Original vintage matte-finish 5.5 x 4 photograph of people walking through the charred remains of Nagasaki with mountains in the distance, taken by Yosuke Yamahata, a Japanese military photographer, on August 10, 1945, a day after the atomic bomb was dropped on the city. In fine condition, with old tape at the corners and emulsion loss to the lower left corner.
This photograph was removed from an album compiled in Japan by an American MP in the aftermath of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II. At some point between the end of September 1945 and July 1946, the photographs were probably seized by the unidentified American MP who was stationed in Osaka. Yamahata's photographs, of which he took a total of 119 on August 10, 1945, are the only extensive photographic record of the immediate aftermath of the atomic bombing of either Hiroshima or Nagasaki, and he had some of them published in the August 21, 1945, issue of Mainichi Shinbun. MacArthur and the American military soon occupied Japan, imposing strict censorship on any reporting or publishing of images of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, with orders to seize and destroy any evidence found, which would have included Yamahata's photographs. After the occupation forces left Japan, Yamahata was able to publish ‘Atomized Nagasaki’ and some of his photographs appeared in the September 29, 1952 issue of Life Magazine. However, soon after the publication of this book, Yamahata became disillusioned by the peace groups that were using his photographs for their own propaganda purposes and, for the most part, withdrew his images from circulation. It was not until 1995 that they reemerged when a controversial Smithsonian exhibition of the photographs, named ‘Nagasaki Journey,’ was scheduled and subsequently cancelled.
Following commentary from 'Nagasaki Journey,' Yamahata's published images are often contradictory. On examination of Yamahata's existing 35mm negatives, it became clear that one of his cameras had a defective frame advance mechanism. Furthermore, wartime scarcities and a government prohibition on civilian photography had resulted in a severe shortage of film stock; what remained even for military use was of varying quality, its unreliability further handicapping Mr. Yamahata's efforts. Either could explain the mixture of glossy and matte finishes of the photographs found in the American MP’s album. In preparation for this book in 1995, an evaluation of the existing negatives (both original and copies) was undertaken. Due to the degree of damage caused by light leaks, scratches, dust marks, emulsion flaking, and fogging, a decision was made to digitally restore the negatives. When the restoration was completed, new 4 x 5 negatives were taken which then produced the images used in the book. This is significant relative to the photographs seen found in the American MP's photo album, which are from the original negatives and show detail not retouched as in ‘Nagasaki Journey.’ Yamahata's photographs of Nagasaki remain the most complete record of the atomic bombing as seen immediately after the bombing, and the New York Times has called his photographs 'some of the most powerful images ever made.'
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