November 17, 1945
The Higashi Matsurara branch of the Sumitomo Bank Company had metal and wire-glass doors which stopped the fire from spreading into the building.International Center of Photography
Verbal and written accounts of the destruction of Hiroshima by atomic bomb on August 6, 1945 are well known, but photographic images of it have always been relatively rare. While the U.S. government attempted to control the circulation of any such images following the end of World War II, the irony is that it was also the source of the largest body of photographs of the aftermath of the event. That work, made in 1945 for the United States Strategic Bombing Survey — initially classified and subsequently lost for more than 40 years — is the basis for a new exhibition at the International Center of Photography called Hiroshima: Ground Zero 1945, and an accompanying catalogue from ICP/Steidl.
Photographers in the Physical Damage Division of the Survey were tasked with documenting the broad extent and mundane detail of atomic destruction for later analysis by architects and civil engineers. The images they made helped form the basis for civil defense architecture in the U.S., especially in the early part of the Cold War, from the design of bomb and fallout shelters to suburbanization.
Much like the pictures in Mike Mandel and Larry Sultan’s Evidence, these photographs are removed from their original “useful” context, and presented as both historical documents and art objects. They also open up a new avenue of understanding of the scope of violence and destruction at the original “Ground Zero.” Sixty-five years of obscurity have not robbed these literally post-apocalyptic pictures of any of their emotional power, nor their tragic beauty.
October 27, 1945
The landscape of Hiroshima, looking northeast, with the Hiroshima Telephone Company Western District Exchange visible in the distance.International Center of PhotographyNovember 5, 1945
The Kokutai Temple cemetary's sacred camphor tree was charred by the blast. The Bank of Japan appears in the background.International Center of PhotographyOctober 26, 1945
A granite lantern post at the entrance to the Gokoku Shrine shows flash marks from the blast, which helped the USSBS calculate Air Zero, or the exact point in the air where the bomb detonated. The Shrine itself was destroyed by the blast.International Center of PhotographyNovember 8, 1945
Alternately identified as the Chugoku Coal Distribution Company or Hiroshima Gas Company, this reinforced-concrete-frame building on the east bank of the Motoyasu river collapsed from the blast.International Center of PhotographyNovember 15, 1945
A steel staircase at the Asano library was warped by the intense heat generated by the burning book stacks.International Center of PhotographyNovember 20, 1945
The steel structure of this buidling, identified as either the Taiyo Theater or the Odamasa Store, was thought to have been partially distorted by the blast, with further severe distortion due to the subsequent fire of the rest of the building structure and contents.International Center of PhotographyNovember 8, 1945
A detail shot of the damage to the steel frame of the Honkawa Grammar School Auditorium also reveals "small plinths supported wood floor which was completely burned.”International Center of PhotographyNovember 1, 1945
The walls and framing of the auditorium at Hiroshima City Hall were undamaged, but fire destroyed everything inside.International Center of PhotographyOctober 14 – November 26, 1945
At this gas storage tank, more than a mile from Air Zero, radiant heat from the blast incinerated the paint on the wall, except for the small area of "shadow" cast by the hand valve wheel.International Center of PhotographyNovember 20, 1945
The flash burns on the steps of Sumitomo Bank Company building were thought to be a "shadow" of a human being, burned into the stone by the heat of the blast.International Center of PhotographyNovember 5, 1945
Near Hiroshima City Hall, more than half a mile from Air Zero, a boy's jacket was found burned and shredded.International Center of PhotographyNovember 20, 1945
The north wall of a wing of the Funari Grammar School buckles due to ruptured support columns.International Center of PhotographyOctober 28, 1945
The steel structure of the Sanyo Middle School was heavily damaged by the blast. Of this photo, the USSBS observes "Note collapse of frame away from blast. Combustible elements and lean-tos at three sides of building destroyed by fire.”International Center of PhotographyOctober 16, 1945
The stone walls of the Nagarekawa Church of the Japan Christian Society remained standing after the blast and fire obliterated almost everything around it.International Center of PhotographyNovember 17, 1945
The Higashi Matsurara branch of the Sumitomo Bank Company had metal and wire-glass doors which stopped the fire from spreading into the building.International Center of PhotographyNovember 17, 1945
A single 12-inch-thick concrete fire wall was all that remained of this school building.International Center of Photography
