Newly published pics from Hiroshima bombing

[hundefar]

I don't think these has been posted here before.

The Robert L. Capp collection at the Hoover Institution Archives contains ten never-before-published photographs illustrating the immediate aftermath of the Hiroshima bombing. These photographs, taken by an unknown Japanese photographer, were found in 1945 among rolls of undeveloped film in a cave outside Hiroshima by U.S. serviceman Robert L. Capp, who was attached to the occupation forces. Unlike most photos of the Hiroshima bombing, these dramatically convey the human as well as material destruction unleashed by the atomic bomb. Mr. Capp donated them to the Hoover Archives in 1998 with the provision that they not be reproduced until 2008. Three of these photographs are reproduced in Atomic Tragedy with the permission of the Capp family.

Click

[Behan]

They are really powerful pictures. Hard to look at but necessary, I think, to avoid repeating.

[Greji]

They are really powerful pictures. Hard to look at but necessary, I think, to avoid repeating.

You're right about that, but many similar are found in war, which war shouldn't be high on everyone's wish list. Unfortunately, humans only talk about peace and just practice it until someone farts.

I do wonder about the way they use the name "Tragedy" in the title? Are they approaching it as an agenda, or trying to properly document history?

[hundefar]

Are they approaching it as an agenda, or trying to properly document history?

No one can document history without an agenda. Everyone is biased.

[hundefar]

Could be that these pics aren't from Hiroshima:

Thank you for your email enquiry. I am Keisuke Yoshihara, of Chunichi
Shimbun's Hiroshima Peace Media Center.
I showed the photographs to a journalist with long experience of
reporting on the atomic bombings and of looking at materials from the
immediate aftermath of the explosions. His judgement is that these
photographs are probably not of Hiroshima.

His main reasons for this conclusion are as follows:

-- The clothing, including the headwear, doesn't look Japanese.
Japanese military and civilian caps had a peak at the front only, but
the headwear in the photographs are shaped like straw-hats. Also, the
trousers in the pictures are shorter than the longer "monpe" that were
worn at the time.

-- The bomb in Hiroshima fell on a very built-up area, so there was a
lot of rubble, but there isn't that much rubble in the photographs.

-- The photographs show what appears to be a marsh or pond, but it is
different from Hiroshima's Shukkeien.

-- The fifth photograph shows a building that looks similar to Honkawa
Elementary School but the number of floors is different (Honkawa
School had three floors). That photograph also shows a lot of trees,
which are very unlikely to have survived so close to the explosion.

I am sorry to disappoint you, but these are our preliminary conclusions.

Yoshihara Keisuke, Chunichi Shimbun.

[omae mona]

James at Japan Probe writes that the professor whose page was linked to in the original post here has now declared the photos fakes. He's removed them from his site and asked the Hoover Institution to investigate. They appear to be from the 1923 Kanto earthquake, not Hiroshima.

http://faculty.ucmerced.edu/smalloy/atomic_tragedy/photos.html

Since making these photographs publicly available, I have received reliable proof that several of these photos are actually of the 1923 Kanto earthquake. While I cannot speak for the entire collection, this evidence raises grave doubts about all of the photos and strongly suggests that the identification provided by the Hoover Archives is incorrect. I take full responsibility for my own failure to take additional steps to verify that the original archival designation was correct. I have removed the photographs, sent a correction to my publisher, and forwarded all evidence that I have received casting doubt on the photos directly to the Hoover Archives so that they can conduct their own investigation.

Oops!

[Visitor K]

[trombone] waaa waa [/trombone]