Documenting Hiroshima 80 years after A-bombing: Color photos vividly capturing hypocenter area of devastated city one year later found to exist today
Jan. 23, 2025
by Kyosuke Mizukawa, Senior Staff Writer
Color photographs taken between August and December 1946, the year after the atomic bombing, remain at the National Diet Library of Japan (in Tokyo). The photos depict the areas near the hypocenter devastated in the bombing, including the neighborhoods of Nakajima-honmachi (Peace Memorial Park, in Hiroshima’s present-day Naka Ward) and Otemachi (also in Naka Ward). Because color photos of the city during that period are few in number, the photos represent a valuable record that vividly captures the exposed scars of the city that remained even one year after the U.S. military dropped the atomic bomb on the city as well as signs of the city’s restoration.
The photographer who took the photos was Robert Mosier, a civilian staff member at the General Headquarters of the Allied Powers (GHQ) who was in Japan from April 1946 until January 1947. Mr. Mosier’s photos include such structures as the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall (present-day A-bomb Dome, in Hiroshima’s Naka Ward), provisional shacks in the area of Nakajima-honmachi, as well as destroyed structures in the area of Ote-machi such as the Hiroshima Branch of the Hiroshima Prefectural Agricultural Association, the headquarters of the Hiroshima Gas Company (present-day Hiroshima Gas Co., Ltd.), and the former site of Otemachi National School, which closed after the bombing.
In 2008, the National Diet Library received a donation of 304 color photos of Japan, including some of Tokyo, Nagoya, and other sites, from Mr. Mosier’s relatives in the United States and posted them for public access in its online digital archives. Seventeen photos make up the Hiroshima portion of the collection, but for 15 of the photos, excluding two of the Industrial Promotion Hall, information about where they had been taken was unavailable. With that, the photos taken in unidentified locations had only simple descriptions such as ‘Scene of ruins’ or ‘Buildings.’
At this time, the Chugoku Shimbun set about verifying the shooting locations for 15 of the photos, with support from the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, leading to the identification of the locations for 10 of the photos. The shooting period was found to be between August 1946 and the end of that year, based on the circumstances in Nakajima-honmachi and other places captured in the photos.
(Originally published on January 23, 2025)
Color photographs taken between August and December 1946, the year after the atomic bombing, remain at the National Diet Library of Japan (in Tokyo). The photos depict the areas near the hypocenter devastated in the bombing, including the neighborhoods of Nakajima-honmachi (Peace Memorial Park, in Hiroshima’s present-day Naka Ward) and Otemachi (also in Naka Ward). Because color photos of the city during that period are few in number, the photos represent a valuable record that vividly captures the exposed scars of the city that remained even one year after the U.S. military dropped the atomic bomb on the city as well as signs of the city’s restoration.
The photographer who took the photos was Robert Mosier, a civilian staff member at the General Headquarters of the Allied Powers (GHQ) who was in Japan from April 1946 until January 1947. Mr. Mosier’s photos include such structures as the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall (present-day A-bomb Dome, in Hiroshima’s Naka Ward), provisional shacks in the area of Nakajima-honmachi, as well as destroyed structures in the area of Ote-machi such as the Hiroshima Branch of the Hiroshima Prefectural Agricultural Association, the headquarters of the Hiroshima Gas Company (present-day Hiroshima Gas Co., Ltd.), and the former site of Otemachi National School, which closed after the bombing.
In 2008, the National Diet Library received a donation of 304 color photos of Japan, including some of Tokyo, Nagoya, and other sites, from Mr. Mosier’s relatives in the United States and posted them for public access in its online digital archives. Seventeen photos make up the Hiroshima portion of the collection, but for 15 of the photos, excluding two of the Industrial Promotion Hall, information about where they had been taken was unavailable. With that, the photos taken in unidentified locations had only simple descriptions such as ‘Scene of ruins’ or ‘Buildings.’
At this time, the Chugoku Shimbun set about verifying the shooting locations for 15 of the photos, with support from the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, leading to the identification of the locations for 10 of the photos. The shooting period was found to be between August 1946 and the end of that year, based on the circumstances in Nakajima-honmachi and other places captured in the photos.
(Originally published on January 23, 2025)
