To Live

Communicating Our Story

Communicating Our Story

How is it possible for us to know what happened 66 years ago? Because of the atomic bomb survivors. Despite the fact that they were fighting desperately just to survive, they maintained the determination not to allow their experiences to fade away. So they kept and recorded their memories of the atomic bombing and the lives that were lost.

Steeling Oneself

Yoshito Matsushige

Yoshito Matsushige joined Geibinichinichi Newspaper Corporation in 1941. After the company was merged with the Chugoku Shimbun Company, he was assigned to the photography department. After 1944, he also worked as a press report group member at Chugoku Regional Military Headquarters.
Yoshito Matsushige (then, 32) experienced the atomic bombing in his home in Midori-machi. Immediately after the bombing, he tried to enter the city to go to his office at the Chugoku Shimbun Company. As the flames blocked his way, he returned to Miyuki Bridge. As a press photographer, he tried to take photos of the terrible state of Miyuki Bridge, but faced with the hellish scenes in front of him, he could not make himself press the shutter. After struggling in that spot for over thirty minutes, he finally steeled himself and pressed the shutter, but later worried that the dead and injured victims might have thought he was merciless, because he was taking photos instead of trying to help them. The five photos that Matsushige took on August 6 are testimonies to the event.
After his retirement from the Chugoku Shimbun Company in 1969, he started talking about his A-bomb experience as a witness. In 1978, together with others from Hiroshima who took photographs of the atomic bombing, and with the families of A-bomb photographers who had passed away, he formed the Association of Photographers of the Atomic (Bomb) Destruction of Hiroshima. He dedicated much of his life to the preservation and organization of A-bomb photos. He died in 2005.

Courtesy of Yoshito Matsushige

Five Pictures Taken on August 6

West end of Miyuki Bridge

On the left is the railing of Miyuki Bridge. A temporary medical treatment station had been hurriedly set up in front of Senda-machi police box, and injured people were waiting for treatment. There were many students from Hiroshima Girls Commercial School and First Hiroshima Prefectural Junior High School who had been involved in building demolition work when the atomic bomb was dropped. Two police officers were working there, providing first-aid treatment applying oil that they had brought from the provisions depot.
Just after 11 a.m.

West Fire Station, Minami Branch

Opposite Matsushige’s house was the wooden, three-floor West Fire Station, Minami Branch. This building collapsed in the bomb blast, and the firemen at work in the watchtower also fell as the building collapsed, and 4-5 firemen who were on the second floor were trapped under the collapsed building.
Around 2:00 p.m. Modori-machi

West end of Miyuki Bridge

This photograph was taken moving in closer to the people after taking the photograph on the left.
From in front of the police box, both sides on Miyuki Bridge were full of dead and injured people. From that evening, the injured were taken by truck to Ujina and Ninoshima Island.
Just after 11 a.m.

Police officer filling in a disaster certificate

Officer Fujita from Ujina Police Station issued disaster certificates for victims of the bombing even though he was injured himself. People who had a disaster certificate could receive emergency relief food and daily commodities.
Just after 4 p.m. (or 5 p.m.) Minami-machi 3-chome, at the corner of the Government Monopoly Bureau

Barber shop damaged by the bomb blast

In the area approximately 2,600m from the hypocenter where Matsushige’s home was located, his wife Sumie was running their barber shop. Although this area escaped the flames, the damage wreaked by the blast was devastating. Sumie was going through their valuables.
Around 2:00 p.m. Modori-machi

Collection of Chugoku Shimbun Company

To Live

—August 6, 1945—
From That Day Forth