Nagasaki Journey
photographs by Yosuke Yamahata
Pomegranate Artbooks, 1995, 128 pages
ISBN 0-87654-360-3
On August 9, 1945, three days after an atomic bomb had been dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, a second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki.
Yosuke Yamahata, a photographer attached to the Japanese News and Information Bureau, was part of a team immediately dispatched to Nagasaki to record the aftermath for propaganda purposes. He arrived in the early predawn hours of August 10, and spent the day wandering through the ruined city, taking over 100 photographs.
After returning to his base and developing the film, he decided that these photographs were too important to be used for propaganda, so he did not turn them over to his superiors. By this act, the most detailed photographic coverage of the immediate aftermath of an atomic attack was preserved intact for future generations.
This book was published on the 50th anniversary of the Nagasaki attack. It documents a horrific scene of human suffering in photographs that are graphic, shocking, and disturbing. Also included are a variety of articles from both Japanese and American authors, and timelines for the Pacific war and Yamahata's life.
The production values on this book are outstanding: design, layout, writing, printing… all are exemplary. It is one of the finest photography books that I own, despite its appalling subject matter.
This book is highly recommended, but squeamish readers should probably avoid this one.