![]() Nagasaki, as seen in the aftermath of the August 9 bombingĪn estimated 650,000 people survived the atomic blasts, only to find their post-war lives marred by health issues and marginalization. The American occupation of Japan, which set out to demilitarize the country and transform it into a democracy, began soon after. Six days after the second attack, Hirohito announced Japan’s unconditional surrender. In total, the August 6 and 9 bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively, killed more than 200,000 people. That same week, the Soviet Union officially declared war on Japan after years of adhering to a 1941 neutrality pact. moved forward with plans to drop a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki. But the facts remain: When the bombing of Hiroshima failed to produce Japan’s immediate surrender, the U.S. government’s projections, and the question of whether Emperor Hirohito would have surrendered without the use of atomic weapons, is the subject of great historical debate. The Battle of Okinawa was a particularly bloody example of this practice, with Japanese soldiers even distributing hand grenades to civilians caught in the crossfire. soldiers would torture and kill those who surrendered also started engaging in mass suicides. Later in the war, as American troops advanced on the Japanese mainland, civilians indoctrinated to believe that U.S. Prizing sacrifice, patriotism and loyalty above all else, the bushido mindset led Japanese soldiers to view their lives as expendable in service of the emperor and consider suicide more honorable than yielding to the enemy. With its actions in China, the Philippines, the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor and elsewhere in Asia, the Imperial Japanese army waged a brutal, indiscriminate campaign against enemy combatants, civilians and prisoners of war. Throughout World War II, the Japanese code of bushido, or “way of the warrior,” guided much of Emperor Hirohito’s strategy. They also predicted that Japanese soldiers and civilians alike would choose to fight to the death rather than surrender. intelligence officers warned that “there are no civilians in Japan,” as the imperial government had strategically made newly mobilized combatants’ attire indistinguishable from civilians. invasion of mainland Japan, the Truman administration estimated that American casualties would be between 1.7 and 4 million, while Japanese casualties could number up to 10 million. When planning for the war in the Pacific's next phase, the U.S. But in the past decade or so, documentary efforts like Sakaguchi’s 1945 Project and Chappell’s The Last Survivors of Hiroshima have become increasingly common-a testament to both survivors’ willingness to defy the long-standing culture of silence and the pressing need to preserve these stories as hibakusha’s numbers dwindle.Īerial views of Hiroshima before (left) and after (right) the bombing This misconception, coupled with a widespread unwillingness to revisit the bombings and Japan’s subsequent surrender, led most hibakusha to keep their trauma to themselves. Due to a limited understanding of radiation poisoning’s long-term effects, many Japanese avoided (or outright abused) those affected out of fear that their ailments were contagious. Survivors’ reluctance to discuss their experiences stems in large part from the stigma surrounding Japan’s hibakusha community. “They’re very protective of their stories. “When you have a silenced group like that, they have a very internal culture,” she explains. After five hours of people watching, she struck up a conversation with the daughter of a survivor, who agreed to introduce her to eight hibakusha.Įlizabeth Chappell, an oral historian at the Open University in the United Kingdom, encountered similar difficulties after setting out to catalog atomic bomb survivors’ testimony. “I sat at the Nagasaki Peace Park for hours trying to differentiate between tourists and locals who were visiting to pray for a loved one-they often wore juzu, or prayer beads,” says Sakaguchi, who immigrated to the U.S. ![]() Then, in 2017, the Brooklyn-based artist decided to visit Japan herself in hopes of meeting someone who knew a hibakusha-the Japanese word for those affected by the August 1945 attacks. When photographer Haruka Sakaguchi first tried to connect with survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, her cold calls and emails went unanswered.
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