Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum collects 2,300 A-bomb-related photos from the U.S. and New Zealand
Oct. 11, 2018
by Kyosuke Mizukawa, Staff Writer
On October 10, the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, located in Naka Ward, announced that it has collected about 2,300 A-bomb-related photos from six institutions in the United States and New Zealand. These include images of scenes which the museum did not already possess, including those of a relief station that was temporarily established at Honkawa National School (now Honkawa Elementary School in Naka Ward) near the hypocenter and the remains of Otemachi National School which was then closed due to the collapse of the school building. The museum will make use of these photo to show visitors the catastrophic destruction caused by the atomic bomb.
The six institutions are, in the United States, the National Academy of Sciences, the University of Chicago Library, the MacArthur Memorial, and the U.S. Marine Corps History Division, and, in New Zealand, the Auckland War Memorial Museum and the Alexander Turnbull Library. The Peace Memorial Museum staff took close-up photos of some 2,300 photos at these institutions last fall, and is now working to collect high-resolution image data for the photos showing scenes not already held by the museum.
On October 10, the museum released 32 of these photos to the media. The photo of Honkawa National School shows that a large number of A-bomb survivors were taken in at the relief station in the school building. The relief station was established the day after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. The photo is believed to have been taken by Toshio Kawamoto in August 1945. The Peace Memorial Museum considers this photo to be an important and valuable image because to date it has only confirmed the existence of one other picture of the Honkawa National School relief station.
The photo of Otemachi National School, whose burned-out wooden building collapsed about 1.1 kilometers south of the hypocenter, shows the signboard that was attached to a gate post after the war with the words “Otemachi National School temporary office” written on it. According to Record of the A-bomb Disaster, 35 students from Otemachi National School died as a result of the atomic bombing and 181 went missing and were never found. Because the school closed, there was little documented information about it, and the photo released to the media is the first photo in which the remains of the school can be clearly identified by the words on the signboard.
The Peace Memorial Museum has also obtained photos of Shukkeien Garden (now part of Naka Ward) that were taken in 1946, the year after the atomic bombing, and photos of the venue of bon festival dancing to commemorate the A-bomb victims. A museum curator said that the museum will show these photos at a special exhibition in the hope that visitors will be able to imagine what was lost as a consequence of the atomic bomb.
(Originally published on October 11, 2018)
On October 10, the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, located in Naka Ward, announced that it has collected about 2,300 A-bomb-related photos from six institutions in the United States and New Zealand. These include images of scenes which the museum did not already possess, including those of a relief station that was temporarily established at Honkawa National School (now Honkawa Elementary School in Naka Ward) near the hypocenter and the remains of Otemachi National School which was then closed due to the collapse of the school building. The museum will make use of these photo to show visitors the catastrophic destruction caused by the atomic bomb.
The six institutions are, in the United States, the National Academy of Sciences, the University of Chicago Library, the MacArthur Memorial, and the U.S. Marine Corps History Division, and, in New Zealand, the Auckland War Memorial Museum and the Alexander Turnbull Library. The Peace Memorial Museum staff took close-up photos of some 2,300 photos at these institutions last fall, and is now working to collect high-resolution image data for the photos showing scenes not already held by the museum.
On October 10, the museum released 32 of these photos to the media. The photo of Honkawa National School shows that a large number of A-bomb survivors were taken in at the relief station in the school building. The relief station was established the day after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. The photo is believed to have been taken by Toshio Kawamoto in August 1945. The Peace Memorial Museum considers this photo to be an important and valuable image because to date it has only confirmed the existence of one other picture of the Honkawa National School relief station.
The photo of Otemachi National School, whose burned-out wooden building collapsed about 1.1 kilometers south of the hypocenter, shows the signboard that was attached to a gate post after the war with the words “Otemachi National School temporary office” written on it. According to Record of the A-bomb Disaster, 35 students from Otemachi National School died as a result of the atomic bombing and 181 went missing and were never found. Because the school closed, there was little documented information about it, and the photo released to the media is the first photo in which the remains of the school can be clearly identified by the words on the signboard.
The Peace Memorial Museum has also obtained photos of Shukkeien Garden (now part of Naka Ward) that were taken in 1946, the year after the atomic bombing, and photos of the venue of bon festival dancing to commemorate the A-bomb victims. A museum curator said that the museum will show these photos at a special exhibition in the hope that visitors will be able to imagine what was lost as a consequence of the atomic bomb.
(Originally published on October 11, 2018)
