Stanley Troutman (1917 – 2020) was one of the first American journalists to document the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki after the atomic bombs had been dropped. Along with one other photographer and ten correspondents, they landed in Hiroshima a month to the day after the explosion. From the airplane as they prepared to land Stanley could see the amount of damage, describing the effects of the bomb as “a pebble dropping into a lake.”
The waves of the bomb spread far and wide, wiping out some areas while jumping over others. “It was hard for me to realize one bomb could do so much damage.” Stanley photographed Japanese civilians with burns on their bodies along with rubble and desolation the bomb left in its wake.
HIROSHIMA...FILE--An allied correspondent stands in a sea of rubble before the shell of a building that once was a movie theater in Hiroshima Sept. 8, 1945. On August 6, 1945, an atomic bomb instantly destroyed almost all of the houses and buildings in Hiroshima. The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki brought about Japan's unconditional surrender. The war ended when the papers of surrender were accepted aboard the U.S. battleship Missouri on Sept. 2, 1945. (AP Photo/Stanley Troutman)[The wrecked framework of the Museum of Science and Industry in Hiroshima-shi, Japan, as it appeared shortly after the dropping of the first atomic bomb]Hiroshima - a huge junk pile A two-foot layer of twisted tin and rubble marks what once was Japan's most industrialized city - Hiroshima. For block after block all that remains standing are fire blackened trees. Spotted here and there are the shells of buildings that miraculously escaped being pulverized by terrific power of the first atom bomb / / photo by Stanley Troutman, Acme photographer for the war picture pool.
September 7, 1945Walk through ruin Two Japanese civilians walk through cleared path in Hiroshima bounded on both sides by mass of rubble that resulted from blast of the atom bomb / / photo by Stanley Troutman, Acme photographer for the war picture pool.
1945 September 7.Tells story of Hiroshima Hirokuni Dazai, bandage around his head, leader of Hiroshima local police, tells story of what happened here through Jap interpreter (standing). Other man in photo is Jap car driver. According to Dazai, who returned to Hiroshima just forty minutes after first atomic bomb landed, it seemed as if an electric arc was running across the sky. He said that when bomb landed he thought it was thousands of fire bombs. Dazai was wounded by falling timbers / / photo by Stanley Troutman, Acme photographer for the war picture pool.
September 7, 1945
