A curated selection of drawings and paintings by survivors of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, most of which were collected in 1974, 1975 and 2002 by the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. https://hpmm-db.jp/picture_en/
Kiyomi Kono, age 14
August 7, 1945
Location Kokutaiji, Senda areas, Hiroshima
Corpses piled like lumber
On the circular flowerbed in front of the entrance to the Red Cross Hospital, corpses of first and second-year junior high students had been piled on each other like lumber. They had no sign of injury or burn. Their nametags read "Second Hiroshima Junior."
August 7
1,500m / Hiroshima Red Cross Hospital
Kiyomi KonoKichisuke Yoshimura, age 18
August 6, 1945
Ushita, Hiroshima Station areas, Hiroshima
Their clothes ripped to shreds, their skin hanging down
On the riverbank I saw figures that seemed to be from another world. Ghost-like, their hair falling over their faces, their clothes ripped to shreds, their skin hanging. A cluster of these injured persons was moving wordlessly toward the outskirts.
August 6, around 10:00 a.m.
4,250m / riverbank near the Hiroshima Machinery Division, Hiroshima Railway BureauMATSUMURO Kazuo
MATSUMURO Kazuo, age 32
August 7, 1945
Kokutaiji, Senda areas, Hiroshima
A mother setting out to cremate her child
800 m from the hypocenter, near Takeya-cho (Takeya-cho, Naka-ku)
August 7, 1945, around 8:00 a.m.
Kazuo Matsumuro (32 at time of bombing, 61 at time of drawing)
Explanation in picture
"Where shall I burn the body of my dead child?" White maggots crawled in the face burns of the child she carried on her back.She probably picked up the metal helmet as a receptacle for her child's bones.
She had to walk quite a distance to find combustable material for the fire.
A mother was calling her child from the bridge. The river underneath was full of dead children
620m from the hypocenter East end of Shin-ohashi Bridge
August 7, 1945, around 9:00 a.m.
Drawn by Sueko Sumimoto (age 37 at the time of the bombing)
[Excerpt of artist comment]
Most of the area’s victims were mobilized students. Of similar stature and all aged around 13 or 14, the dead children filled the river and the river bank, some drifting downstream, bobbing up and down like floating white radishes. On each of the stone steps leading to the river were bodies of children who looked as if they had cascaded on top of each other. It was heartbreaking to see their young, innocent faces. There was also a mother, calling her child.KIMURA Hideo, age 12
Tokaichi, Nakahiro areas, Hiroshima
Little Boy is dropped from the Enola Gay B-29 bomber while school children are walking to school
TOYOTA Seishi, age 23
The white skeletal remains of students working in building demolition were lined up under the A-bomb Dome.Sagami Ogawa, age 28
Like red devils
Three days later, the burned bodies in the fire cistern had turned red, like demons. I instinctively turned away.
August 8, just after 11:00 a.m.
250m / Nakajima-hon-machi
Tomomi Yamashina, age 16
Weakly writhing
The whole body was so deeply charred that the gender was unrecognizable―yet the person was weakly writhing. I had to avert my eyes from the unbearable sight, but it entrenched itself in my memory for the rest of my life.
August 6, morning
3,600m / in front of the Hiroshima First Army Hospital, Eba BranchEiichi Uchida, age 20
August 6, 1945
An orange sun
Amid wordless screams and cries, I looked outside the hospital. An orange sun surged toward me with a great roar.
August 6, 8:13 a.m.
500m / Hiroshima First Army HospitalYoshio Takahara, age 34
August 6, 1945
Surging into the river
Streets filled with roof tiles and pieces of wood were impassable, so everyone headed to the river. Some died and were swept away.
August 6
650m / near Honkawa RiverThe Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall engulfed in flames
Drawing / Tadashi Kimura, age 32
Around 9:30 a.m., August 6, 1945
Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall
Sarugaku-cho (now, Ote-machi 1-chome)
Approx. 160m from the hypocenter
The Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall, which stately figure graced the river surface for years, was thoroughly burned. It was near the hypocenter, but because the blast came from nearly straight above, a portion of the walls remained standing. At the time of the bombing, the hall's normal business was abolished and it was used by the Ministry of the Interior for the offices of the Chugoku-Shikoku Public Works Office and the control companies. All the people in the Hall were killed.Placing names on the injured before death at Honkawa Elementary School.
Approx. 410 meters from the hypocenter
August 13, 1945
Masao YamashitaA mother with child had collapsed and died but still looked alive.
Drawing / Yuko Narahara
August 9, 1945HARADA Keiji, age 15
Girls who were exposed while demolishing buildings were asking me for water. While I was rushing to get them water, a military policeman yelled at me to stop. When I remember, I deeply regret that I obeyed. I should have found a way to help them.Hiroshima urban area 1.5 seconds after the A-bomb explosion
Drawn by Torao Izuhara
August 6, 1945, 8:15 a.m.
Approx. 610m from the hypocenter Riverside of the Otagawa River
Artist's comments:
“A red fireball was said to have been seen when the atomic bomb exploded, but I didn't see that. When I looked outside the window, with the room flashing like a present-day strobe light, I just saw a red fire disk flying at about 100 meters, trailing black smoke, which then disappeared beyond the roof of a two-story house.”There was fire everywhere; it was sheer hell
300m from the hypocenter Aioi Bridge
August 6, 1945
Drawn by Yoshio Takahara (age 34 at the time of the bombing)
[Excerpt of artist comment]
On Aioi Bridge a streetcar was burning bright red, the passengers frantically tried to escape but there was fire everywhere; it was sheer hell.As I fearfully crossed the railroad bridge, I saw red, blue, green, and purple corpses swollen three or four times floating under it.
1,680m from the hypocenter Streetcar bridge in Fukushima-cho (now Miyako-machi)
August 7, 1945
Toshiko Kihara
Age 17 at time of bombing, 47 at time of drawingHuman charcoal
My eye was caught by a fire-reddened streetcar stopped at Tenma-cho. Inside the car and strewn outside were people actually burned to charcoal―human charcoal.
August 7
1,300m / Tenma-cho
Toshiko KiharaGravely injured people were taken away on trucks.
2,500 m from the hypocenter, plaza in front of the Koi streetcar stop (Koi-hon-machi)
August 7, 1945, morning
Toshiko Kihara
Explanation in picture
A man was using a megaphone to find people from Otake who had come to Hiroshima to demolish buildings and were now so grievously transformed. As the injured climbed onto the truck, the rescue worker urgently called, "Anyone else from Otake?"
Pitiful was the sight of a woman trying to crawl up a plank onto the truck bed. The sobbing figures aboard did not look like human beings. Their swollen lips, splayed hair, clothing burnt to rags, and swollen bodies made it hard to believe that they were simply people who had happened to come into the city that day.Tokaichi-machi: Middle school students suffering from massive burns
Approximately 900 meters from the hypocenter
August 7, 1945
Toshiko Kihara
